Lucky escape on tourist day at the Nurburgring circuit – video below

September 13, 2016 by Alastair Sloane

Germany’s Nurburgring circuit is open on fixed days of the year for tourist drivers to experience the demanding layout in their own cars.

Cost ranges from 29 euros (NZ$44) for one lap to 550 euros (NZ$850) for 25 laps. One of the rules for tourist drivers, most of whom are experiencing the track for the first time, is that if you have an accident you quickly get off the track and behind the barrier.

A British driver of a BMW 3-Series in this video was quickly reminded of that, luckily escaping unscathed. It was filmed at the Brunnchen corner, where a blue Ford Focus had either a coolant or oil leak.

The challenging, blind uphill corner is known as the YouTube Corner because it’s manned by cameramen who often capture automotive carnage.

As the Focus leaks essential fluids on to the track surface, the following vehicles start spinning out, hitting the barriers.

The cameraman gets his yellow flag out to warn drivers, and the driver of an E30 M3 decides to help, waving his arms as he heads directly to the corner on the wrong side of the barrier.

A BMW driver enters the corner, hits the oil patch, slides toward the apex and almost runs the blue-shirted guy over

If you are in a position to shell out upwards of NZ$600,000 for the 60^thanniversary Porsche 911 S/T or optional Porsche 911 S/T Heritage, you’ll no doubt want the signature titanium watch that goes with it. That’s how Porsche figures it anyway. Or, if you want the watch you’ll need to get the car. Both the car and the watch are limited to 1963 units, the year the original 911 model broke cover. The watch – Chronograph 1 911 S/T and Chronograph 1 911 S/T Heritage – and the car carry matching edition numbers. The watch is priced at $US13,500, or around $NZ22,200. The car, says Porsche NZ, starts at $NZ608,000. A “strictly limited number” will go into production for NZ early next year.

Eight European Union countries are pushing to weaken new EU emissions limits for cars, saying they are overly ambitious and unrealistic for carmakers to hit. The eight countries – France, Italy, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia – said in a joint paper that parts of the proposed Euro 7 regulation, including curbs on exhaust pipe emissions, should be scrapped entirely. They said the limits would force carmakers to invest in improving exhaust emissions performance, money which would be better spent on developing zero-emission vehicles. Taken together, the countries would have enough votes to block the proposal.

A go-anywhere EV concept for the US military uses an onboard 12kW diesel generator to top up the batteries on the move. The all-wheel-drive has 800-volt technology and a 200kWh battery pack to power three electric motors, two in the rear and one up front. Claimed output is 745kW/15,590Nm, or 1000hp and 11,500 ft-lb of torque. The four-seater was developed by the defence division of General Motors and is based on the platform of the Hummer SUV. It rides on Fox performance shock absorbers and 37-inch tyres and comes with “exceptional” approach and departure angles for off-road mobility. Maximum range using the generator to keep things ticking over is said to be around 500km.

The outside temperature in Midland, Texas, was 40.5C when staff at the local office of the US National Weather Service set out to show the cabin of a closed car can literally get baking hot in summer. They mixed up a batch of chocolate chip cookies and laid them on the car’s dashboard – the surface of which showed a temperature of 87.7C. A little over four hours later the cookies were ready to eat. “Even though ours weren’t golden brown, we can confirm that they are done and delicious,” the staff wrote on Facebook.