Aston Martin will return to the legendary Nurburgring 24-hour race on May 15th-16th, 2010 with a racing version of their latest sedan. The Rapide will compete in near-standard specification apart from mandatory changes required to compete in this most demanding of endurance races and will be driven by a team of engineers from the company’s Gaydon headquarters in Warwickshire, England.
"The Rapide has the capability to carry four people in comfort but first and foremost it is a sports car and we will subject it to the same tests we would our other sports cars. We already have a proven track record at the Nürburgring racing our road cars with limited modification and in recent years we have enjoyed success in winning the SP8 class both in 2008 and 2009."
According to the boys from Aston, the race spec version of the Rapide wouldn’t be too far off of the production version with the only noticeable difference between the two would be the addition of race safety modifications and the elimination of all the interior trims and features found in the production version in an effort to reduce the car’s overall weight.
Aston Martin top dog Ulrich Bez stressed the importance of sticking the Rapide in an environment where it can measure itself against other sports cars from competing brands. “This race represents the ultimate final engineering durability test for any sports car – it subjects the car to the toughest possible assessment under public scrutiny,” he said.
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