I love the Nürburgring 24-Hour race and have been lucky enough to see it in person once. It was for this reason that I was so pumped to hear that a team of scrappy enthusiasts was planning to bring a Renault Twingo to race and had, somehow, gotten far along in the approvals process. It sounds like it ain’t happening, and it stinks.
There are going to be a lot of takes about this, I fear, and a lot of finger-pointing. This Morning Dump today is going to take up the cause of the Twingo, which is awesome, while also pointing out that having the Twingo there was probably a bad idea. This is one of those situations where everyone is wrong, and everyone is right.
Are cars more expensive because of safety features? The safety experts say no. Is GM going to kill the Bolt in order to build a boring crossover? Yes, but don’t get mad. Will I lower the temperature with a Škoda post? Absolutely.
This Is Modern Racing
There is no rule that says a giraffe can’t play basketball, or a dog, or whatever. Show up to the court with one, though, and things are going to get weird. Some absolutely heroic lunatics under the banner of Rauh Racing decided they’d try to enter a slow, unsporting Renault Twingo hatchback in the legendary and grueling 24-hour race that happens every year at the Nürburging.
We wrote about it last year because it was too awesome to ignore. Unlike a lot of major races, the Nürburgring 24 has always had a bit of a different spirit. If you can qualify it, you can run it, which explains how a team has been running a race-prepped Dacia Logan for years alongside an Open Manta.
The laps these local teams run can be over 13 minutes long, which is almost double what someone like Max Verstappen ran in a GT3 car. The idea of a Dacia Logan on track with factory teams and factory drivers is hilarious, and definitely one of the major differentiators for the race. The N24 is a global event, but it’s also a big deal for the local community, which has a long history of supporting this race and making it happen.
So, it was with horror this morning that I learned, via a statement from Rauh Racing, that they were encouraged to give up their quixotic chase:
Over the past months, the framework that originally made this project possible has changed. In direct communication, the organiser made it clear that cars like ours are no longer wanted at the 24h Nürburgring. We were further informed that our participation is now subject to “unpredictable factors” and additional, non‑transparent considerations. Taken together, those messages leave very little room for interpretation.
Preparing properly for the 24h Nürburgring 2026 would require committing a high five‑figure budget in the coming months, with no external financial backing, on top of the time constraints and mental load that come with running this project alongside regular employment. Committing that level of money, time, and health to an outcome thatis no longer clearly tied to preparation, or regulatory compliance would be a gamble we cannot justify.
That sucks. Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s as simple as being mad at one person or, really, anyone. This is symptomatic of many larger issues.
Should We Be Mad At The Organizers?
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Knowing Germans and having dealt with the organizing body ADAC before, I’ve got a decent guess about what might have happened here. I’ve asked ADAC for comment, but I don’t think it’s coming soon, given the timing, but I’ll update when I hear back.
If you watched the Gran Turismo movie, you’d have seen the protagonist flip over, kill a spectator, and injure multiple people during a crash at one of the shorter races on the Nürburgring Nordschleife. This was a real event, and the film does a good job of capturing how terrible it was. It’s a unique track, and the uniqueness, combined with the ever increasing speed, has created too many potential bad outcomes. That crash happened more than a decade ago, and the fast cars have only gotten faster, whereas the slow cars haven’t.
“90% of the problem is the GT3 cars are too quick now; they’re massively too quick, and there’s going to be a horrific accident,” longtime Nürburging racer and former resident Robb Holland told me. “The speed differential between the GT3 cars and the slower class cars is just too great. It’s been an issue for a long time, but it’s finally been coming to a head over the last few years.”
Holland knows this personally, as he was on a team with a fast car at the ‘Ring that, unfortunately, got caught up in a crash with a slower one.
The implication from Rauh Racing is that the organizing body doesn’t want the slow cars there anymore, but that some of them are effectively “grandfathered” in. That sounds right and, sadly, it’s also probably fair.
Where the organizers screwed up is in not discouraging Rauh Racing from the beginning. If your policy is “no more super slow cars,” then allowing someone to believe it was technically possible really is just inviting this kind of issue, and isn’t fair to the enthusiasts wanting to run the Twingo.
