Race cars have all the safety equipment and power required to win races and protect their driver at the same time. Some of them are street legal but most of them are not
Aston Martin is celebrating its centenary with ambitious plans for this year’s racing season, as it plans to win both the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC). In order to achieve its lofty goals, Aston Martin announced it will enter the races with four entries: two Vantage GTEs in both the Pro and Am classes.
Two of the cars, No. 97 and No. 99, will be based on the V8 Vantage and will be heavily revised when compared to the model used in the 2012 racing season, while cars No. 95 and No. 96 will be built on the 2012 specifications.
Aston Martin revealed nearly no details on the 2013 Vantage GT2, but it confirmed the cars will get redistributed weight, revised suspension and a new fly-by wire throttle – a newly allowed feature under this year’s regulations. Everything else seems to be pretty much identical to the road-going version: aluminum structure, and the design of the engine and suspension.
Hit the jump for more details on the 2013 Aston Martin Vantage GTE.
Ford announced the initial details and images of the 2014 Ford Fiesta ST Global RallyCross Championship (GRC) - a racecar that will be used in the 2013 season of the Global RallyCross Championship and Global X Games events. The car will be driven by Tanner Foust and Brian Deegan.
Built by Ford Racing and OlsbergsMSE, the new Fiesta ST GRC is based on the new Ford Fiesta ST production car set to go on sale this summer. No official details or specifications have been confirmed yet, but, by taking a closer look to these first images you will notice the car gets a pretty aggressive aerodynamic kit, with large front and rear bumper and a pretty impressive rear wing. The interior has been specially designed for the racing and includes a role cage and of course, racing seats.
Full details will be unveiled in a couple of days during the car’s official debut at the 2013 Chicago Auto Show. We’ll bring you all of the details once they are release.
Anytime you win the last three Driver’s and Constructor’s Championships in Formula One, there’s always that level of pressure (in this case, through the roof) to be better than ever before.
That pressure lies on the shoulders of Red Bull Racing, which is looking to win its fourth double championship in as many years. With three-time champ Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber at the helm, you can expect these guys to remain in the thick of the championship race and they’ve got the RB9 to help them make it four-in-a-row.
At a special gala event held at the team’s headquarters in Milton Keynes, England, the RB9 officially made its highly anticipated debut. Parts of the overall design of the RB9 were taken from its predecessor, the RB8, including that stepped-nose design that ruffled a whole lot of feathers on the grid last year.
Since regulations for this season are pretty much similar, there weren’t a whole lot of radical modifications to the RB9. In addition to the similar body, the same Renault-sourced naturally-aspirated 2.4-liter V-8 engine complete with a Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) is still in there too.
If there was any change to the new Formula One car, it’s the livery that now prominently features Infiniti on the side of the racecar instead of the usual Red Bull logo. Now that the former has become the title partner of the team - they’re officially known as Infiniti Red Bull Racing - then it only seems appropriate to have the automaker’s logo displayed where the cameras usually focus.
Other than that, the biggest focus for the team lies in continuing development of their Energy Recovery Systems.
Toyota, in collaboration with Buckingham-based motorsport engineering pioneer GPRM, has announced the launch of the first GT4 racing version of the GT86 sports car. The car will make its track debut later this month
The new GT86 GT4 is powered by a 2.0-liter direct injection turbocharged four-cylinder “Boxer” engine that will deliver somewhere between 360 and 400 horsepower, depending on the "balance of performance testing."
When compared to a standard GT 86, the GT4 version has received an impressive aerodynamic kit with large front and rear bumpers, new side skirts and a huge rear wing for better stability at high speeds. The car will sit on a set of racing wheels wrapped in high-performance tires from Avon.
The new Toyota racecar will be used in British GT and in the many GT4 series where it will have to face cars like Lotus Evora GT4 or Nissan 370Z — among many others.
With Ferrari finished with its F1 car unveiling, Mercedes decided to hop on the bandwagon and unveil the details of its 2013 Formula One car - the F1 W04. The car made its official debut at the Jerez circuit in southern Spain and will be driven this year by Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton.
