On May 24th and 25th, the ADAC ZURICH 24hr Race (a.k.a. Nurburgring 24 Hour Race) was held at the Nurburgring Circuit (approx. 25km/lap) in Germany. The Subaru NBR Impreza (drivers: Toshihiro Yoshida, Hideshi Matsuda, Naoki Hattori, Koji Matsuda), entered by the SUBARU NBR CHALLENGE TEAM, finished the 24-hour race coming in 57th overall and 5th in the SP6 class.

The 24-hour event started at 3pm on the 25th under cloudy skies, with over 220,000 people watching. Approximately 220 road car-based racing cars were entered. The NBR Impreza struggled with fuel feed problems and stopped on-track. After returning to the pits and refueling, the car started back up but had incurred a 40-minute time loss. There were a few minor problems afterwards, but the NBR Impreza over came each and every one of them. They were down in 150th overall at one point, but the four drivers maximized the machine's potential, gradually upping the car's position, reaching 58th overall 24 hours later.

The SP6 class consists of touring cars with an engine capacity of between 3 and 3.5 litres. With the capacity conversion, the Impreza, running a 2-litre turbo, fell into this category. Rivals included the BMW Z4 and M3, famous European sports cars. The whole aim of this project was to measure the performance of the road car-based Impreza, packed with technology SUBARU collected in the process of producing cars, against world-class rivals.

This is why most of the core parts including the chassis and engine of the NBR Impreza were left in the road car state, except for the required safety measures. Although there were a few minor problems, there were no major mechanical problems or accidents, and the NBR Impreza completed 124 laps (approx 3100km) in 24 hours in what was a tough race where the completion rate is only 70%, finishing 58th overall and 5th in class.

Team Supervisor Eiji Tatsumi's comment

"We did have a few problems and there are a few things to reflect on, but I think it's not bad at all that we completed the 24 hours and finished 5th in our class. I think the Impreza did extremely well against the world's best sports cars. If possible, we would really like to continue this challenge. If we can, we will polish our technology so we can bring the car to a point where it's at the same level as our world-class rivals. Thank you for you support."

 

Last update: 20-07-2008 20:51