There is no sight as beautiful as a group of Italian super cars lining up on the grid all wearing enormous GT wings. While we all wish to be in the driving shoes of the individuals who are lucky enough to have the opportunity to compete in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo. Check out the video for more of a behind the scenes look at what it takes to get the cars ready off track and competitive on it.
The GT field will look a little different in the 2010 Le Mans Series because a few teams will be both moving up and down in class. The Corvette Racing Team, hot off their GT1 win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, will be stepping down into the GT2 category in order to compete on the track with the same vehicles that the production car competes with in showrooms. Meanwhile, the Dutch super car builder Spyker, who has been competing in the GT2 category since 2002, has bigger dreams of entering their new C8 Aileron as a GT1 racecar.
The new C8 super car will make its production car debut at the Geneva Motor Show early next year, but on the racetrack the Spyker Squadron plans on entering two machines, while a privateer team will handle the older C8 Laviolette.
The C8 Aileron is powered by an Audi sourced 4.2 Liter engine that delivers 400 HP and will be available with two transmission options. The first is a 6 speed manual gearbox built by Getrag with a set of gear ratios perfectly matched to the FSI powered eight cylinder. If you want to shift your Spyker with paddles, you get a ZF 6 speed automatic. The Spyker C8 Aileron can go from 0 to 60 MPH in 4.5 seconds and hit a top speed of 187 MPH.
Here’s something that might be worth picking up at an auction – that is if you have at least £5.5 million in your pockets.
This Auto Union D-Type racer is a prized commodity – it’s actually one of the rarest vintage cars in the world - in its own right, but does it justify the £5.5million tag it’s expected to command?
Let’s just say that the previous owner of this car is someone our history books are all familiar with: Adolf Hitler.
As a fanatic of motor racing, the Führer spared no expense in building a team that could dominate all the races it ran back then. The German technological superiority wasn’t any more evident when you look back and see how Mercedes and Auto Union – known as Silver Arrows back then – completely wiped out all other competitors that came their way.
The D-Type racer that will be auctioned off was actually driven by one of Hitler’s BFF’s, Hans Stuck during the 1939 Grand Prix season. What makes this car all the more valuable is due to the unfortunate fate its brethren suffered after the fall of the Third Reich.
In the world of high-performance automobiles there are two kinds of owners. First, there are those who buy an exclusive vehicle, only to hide it away, parked inside an enormous warehouse filled with the rest of their toys. Occasionally, those owners invite a friend or two inside to show off the pieces of automobile and maybe even take the classic out for a Sunday drive. Then there is the kind of sports car owner that just so happen to be a driver. These enthusiasts appreciate their vehicles in a way that the previous group only dreams of. There is nothing like fully stretching your super car’s legs or seeing just how deep into a turn your prized possession can go. For those drivers, there are these magical things called track days, a place where speed junkies can get full use out of their big boy toys.
Top Speed recently attended one of these Saturday afternoon visits to one of our local race tracks where we joined up with Henry Gilbert and got Hooked on Driving. The problem with most track days and even racing schools is the price. Not only is participating in one of these programs expensive, but the amount of actual seat time is rather limited. Most instruction programs will have you sitting in a class room for half of the day and then make you wait around amongst all the other pupils for your brief opportunity to make good on everything you learned earlier on in the day. Not at Hooked on Driving, they do conduct a brief chalk talk for first timers, which are always a good idea, but this track day program is geared towards giving clients the most seat time possible in a safe, responsible environment.
The Japanese automaker Toyota will bring a handful of their remarkable racing cars to the Goodwood Festival of Speed, July 3-5. The three day event is Europe’s answer to Monterey Historic Races that take place every year at Laguna Seca. The event allows racing enthusiasts to get an up close look at everything from classic competition cars to the racecars of tomorrow and allows these machines the opportunity to do what it is that they do best when they race against the clock and the hill.
The sombrero wearing import carmaker will be showing off a Lexus LF-A super car and a TF108, last year’s unrestricted F1 car complete with the German Timo Glock behind the controls. Making almost as much power as the F1 machine, Toyota will also bring a four wheel drive Celica GT4-X developed by English based tuners Fensport. The Celica makes 700 HP and can make consistent 10 second quarter mile passes all day long.
Rally enthusiasts will be happy to know that their will be a pair of classic Group B Celicas as well as the car that won them the Manufacturer’s Championship in 1999, a WRC Corolla. Alain Prost’s championship ice racing Toyota Auris will also be on hand, the car is built to look like the compact city car, except the racecar is built from carbon fiber and features a tuned 3.0 Liter V6. There will also be a couple of Can-Am and Le Mans racers on hand as well.
