Days away from the start of the 39th running of the Nurburgring 24 Hour, Volkswagen gives us a glimpse of the three factory 450-hp Golf24′s that will race this weekend. We’ve not been told otherwise but VW is stating 450hp, which is 10hp more than the 440hp that has been racing.
We’ve covered the Golf24 extensively as it is truly one of the greats. Powered by a 450-hp 2.5l turbo engine, drivers will control the AWD beast with paddle shifts on a 6-speed sequential gearbox. Just think of all the manual lovers out there and DSG haters…
The Golf24 has been running in the VLN Series this year with both success and misfortune.
- 36: 20th overall
- 42: 6th Overall (Ferrai F458, Porsche 911 GT3, BMW M3 GT and two Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 were 1st-5th)
- 53: DNF (crash)
- 51: Not raced
Since it’s introduction the Golf24 has featured “35th Anniversary” livery in celebration of the GTI’s 35th birthday. Volkswagen would love a win but a top ten finish is very likely.
“The 35th birthday of the GTI was an occasion for us to put a special Golf on its wheels for its fans – and the 24-hour race that attracts more than 250,000 visitors is the best place for a birthday party,” says Volkswagen Motorsport Director Kris Nissen. “But first of all we’ve got to master a tough task, and that is to run 24 hours at rough racing speed. The development time for a brand new racing car like the Golf24 was extremely short and we had to settle for a relatively brief testing program. Nevertheless, our team managed to get three perfectly prepared Golf cars off the ground in time – a brilliant achievement from design through to preparation. Another challenge is the extremely high competitiveness of the field which is stronger than ever before. The entire Volkswagen team is highly motivated and will give everything to achieve our aim: Firstly, we want to cover the whole distance without any major problem – and then we’ve got good chances of a result in the top ten.”
We’ve seen from past efforts, the Volkswagen Scirocco GT24-CNG and Scirocco R (petrol) were very successful at the 24 hour race in 2009-10.
Speaking of the Scirocco, Volkswagen will enter two GT24-CNG’s in this years event.
Here is the list of drivers that will take part in the race.