Can We Blame The Rich Guys?
Wealthy individuals have always been a part of racing, but it’s gotten so much more prominent, and the N24, in particular, is a good target for hobbyists with Steve McQueen fantasies. Even as a high-level ‘gentleman’ racer, your odds of even getting on a top-level prototype team at Le Mans are small. If you’re merely a decent driver, the chance that you’ll win is basically nil.
There are no prototypes at the N24, which means that a reasonably good driver has a chance of taking the whole thing if they can spend the money to get on a team with a bunch of pros. Just look at last year’s entry list. There are enough Rolex watches there to fill the damn Twingo.
This also creates another issue as, in addition to a few very slow cars and a few very fast ones, you now have a bunch of drivers of varying skill. Unlike Le Mans or Daytona–tracks where you have a lot of room and a lot of laps to get used to slower cars–there is no room at the ‘Ring, and you may only encounter even a slow car twice in one stint, and probably in a different location than you saw them last.
Even worse, the straights, as they are, sit in between dozens of turns. You have to pass in corners, which is hard, and made way worse by a new team in a slower car with a driver who may act in an unpredictable way.
However, without the rich drivers, there is no race. You need them, and the alternative is worse.
Should We Blame The Manufacturers?
I’ve had many interesting conversations with Jim Glickenhaus, the car builder and team owner, but one of the wildest things I heard was at one of his last N24 races. This was more than a decade ago, and he was complaining about being ‘a David in a world of Goliaths.’
Glickenhaus is, by all accounts, a very wealthy man. In most rooms he walks into, he is not a David. At the same time, he is not a Ferrari, Audi, or Porsche. A public company can spend an order of magnitude more than nearly any individual. It may be a K-shaped economy, but someone like Glickenhaus is grassroots compared to an automaker.
They should probably make the cars slower, right? That would be a solution. But it would be a solution for exactly one track, because nowhere else do you have this problem.
Rauh Racing also mentions this issue:
In a lot of series, most of the grid is made up of very wealthy entrants for whom racing is primarily an expensive hobby, alongside factory or factory‑supported programmes. Between those poles, only a handful of genuine privateer teams remain.
Those few teams are often presented as proof that “everyone is welcome” and that the grid is still diverse – the small heroes in the background of the big show. In reality, this picture is becoming harder to sustain. Outside a small number of private operations that are used to support this narrative, there is not much left of the broad grassroots motorsport that is still invoked in marketing around the 24h Nürburgring. This is rarely addressed publicly, and for the very small teams who are affected, speaking up is risky, because there are only a few major organisers and events to race with.
I don’t think they’re wrong.
What Can Be Done?
Outside of the 24 Hours of LeMons, this is an issue in this country as well. Whenever a grassroots organization starts up and gets traction (WRL, Champ Car, et cetera), the money shows up, and it starts being professional, which squeezes out the people who made it great in the first place.
I see two ways this could be made better for the Twingo team. First, ADAC should get rid of all the slow cars and create a shorter race that maybe runs on the Friday before the 24. Could you imagine a 6-hour Fun Cup with Logans, Twingos, Espaces, and whatever weirdo cars people want to bring? It could still be a part of the 24 experience, and also address the reasonable safety concerns.
The other option is more immediate. Although it’s been set up as an endurance car, there is one place where the pros and the joes can still race with a fairly open rule book: Pikes Peak. It just so happens our friend Robb is on the Board of Directors for the PPIHC. Would they be open to a Twingo?
“Absolutely.”
So, if you’re reading this Rauh Racing, maybe consider heading to Colorado.
Don’t Just Blame Safety Features For Higher Costs
For all the talk of affordability, it is a convenient narrative to blame safety features, and it’s true to some extent. Automakers need to do well on tests like the ones the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) performs in order to compete. Cars are also getting heavier, and that makes keeping everyone safe even harder.
In a new post, the IIHS President David Harkey says you’re wrong to blame only safety features for higher costs:
The average new vehicle is expensive, and that’s actually a problem for safety. The higher prices go, the longer Americans hold on to older vehicles that lack the crash protection and safety systems of more recent models.
