The Opel Astra TCR will make its debut at the eighth round of the endurance championship. The race-experienced Heinz-Otto and Jürgen Fritzsche as well as Hannu Luostarinen will be sitting behind the steering wheel of the new 330 HP strong customer Opel touring car. The three race drivers at the Nordschleife have, all together, scored not less than nine championship titles and 184 class wins in this most successful grassroots series of the world – all of those in an Opel. The vehicle is entered by Opel development partner Kissling Motorsport based in Bad Müstereifel/ Germany.
Right from the beginning, endurance suitability was one of the core elements in the requirement definitions for the development of the Opel Astra TCR. Any if you speak of endurance racing in Germany, this relates of course above all to endurance races at the legendary Nürburgring-Nordschleife. During its development period, the Astra TCR has so far completed more than 50 test laps at the ‘Green Hell’ as the Legend Sir Jackie Steward once called the roller coaster in the Eifel with great respect.
In addition to the development of a suitable set-up for the specific requirements at this unique race track, another focus was laid on testing the reliability of the touring car. There is hardly any other circuit at which for example drive shaft and suspension are put to a similarly high stress like at the Nordschleife.
So the target at the VLN debut of the Astra TCR at the “48th ADAC Barbarossapreis” with will be running over four hours is to complete as many kilometres at this most demanding race track of the world and to put all components to a hard test under racing conditions.
“Casually speaking: If a race car stands the test at the Nordschleife, it can do it at any other circuit”, Opel Motorsport Director Jörg Schrott says. “With the development of the Astra TCR to meet the special requirements of endurance racing at the Nordschleife, we take account of our customers’ requests. There is a massive interest in competing with this production-based, yet very performant touring car not only in sprints but also in the VLN and at the Nürburgring 24 Hours.”
