The two heartbreakers of the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring
A familiar sight in the Green Hell is the fast Opel Manta with the foxtail. It receives a standing ovation from the 10,000 registered race fans on the opening lap.
But this year, another vehicle took part that really isn't a born racing car: a 12-year-old Dacia Logan.
At the end of the race, it just so happened that the slowest car in the entire field almost crossed the finish line with the fastest. The Romanian completed 18 laps less than the Porsche, 41 in total, in the shortest 24-hour race in 49 years.
But the team of Oliver Kriese, Jürgen Bussmann, Michael Lachmayer and the well-known Nürburgring YouTuber Misha Charoudin managed one of the most legendary car races on the planet with little effort and budget.
Logically, their race was geared more towards the rear than the front. The Dacia hardly had to overtake, because a Porsche or BMW is faster even on three wheels. But the Logan was overtaken every few seconds.
Fittingly, the sticker on the rear: "If you're happy and you know it, flash your lights."
They traveled to the toughest car race in the world with six drive shafts in their luggage, but in the end they only lost one blinker. In the end, the team took 98th place out of 99 classified cars and in the SP-3 class for vehicles with a displacement of 1750-2000cc, the 165 hp Romanian finished fourth out of five cars.
Unfortunately, the Manta did not see the finish line on its 43rd start. A collision with the other dimension, an AMG Mercedes with Maro Engel at the wheel, unfortunately knocked it out of the race.
As a small detail, the Dacia needed 11:49.466 on its fastest race lap and the fastest of them all, the Schubert BMW M6, needed 8:12.804 min, a difference of around three minutes. This meant that the GT3 car passed the Dacia once every three laps.
