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Autoblog's adventures at the Nurburgring 24-Hour race [spoilers]

The brand-new Audi R8 LMS, said to share 50 percent of its components with the street-legal R8 shown off at Geneva, has won its very first race at the 2015 Nurburgring 24-Hours. The No. 28 car driven by Christopher Mies, Edward Sandstrom, Nico Muller, and Laurens Vanthoor for the Audi Sport WRT team out of Belgium finished only 40.279 seconds ahead of the No. 25 BMW Sport Team Marc VDS Z4 GT3 in second place, for the smallest winning gap since the race began in 1970. Those two cars traded the lead throughout Sunday morning and were less than a minute away from one another for the last two hours. They were part of a total 35 lead changes during the entire race – a record for the event – and both did 156 laps. Third place went to the No. 44 Falken Tire Porsche 997 GT3, one lap down. The Audis did what they always do: lurked close to the front, stayed out of trouble, then pounced when everyone else faltered. For the opening stretches the BMW Z4 teams owned it, running 1-2-3 for a while, but all of them hit trouble. When morning came and the race got over its yellow-flag fever, the No. 28 Audi was in front and stayed there. It was the third Nurburgring 24-Hour win for Audi in four years, the brand's first win only coming in 2012. Last year's winner, the Phoenix Audi team that set a race record by doing 159 laps, had both of its cars retire. One hit an oil patch about 12 hours in, spun and was hit by another car behind, taking on too much damage to continue. The other retired with engine issues. Other Notes Three cars crashed out of the race while leading, after the rains that weren't supposed to happen, happened about 90 minutes in. The No. 20 Schubert BMW Z4 led the first 50 minutes of the race, hopped a crest at Pflanzgarten, landed in a pool of water, and hit the wall on the 30th lap. Then the No. 30 Frikadelli Porsche, with a driver team that included ex-'Ring Taxi driver Sabine Schmitz, hit the No. 31 Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 on the approach to Carrousel and crashed out. Then the No. 1 Phoenix Audi, last year's winning car, took the lead but hit the wall after that oil patch near Pflanzgarten and was out of the race. Aston Martin celebrated a class win in the SP8 category with the No. 49 Vantage GT4 N430. This being the tenth anniversary of the Vantage running the Nurburgring-24, this year's car was painted in the same colors as the racecar from ten years ago.

Mansory G63 AMG Sahara Edition substitutes performance for taste

We aren't sure if it's an unwritten rule or not, but it seems like European tuners are wholly incapable of building cars whose aesthetics don't offend people blessed with the gift of sight. Take Mansory, for example. The Swiss tuner has turned its hand to the Mercedes-Benz G-Class, a vehicle that on it's own is not exactly a visual stunner. Functional sure, but not exactly beautiful. But with Mansory wielding the design pen, the result is, well, yeah. It's not great. This is the Mansory G63 AMG Sahara Edition, and surprisingly, its camouflaged paint scheme is one of its least obnoxious qualities. But its grille, headlights, hood scoop, roof-mounted lights and rear spoiler just don't do this Mercedes any favors. And for some reason, the tuning firm has decided to put two different styles of 22-inch alloys. The driver's side isn't horrible, although we can't say the same about passenger-side hoops. The interior treatment is nothing compared to the cabin, though. Falcons. There are falcons in the headrests. No, we don't know why either. The avian theme isn't limited to the headrests, though, as Mansory has added wings to the seats, dash and door panels, all the while continuing on with camouflage color scheme on certain interior surfaces. Of course, if you can live with the design decisions, you'll be getting a ludicrously potent G-Wagen. Mansory has boosted the 5.5-liter, biturbocharged V8 to 828 horsepower while it's actually been limited to 737 pound-feet of torque. We aren't sure what the addition of 292 hp and 177 lb-ft of torque does to the G63's run to 60, although we're betting the Mansory version is a lot quick than the 5.3-second stock time. Check out our live gallery of the G63 AMG Sahara Edition, from the floor of the 2015 Geneva Motor Show. Related Video:

Audi RS6 Avant and Mercedes-AMG E63 S drag race for Top Gear

Sometimes the kids are late for school, and you need a wagon to get them there in a hurry. In its latest drag race, Top Gear finds out which is the quicker high-performance family hauler: the Audi RS6 Avant or the Mercedes-AMG E63 S. The specs suggest this race should be quite close at the finish line. The RS6 has a 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 with 552 horsepower, but the E63 S is a little more powerful with 577 hp from a 5.5-liter twin-turbo V8. However, the Audi has a traction advantage from the all-wheel drive system, whereas the Mercedes only spins its rear wheels. Pick your favorite, and then watch the video to see if the similar numbers translate to a photo finish in the real world. Related Video: