Rauh Racing exclusive: Nürburgring rejection, the challenges grassroot teams face and their mission to build a community of car lovers
- Benjamin Crundwell
- 6 hours ago
- 7 min read
A Renault Twingo racing at the Nürburgring 24h? That could never happen right? Unfortunately it won’t be happening in 2026 - but Rauh Racing have proved it could happen, and we came miraculously close to seeing Renault’s 1995 City Car racing for a full day on the Nordschleife.
Despite the Nürburgring blocking their entry, Rauh Racing are continuing their project, targeting to race in multiple series across Europe. DIVEBOMB had the pleasure to interview Filip Rauh, co-founder of Rauh Racing.
Filip and his brother, Felix Rauh, set up Rauh Racing with the aim of taking a 1995 Renault Renault Twingo to the Nürburgring 24h. Unfortunately, they have since been told that the car will not be welcome in 2026, despite an initial agreement to the plan.
The team are unclear on why they have been rejected entry despite having initially received an agreement that the Twingo would be permissible to race:
“We never changed the plan from our side, we built it to the exact same spec that we set out, which is crazy, usually projects change all the time, but we literally said, this will be the blueprint for the car. We built [it] exactly like this, because we wanted to ensure conformity and wanted to avoid a situation like this.
“All of a sudden, in August, we got an email saying, as of now, we won't be admitted to the race, then I tried finding out why. The answers were extremely vague. I got told directly that cars like ours are not wanted anymore, and that kind of sent some shivers down my spine.”
An argument for the car to not race could be the safety, however the crash structure is no problem; to comply with regulations it has the same safety as an SP9 (GT3) car.
The other matter of safety comes from the pace difference between a GT3 car and the Twingo, however Filip pointed out that the famous Dacia Logan is still allowed to race, despite being in the same pace bracket: “I love the Dacia team, I say this all the time, we always support them.
“They're super cool, and they deserve to race. But the organiser couldn't really explain to us [why the Dacia can race, and the Twingo can’t], in rational terms, beyond this car has raced before, so it can race again.
“Why can a car of a similar calibre continue to race but a new entrant can't?”
This is a troubling situation for the two brothers who had already invested a large sum into the project. They said: “You put so much investment in it because you think, ok, rules are rules - especially for the Germans - [if] you follow the rules, everything's fine. We did exactly that, and then it didn’t work - that's extremely frustrating.”
Although the Renault Twingo itself was cheap, modifying it was far from it. Filip described it as a “Clio RS on a Twingo chassis” to emphasise how much has been changed. The upgrades include a 2.0L Clio RS engine capable of producing 180bhp (the original car had 60bhp).
Despite the upgraded power, and additional safety features such as a roll cage, the car weighs 900kg, only 60kg more than the initial model, demonstrating the mechanic's efforts to cut any unnecessary weight, in order to maintain the car’s light-weight characteristics.
One of the extraordinary costs Rauh Racing face are the cost of tyres. Despite being grassroot racing, most series require a mandatory tyre - from a different manufacturer for the majority of series. This means that small teams are faced with the large cost of purchasing multiple sets of tyres which they often can’t afford.
As a grassroot team with a big platform, Filip was sure to be vocal about this: “This is maybe a good opportunity for me to say this. In this whole amateur racing series, you still have mandated tyres, and I think that's a shame.
“In the RCN, it's on Hankook. In the NES, they have Goodyear. They put the burden on the drivers and the teams to have the tyres, and if you don't have the tyre, you're disqualified.”
Rauh Racing are targeting four racing series in 2026: the Belcar Endurance Championship (including the 24 Hours of Zolder), the ARC Endurance Championship, the NATC and a few rounds of the RCN on the Nordschleife.
This means that Rauh Racing needs to be in possession of at least three different types of slicks to race in all four series, their opinion is clear: “This is insanity. It doesn't make sense, everyone's saying, ‘affordable motorsport is dying’, and at the same time, you put a mandatory tyre manufacturer. The Goodyears are especially expensive, I have to say.