But safety features aren’t the main thing pushing up prices. Buyers are paying more for convenience features such as hands-free power liftgates, puddle lights and automatically retracting mirrors. Size is also a major factor: Americans continue to gravitate toward larger vehicles. The popular Ford F-150 pickup starts at $39,330, with higher trim levels starting at more than $70,000.
Even those who buy less expensive models often choose to load them with optional features that have nothing to do with safety. The Mazda 3 I mentioned above will cost you $36,740 if you choose the Turbo Premium Plus instead of the lowest trim level. Among other things, the extra money will get you more horsepower, special wheels, a leather interior and a Bose sound system. You can add even more optional features and run the price up to nearly $40,000. Personally, I like my heated seats, but I count on my car’s seat belts, airbags and automatic emergency braking to keep me and my family safe.
What about… heated airbags?
Don’t Be Mad At GM About This One Thing
Cancelling the OG Chevy Bolt was a bad decision, and everyone at GM knows it. They had an affordable EV that got discontinued in order to bring out another affordable EV that was too slow to the market and not quite the same thing.
To GM’s credit, they rectified this and brought back a refreshed version of the Bolt. GM was also extremely clear at the time they said they’d be bringing it back that this was a short-lived move and that something would replace it, eventually, although what that will be is a little unclear. Another Bolt? A different cheap EV?
Because of tariffs, China, USMCA, and all that, GM desperately needs to bring its popular Buick Envision production back to the United States from China. Where’s it going to be built?
You can probably guess, but Bloomberg confirms it:
General Motors Co. plans to move production of its next-generation Buick Envision compact SUV, which is currently built in China, to a plant in Kansas in 2028, a sign of the pressure automakers are under to reshore output of vehicles sold in the US.
The Detroit-based manufacturer also said Thursday it will likely end output of its all-electric Chevrolet Bolt that’s built in the same plant in about a year and a half.
GM’s move is a response to policy decisions by President Donald Trump, whose tariffs have made it more expensive to import vehicles from China. At the same time, the Trump administration has eliminated $7,500 tax incentives for electric vehicles, making them less affordable for car buyers.
This is logical, and it’s not even sad if GM finds a way to sell a sub-$30k-equivalent EV after this run of the Chevy Bolt is done. If they don’t, then you can get mad.
Ohhhh Škoda
My favorite British car award is the What Car? Award because in American English, the idea of What Car? has a very “I’m sure Egg is a very nice person” back-handed vibe to it.
What Car? also gives out roughly 9,000 awards, which is probably a good idea both from a marketing and a revenue standpoint. Either way, the Škoda Superb Estate has won the Estate Car of the Year award for an unprecedented eighth time in a row.
Commenting on the Superb’s performance, What Car? Editor Steve Huntingford said: “There can be few families whose needs the Škoda Superb Estate wouldn’t satisfy. It’s absolutely immense inside, both for passengers and luggage. Yet it doesn’t feel overly big from behind the wheel, because it combines tidy handling with a comfortable ride – particularly if you specify the optional adaptive suspension.”
Go Škoda!
What I’m Listening To Today
Hell yeah, it’s Kraftwerk doing “The Robots.”
The Big Question
Where should the Twingo race?
Top photo: Falken Racing, Rauh Racing
Damn, that Skoda Estate looks effing sharp… I’d buy that.
Oh, my sweet summer child.
Signed,
“Encouraged” not to bring a car back to LeMons because it was too slow
The N24 is special, and I think it runs the risk of losing its special character by doubling down on pro teams bringing fast GT3 machinery and crowding out the grassroots efforts.
I have the same complaint with Lemons, FWIW. It shouldn’t be that the IOE-bait machines are too slow—we should be encouraging more of those and discouraging faster entries. Otherwise, it runs the risk of losing some of its essential “put a cage in it and come party” character. (The Twingo would fit right in, though. Come party over here.)