However, it will be Gazoo Racing’s V10-powered Lexus LF-A endurance racer, coming straight from competing in the Nurburgring 24, along with an IS-F that competed in the same race twice around the clock, that will be one of the main attractions on the hill climb course, making an appearance at the Earl of March’s annual gathering.
Thanks to the real driving simulator’s new video feature, we can bring you this short film about the lesser know of the Western European race twice round the clock. An automotive journalist once wrote a story about how there was a barbaric band of endurance racing fans who would paint their faces and hurl flaming objects onto the track during the race as added obstacles for those on track. That part of the story was most likely a stretch of the truth, but either way, what a crowd. So set some time aside to learn a little bit about the Nurburgring24.
Things didn’t turn out as well as Dr. Ulrich and the rest of Team Audi would have liked, but at least an R15 made it onto the podium. It was a sight to see all three Peugeot 908s regroup for the final laps of the 24 hour race, in order for that oh so important photo finish after so many years of trying. Things didn’t turn out exactly as we predicted:
Like you saw in the video, a Peugeot 908 took the overall win as well as the LMP1 trophy.
In the smaller LMP2 category Team Essex’s Porsche RS Spyder took home first place in its category.
Johny O’Connel won his 4th 24 Hour Title behind the wheel of a Chevrolet Corvette
Risi Competizione taking the GT2 win for the second year in a row, in the same Ferrari F-430.
No matter whether you are watching the race on television or are enjoying the aromas first hand, there is one essential tool that any race should have with them. Birdwatchers have their books from the Audubon Society to help them identify different species, well now the web site spotterguides.com is offering the same tool to enthusiasts free of charge. These fully color coded entrants list are very well designed and offer all the information you would need to know about a particular race team’s entrant. Best of all, Spotter Guides gives you a diagram of the race car which makes it all the more easier to identify when it is going around the track.
Spotter Guides is currently offering their wares for the American Le Mans Series, British Touring Car Championship, Formula 1 and of course the 24 Hours of Le Mans. So now when the announcer starts talking about an Audi R15 is being held up by a slower Porsche RS Spyder on the other side of the track, you will know exactly which cars they are talking about. Follow the link to download your own copies for this weekends race from Le Mans.
It is mid-June, the Nurburgring 24 has passed and the endurance race fans from around the world are gathering at the Circuit de la Sarthe in France. That is because this Saturday and Sunday, June 13 and 14 racing greats from around the world are competing in the 2009 24 Hours of Le Mans. The race twice around the clock includes vehicles from the ALMS as well as the LMS racing series which are made up of two classes of GT, production car based racers, and two classes of prototypes, this year’s race will include 20 of the big boy LMP1 machines all fighting each other as well as lapped traffic for an overall win.
The big battles lately have been between Audi’s and Peugeot’s endurance racing teams at these events. The German automaker is competing in their all new R15 racecar and Peugeot is bringing back their 908, except this time it has Formula 1 derived KERS. Reports from the racetrack say that the Audi camp has gotten a hold of some unfound speed from their previous entrant, the R10. The four ringed automaker has an excellent track record at the epic endurance race, with an Audi engine winning every year since 2000. 2003 was the only year that an Audi R chassis didn’t take home the victory, that year Audi’s factory efforts lent their services to fellow members of the Volkswagen family, creating the Bentley Speed 8. Ever since 2006 Audi’s racing team has been taking advantage of the rules regarding diesel powered race cars, a trend that has caught on with Peugeot.
The Bentley Boys were a group of privileged young British racing enthusiasts from the 1920s who chose the English automaker as their drug of choice, along with the women and booze, to compete in motor racing throughout Europe. The boys had a notorious reputation for playing hard and driving even harder. These young chaps are responsible for establishing the brand as a luxurious sports car builder that could cater to the wealthy and the speed to compete with the best makes of its day.
So it is only fitting that the world’s most exclusive car show, Pebble Beach, will be honoring the marque’s 90th anniversary by setting aside a special part of the 18th fairway for Bentley racing models. Started by W.O. Bentley himself; the car company was founded with one purpose only, to “make a fast car, a good car, the best in its class.” Thanks to the Bentley Boys, that includes four consecutive wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans from 1927 to 1930.
Last year the organizers of the famed Concours d’Elegance honored GM’s historic vehicles, with an impressive row of 16 cylinder Cadillacs. This year the theme will be British motoring, starring the flying B. In addition to the show’s dedicated racing class, there will also be two classes set aside for unique Vintage Bentleys, a class of Derby Bentleys, and several other models from various classes. Peter Hageman of the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance promises that their “Bentley racing class promises to be the most impressive collection of Bentley team cars ever assembled.”
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