“This is complete nonsense for lower class motorsports. I think this is also a factor [that] drives people away because, you know, you say, ‘oh yeah, I can rock up at the NES race in Hockenheim? Oh, I fit the class, nice. Oh, sh*t, I have to buy - I have perfectly fine Nankang slicks in my driveway - but I have to buy Good Year slicks now.’ So, I think this has no place in amateur racing.
“It's also a consideration for us. Especially if I want to do a longer race; you need at least two slicks and one wet. That's 2,000 euros at least, just because I want to go racing now, then I just go to a track day [instead], you know? I can run whatever I want.”
The entire project could have been shut down last year while the team were doing a permit run on the Nordschleife. On their 30th and final lap, a “reckless” Porsche 911 hit the Twingo in Hatzenbach, sending the Porsche into the barrier and destroying the German car.
Rauh Racing were extremely lucky that the Twingo itself avoided the barrier, escaping not only further damage, but also paying for barrier repairs. Fortunately the car only suffered subframe, wheel and drive shaft damage.
To avoid crash damage, Filip and Felix, who race the Twingo, have to race with their heads, despite the temptations to let the adrenaline take over: “Yeah, if you're fighting, then it does take over.
“I think in Oschersleben in October, I was hunting a Mini Cooper, but you always have your wallet in your head. It's not like you just dive. Especially at the starts, I just do the move like you do in an F1 [game], you just wait until everyone crashes in the 1st corner. Of course, they don't crash, but I'm not going to break at the last second. Because as soon as you hit something, it's very, very expensive.
“So it's a different kind of driving if you know that you have to pay for it yourself. I would love to be in a position at least once in a race, where I could go balls to the walls and send it without having to fear any mechanical damage or any cost that would occur from that.”
Unlike a Formula One team, which has thousands of employees from a rigorous employment scheme, Rauh Racing are relying on passionate fans and partners to help build the project. A key driver in preparing the Twingo for racing was Motorwerk, who are often working on Italian supercars.
Despite it being an unusual project for them, Max Moutschka, founder of Motorwerk, agreed to swap out the old engine for the new: “When we wanted to do the swap, I basically reached out to all workshops that I thought could do the swap in Germany and everyone said no except for them, they said yes.”
Outside of their partners, Rauh Racing are receiving help from volunteers who they have met throughout the project.
“It's just enthusiasts that want to help and, I can also only say, if you want to help, to everyone reading this, just join our Discord and we actually use Discord as our main communication. So if we need some trackside help, then we're gonna announce it there. But, yeah, that's the spirit.”
Those interested in joining, can find Rauh Racing’s Discord in their Instagram bio (@rauhracing).
As well as the racing series mentioned earlier, Rauh Racing have plans for the future off the track. They recently bought a second Twingo, which they would like to use to produce content demonstrating the differences between the race car and regular car.
As well as their work on Twingos, Rauh Racing would like to stretch themselves further: “We want to do more around the general premise of obscure, unconventional cars on track and also on public roads.
“So going more into that content direction, and do more interesting content with unconventional cars beyond the Twingo and beyond the racetrack. While, we still race our race Twingo because that's our halo car, I would say.
“In 10 years, I hope that we are the biggest brand for car merch. If I had to pick one goal.”
Rauh Racing’s final set of plans for the future is to create a Twingo cup on Assetto Corsa, using a mod of their car designed by volunteers.
“We really want to bring these two communities [real life and sim racing] together. This is also something that we're gonna spend our time on now to also go more in the Esports direction.
“It will basically be a server of regularly occurring events on all kinds of tracks on Assetto Corsa. We're still working out a ranking system and a kind of progression and championship. It’s going to be a hell of a lot of fun.”
The Twingo may have been prevented from racing on the Nordschleife, but the mission goes on as the team strives to build a community of petrol heads. It’s been refreshing to see the passion to race a Renault Twingo - Rauh Racing are proving that you don’t need an expensive sportscar to have fun on track, sometimes all it takes is an old city car and a slightly bigger engine.