They sort-of-kind-of do this with the 24h-Classic before the main race and my gosh, it’s youngtimer heaven. I don’t think I’ve ever walked around a paddock with as big of a giant, dumb grin on my face. They had MY car!! A 944! MULTIPLE 944s, even! On the Nürburgring! Weird stuff like Audi 50s! Big ol’ Merc sedans! So much cool stuff. SO much cool stuff.
Still, I’m gonna tap the “let grassroots entries run in the main show, dammit” sign. (And bring more slow cars to Lemons.)
Sounds like a marketing opportunity for a slow car 24 hour variant that they could market as a fun entry level race for charity / celebrity teams or something.
I think the Twingo – although swapped to a 170hp Clio RS Engine and at 850kg WITH mandated ballast – is too slow in comparison to GT3 Cars. The Ring itself might not be a great place to race them.
But the other thing that makes me angry, as a follower of Rauh Racing for some time, is that they did everything the correct way, passed all scrutiny etc just to get told “na, we dont think so”. What are all the technical rules, Qualifying criteria and so in for if you follow everything and then are not allowed after all this?
Yup, that’s “The Man Machine” on Qobuz now – thanks for the reminder!
Wow… the Bolt has only just returned, and it’s already not long for this world. What’ll that be: just a two or three year run for the re-released Bolt? 🙁
Sometimes, having older cars has its drawbacks. One of mine is at the shop, another has a window that is stuck down, and the last one is currently unregistered since it wouldn’t pass smog the last time I tried. There’s a small Suzuki bike in the garage too, but I know better than to tempt fate at my age.
The IIHS president basically said “but other things are expensive too”
No I’m not buying it. The active safety suite with radar is very expensive to add in and extremely costly to repair in even a minor fender bender.
Coming soon! Interior cameras and breathalyzer machines in all cars and a new interlock system. Surely they won’t add any cost right?
The Twingo guys can convert it into a Twincup. I will never shut up about the Twincup, which is the very definition of grassroot and a sight to see.
I wish safety took into account the safety of anyone outside of the vehicle…
It can for the right price. Cities can prioritize wider sidewalks, elevated or recessed walkways and seperated trails.
It costs $$ but will last for decades.
I dunno about the Americas, but in Europe it does.
This is why Jaguar went to a flat badge instead of the leaping car sculpture. It might look cool, but it could seriously injure a pedestrian. Mercedes Benz made their logo spring loaded, and Rolls made theirs retractable.
The problem is that modern cars lie to you.
In a vintage small roadster, 60 mph can feel like 110.
With modern cars, it’s the other way around.
I blame simulators. So many people have turned so many virtual laps at the ‘ring (without killing themselves doing it), they all want to go balls to the wall there.
I think thanks to simulators people know what to do and where on the ring.
People die there every year.
Plenty of people die on normal highways where fairly mundane speeds are enforced. And there is plenty of traffic on the Nurburgring, every day.
I think the answer to the Twingo question is to make the fastest cars slower, not the other way around. Having driven around it in two different shitboxes (an E30 316 and a £500 Porsche 944 that was extremely poor value) in touristfahrten the representation in video games doesn’t do it justice – it’s narrower, bendier and steeper than it looks, with less runoff to boot.
Having to drive without looking where you’re going to make sure you don’t get obliterated by a passing GT3 RS is an unnerving experience on a sunny day, so doing the same thing at 3am in a rainstorm would be much worse.
The GT3 class is just too much car for the track even without a Twingo pootling around, and the accident the organizers are scared about is going to happen anyway – just without a novelty Renault involved.
So the good news is that the Renault will survive the day of the next 24 hour race and live to zip around for many more years.
I’d like to witness a Twingo pootle with my own eyes and ears.
Regarding IIHS statement:
Horse Shit.
Safety advancements are a good thing, but a sliding scale removing certain more expensive safety requirements in tiers based on sale price would be a better thing. Peg it to inflation.
Everyone should have front and side airbags, ABS, and stability control. Cheapo commuters do not need electronic warfare suites for autonomous collision avoidance mounted to the proudest part of the bumper.
I’m surprised Matt offered no pushback or commentary on the IIHS. What a load of crap that was.
“Could you imagine a 6-hour Fun Cup with Logans, Twingos, Espaces, and whatever weirdo cars people want to bring?”
