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Welcome to Ze Germans Know More Than Us, where we take advantage of the fact that Dan, our intern, speaks fluent German and can translate German news! This time, Autobild.de brings us the results of the latest Continental Tires/Autobild Tuner Challenge at the Nardo High-Speed Ring.

English Summary:

Once a year Auto Bild Sportscars and Continental Tires join forces to bring us one of the greatest automotive events known to enthusiasts. The High Performance Event at Nardo 2009. 18 cars from 13 different tuners in an all out balls-to-the-wall contest of speed. Together, 11,135 horsepower compete to smash all records. [Anyone do that math? That's an AVERAGE of 618 hp - Ed.]

Now, running 155 mph is something most high performance vehicles can easily do nowadays. However after 155, multiple factors come into play in the quest for speed. Not only engine power, wind resistance and vehicle weight come into play, but also little things like asphalt friction. To somewhat level the playing field, all cars were fitted with Continental tires. In the end, the biggest adversary of speed is Resistance. Did they have the power to fight it? Without further delay, this year’s list of cars and tuners after the jump:

We’re not surprised when a Twin-Turbo Corvette goes 213 mph, or when a 700 horsepower Audi RS6 can hit 208. Hell, the Americans can do that! And then, just when we got bored of high-speed testing, German psycho-tuner Brabus shows up with a v12-powered GLK (the stock form of which we tested, and hated, but there are few problems 700+ horsepower engine won’t solve), and proceeds to run 211 mph, securing themselves the record for the world’s fastest ugly SUV. In all honesty, I may have added the ugly part myself. Then, someone shows up with a VW Eurovan and runs 193 mph! Turns out it’s got a a Porsche 997 Turbo drivetrain swap. Nice.

ABT Audi RS6 – 700 hp – 335 km/h – 208 mph
ABT Audi R8 – 560 hp – 314 km/h – 196 mph
AC Schnitzer ACS3 3.5d – 310 hp – 700 Nm – 516 lb. ft. – 289 km/h – 179 mph
AC Schnitzer ACS4 3.0 – 380 hp – 303 km/h – 188 mph
Lorinser C LV8 313 km/h – 194 mph
Steinmetz OPC 395 hp – 287 km/h – 178 mph
Manhart M3 5.0 V10 – 550 hp – 317 km/h – 196 mph
9ff TR 1000 Fastest car at Nardo 2009 – 376 km/h – 233 mph
9ff Panamera PT 55 – 308 km/h – 191 mph
9ff Speed9 – 650 hp – 288 kmh/h – 178 mph
Hohenester A4 HS 50 G (Twin Turbo V6) – 650 hp – 353 km/h – 219 mph
Brabus GLK V12 – 750 hp – 337km/h – 211 mph
Techart Cayenne Turbo S 680 hp – 321 km/h – 199 mph
GeigerCars Corvette (Twin turbo) – 790 hp – 343 km/h – 213 mph
edo competion Gallardo – 600 hp – 339.8 km/h – 211 mph
edo competion Panamera – 305 km/h – 191 mph
MKB SL 65 Black Series – 751 hp – 1250 Nm – 921 lb. ft. – 330 km/h – 205 mph
TH2 RS (essentially VW Eurovan with a Turbo 911 engine in it)- 780 hp – 311 km/h – 193 mph

The Brabus GLK’s Special high speed wheel covers may be carbon fiber and add 20mph

on the top end, but they can’t fix ugly.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 12th, 2009 at 7:48 pm and is filed under Editorials, News, Photos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.