The new Fiat Grande Punto will be seeking to open up a chapter of racing success for Fiat's latest 'compact' model this afternoon when two examples take on the "green hell", aiming to survive that toughest of tests - the Nürburgring 24 Hours.

Ever since it started in 1970 the ADAC-organised Nürburgring 24 Hours has seen mostly amateur drivers contesting the race held over the 23.5 kilometre-long track, which is one of the world's most legendary circuits. Two Multijet-powered Grande Punto racers will be in the thick of the action in the 'Alternative Fuels' category, the hotly-contested turbodiesel class where the the Alfa Romeo 147 JTD has scored three highly impressive consecutive victories, proving that the powerful Multijet diesel engine has the speed, reliability and toughness to survive in an event that bills itself as the "world's toughest endurance race", and hanks to three upper leaderboard finishes to its name, to be able to mix with the established petrol racing powerplants. Two all-Italian crews drive the pair of Fiats, both finished in the now-familiar Punto 'orange' which are being sponsored by 'Blue&Me', the new in-car telematics system developed jointly by Fiat and Microsoft's Automotive Business Division, as well as Brembo, Bilstein and Selenia. The cars are running on Continental tyres. Car #261 is piloted by Giancarlo Coia, Andrea Vizzini, Alberto Richard and David Raseri while #262 is piloted by Piero Rissome, Mauro Demichelis, Alberto Vesconi and Vincenzo Panacci.

The Grande Punto racers are in near 'showroom specification', and with very little development time having been achieved, bringing the two cars to the finish line will be the main aim for the team. The cars both safely qualified near the tail of the huge 225 car field. The #261 Grande Punto is 217th overall with a best lap of 11 minutes 45.037 seconds, while the #262 is three places further back, its fastest lap being achieved in 11 minutes 51.168 seconds, their qualifying lap times being more than three minutes slower than the pole-winning Porsche 911 GT3. Surrounded by many far bigger and more powerful sportscars, their achievement so far cannot be underestimated though, and Italian racing fans' will be cheering the two little cars on for the next 24 hours.
 

In Class S1, for 'Alternative Fuel' cars, the Grande Puntos line up a respectable 18th and 19th in class. The category front row is a lock-out for the two factory-supported BMW 120d entries. The #263 car with Claudia Hürtgen, Marc Hennerici, Johannes Stuck and Torsten Schubert driving (9 minutes 43.953 seconds) pipping its sister #264 car with Reinhard Huber, Guido Thierfelder, Jochen Übler and Claudia Hürtgen on-board (the last named taking advantage of race rules that allow a driver to be named in two cars) by just over two seconds.

Alfa Romeo, who are seeking a fourth straight Class S1 victory are represented by five Multijet-powered Alfa 147 entries, although with factory-supported BMW, Renault, VW and SEAT entries ensure their task will be a tough one. Fastest of the gaggle of Alfa 147s in qualifying yesterday was the #253 entry crewed by Paul Hunsperger, Hubert Nacken, Terry Britchford and Roland Mühlbauer, who line up 8th in Class S1 with a best lap of 11 minutes 00.038 seconds. The remaining Alfa 147s will start from 12th, 13th, 17th and 20th places. The 2.4 JTDM turbodiesel engine is also represented in the larger 'Alternative Fuels' Class S2 where last year's Nürburgring 24 Hours' winning car is being piloted by a quartet of drivers that includes former leading German lady racer Ellen Lohr, best know for her exploits at the wheel of a factory-supported Mercedes-Benz in the DTM series during the 1990s. The #272 Alfa 147 will start from third on the grid behind a BMW 330d and a Subaru Impreza WRX STi, that latter car which has former Venezuelan motorbike champion turned F1 driver Johnny Cecotto on board.