I present to you Citroen C1 Endurance Racing
https://c1racing.club/
Long live the foxtail Manta!!!!!!
“The speed differential between the GT3 cars and the slower class cars is just too great.”
But the speed differential between the GT3 cars and the track and curves are even greater!?
True, but their location and behavior are completely predictable.
Safety isn’t just all the tech nonsense, it involves the engineering of the entire structure of the vehicle and the added weight needs to be compensated for with bigger brakes, which means bigger wheels, which means low profile tires, which means the suspension has to be tuned to handle it and do so without wearing out for a long time.
Those options are nearly all profit (partly reason why I don’t buy them—they’re poor value for the money), so the cost for the OEM to add is tiny. Also, almost nobody special orders cars (if the OEM even allows it), so a lot of people buy those features because that’s what dealers stock because they know they can play some weasel games with monthly payment numbers and easily upsell them even if a customer went in thinking they’d get the lower spec trim (But it’s only an extra $80/month to get all this stuff! Heated seats! You need heated seats or else you could be uncomfortably cold for 5 minutes, especially with the compulsory leather “upgrade”! Fancier headlights that blind everyone even when the standard lights are better than any car you’ve driven previously? Of course, F everyone else, show ’em you own the roads! They’re blinding you, aren’t they? Blind ’em back! Giant wheels that ride like ass and tires that cost more to replace and have to be replaced more frequently? That’s tomorrow’s problem! Just think about how they might make your neighbors who you don’t even like envious! How the hell did you even drive before this?!).
I’ve had a Bolt EUV about a month in the family fleet and I love the stupid little thing. The new version of the Bolt solves most of my minor gripes about the car. They added storage cubbies (so there’s actually a logical place to put sunglasses), made the storage and cupholders much better, and increased the charging speed significantly. They should have packed just a little more range into the battery pack though. I think they really needed to get it above 300 miles. As it is, it’s a great commuter vehicle and it’s really roomy inside for 4 people. There’s a ton of leg room in the back and a ton of trunk space for such a small car. It’s got some bright new colors too. It’s fairly fun to drive for such an appliance. I do suggest checking them out if you are looking for that size of a vehicle, but also don’t sleep on the used ones. They are really cheap and if they had a battery replacement under the recall, those got a new 8 year, 100,000 mile battery warranty when the pack was replaced. If you search the VIN for recalls when shopping, it tells you when the pack was replaced (if it was). There’s also a large number of manufacturer buybacks that were also because people were tired of waiting for a new battery, and those go for really cheap when you can find them. Almost all were buybacks to just sit and wait for a new battery pack.
The N24 hasn’t been the same since COVID, and especially since the retirement of the foxtail. I am glad to have gone to my first one in 2025 and I learned a lot in that experience about how to better attend the race.
I’ve been meaning to write up something about the experience to pitch to The Autopian as a member post, because I think it is still at least clinging to its roots as being possibly one of the most fan-friendly motorsports events in existence and want more people to appreciate it for what it is before it becomes something else. It is an extreme shame that the soul of the race is being constantly eroded, and honestly this year probably more than most being in a 3-week series of LeMans, N24, Spa-24 so you had many teams sit out the middle week to be able to hit the other two.
Of note: there are already a lot of support races on the N24 weekend, several NLS races and a N24 classics race that’s a short endurance race. I don’t think adding another 6-hr race for the lower-class cars is the right solution, and I don’t think the solution is to dump the slower cars. Managing the slower cars is the whole thing I love about the race as it introduces a bit of entropy that can make for great comebacks at the end of the race. I do like someone’s proposal of
because that does not further erode what I feel is the soul of the race. If you made “separate but equal” races it would completely change the N24 into some soulless corporate-feeling event completely unnecessarily.
I would buy that Skoda Estate, esp with the bigger engine.
Señor Coconut’s cha-cha-cha version of “The Robots” is worth hearing at least once: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-aXOJXreTk
Señor Coconut’s merengue of “Tour de France” is also *chef’s kiss*
If safety doesn’t cost money, why can’t I buy a Toyota Champ/Stout in the US for $15k?