Subaru’s on-board driving footage during a hot lap at the Nürburgring Nordschleife racetrack in Germany using a 2011MY Subaru WRX STI 4-door (sedan) test vehicle. Behind the wheel is Finnish rally champ Tommi Mäkinen. Top speed 253 km/h on a long straight away.
The Nürburgring is a motorsport complex around the village of Nürburg, Germany. It features a modern Grand Prix race track built in 1984, and a much longer old North loop track which was built in the 1920s around the village and medieval castle of Nürburg in the Eifel mountains. It is located about 70 kilometres (43 mi) south of Cologne, and 120 kilometres (75 mi) northwest of Frankfurt. The old track was nicknamed The Green Hell by Jackie Stewart and is widely considered the toughest, most dangerous and most demanding purpose-built racing circuit in the world. Originally, the track featured four track configurations: the 28.265 kilometres (17.563 miles) long Gesamtstrecke (“Whole Course”), which in turn consisted of the 22.810 km (14.173 mi) Nordschleife (“Northern Loop”), and the 7.747 km (4.814 mi) Südschleife (“Southern Loop”). There also was a 2.281 km (1.417 mi) warm-up loop called Zielschleife (“Finish Loop”) or better known as Betonschleife, around the pit area. Between 1982 and 1983 the start-finish area was demolished to create a new GP-Strecke, and this is currently used for all major and international racing events. However, the shortened Nordschleife is still in use, for racing, testing and public access.
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Tommi Mäkinen
“Turbo” Tommi Antero Mäkinen (Finnish pronunciation: [ˈtommi ˈmækinen] is a retired Finnish rally driver, born in Puuppola, Finland near Jyväskylä on 26 June 1964. As of 1999 he lived in both Monaco and Jyväskylä. Tommi Mäkinen is married, with two children. Mäkinen, as of June 20 2010, is one of the most successful WRC drivers of all time, ranking second in championships (4), tied with Juha Kankkunen and behind Sébastien Loeb (6), and fifth in wins (24).
He is a four-time World Rally Champion, a series he first won, and then successfully defended, continuously throughout 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999, on all occasions driving the Ralliart Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution. He also aided Mitsubishi to the 1998 world constructors’ title as well as winning the 2000 Race of Champions. Mäkinen’s navigators include compatriots Seppo Harjanne and Risto Mannisenmäki, the former retiring from alongside Mäkinen having previously served 1985 champion, and fellow ‘Flying Finn’, Peugeot’s Timo Salonen.