The new F1 W04 race car has been inspired by the SLS AMG GT3 racecar and it is "a sophisticated evolution of last year’s car." With the SLS AMG GT3 racecar developing a total of 631 horsepower and sprinting from 0 to 60 mph in just 3.6 seconds, this is definitely the perfect inspiration for an F1 car. The car made its first test today when it managed a lap time of 10:21 with Nico Rosberg behind the wheel.
When compared to the previous year car, the new F1 W04 received a new five-element front-wing design, a second-generation Coanda exhaust at the rear and a stepped nose design with a small vanity panel. Up front, it keeps the usual pushrod suspension and the rear gets a pullrod suspension.
Lamborghini has unveiled today the first details on the new Gallardo GT3 FL2 racecar that is set to be used in the 2013 and 2014 seasons. The model is based on the 2013-model-year Gallardo and has been developed in cooperation with Reiter Engineering.
The first details offered by Lamborghini reveal that the new GT3 FL2 will receive "24-hour" brakes, improved engine cooling and reduced fuel consumption. Because we are talking about a racecar, we will also see a highly efficient aero kit, including a new front splitter and a rear carbon diffuser based on the one developed for the Super Trofeo. Also, when compared to the Gallardo GT3, the new FL2 version will be about 55 pounds lighter.
So, is this Lambo prepared to take over where the outgoing Gallardo GT3 leaves off, or will it be buried amongst the Porsche and Ferrari racecars?
Click past the jump to read about the Gallardo GT3 FL2 and find out
Along with the unveiling of the new-generation Viper, SRT also announced the Viper GTS-R — a model that marks the SRT Viper Racing team’s return to the American Le Mans Series (ALMS). Today the team officially announced that the GTS-R will be making its racing debut on June 22nd through 23rd in the LM GTE Pro class of the 2013 24 Hours of Le Mans.
SRT Motorsports will enter two identical GTS-R models and they will be driven by Tommy Kendall, Kuno Wittmer, Dominik Farnbacher and Jonathan Bomarito.
2013 will mark the SRT Viper’s return in the 24 Hours of Le Mans after an absence of about 13 years. The sports car entered the series in in 1996 when the original GTS-R had its first racing entry. The Viper also won five international GT championships and the 1997 to 1999 FIA GT championships, plus three consecutive one-two finishes at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the GTS class. In 2000 the car had its last win at the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona and afterward it was retired from the series.
A week after teasing us with their new 2013 Formula One race car, Ferrari has finally pulled the covers off of their 2013 racer with every intention of using it to finally supplant Red Bull’s three-year dominance in the racing series.
The car is called the "F138" and if you didn’t know the meaning behind the designation, we’re here to tell you what F138 means. The "F" obviously stands for ’Ferrari’ while the "13" signifies the year - 2013 - where the car is going to race. As for the "8", that’s the number of cylinders the race car carries. There’s plenty of significance for the V-8, at least as far as Ferrari is concerned. With the engine ending its Formula One run this year — the series will switch to turbocharged V-6 engines in 2014 — Ferrari saw fit to pay homage to the departing naturally aspirated 2.4-liter V-8 engine, hence the inclusion in the official designation of the car.
2012 runner-up Fernando Alonso will spearhead Ferrari’s attempt to finally end Red Bull’s three-year reign, where he will be once again joined by teammate Felipe Massa. We have no expectations for Massa this year, but Alonso’s a different case altogether.
If there’s anybody that can dethrone Red Bull and three-time world champion Sebastian Vettel, it’s Alonso and the Ferrari F138.
Over the past few years, the Formula One hierarchy has three established teams: Red Bull, Ferrari, and McLaren. But if you paid any attention, you might have noticed that a fourth team quietly made a name for itself as the kind of dark horse contender in the next few years.
Led by former F1 champ, Kimi Raikkonen, and Roman Grosjean, Lotus has set its sights on bigger things in 2013. To kick off their run to the top of the leaderboard, the British-based F1 outfit unveiled their prized steed for the 2013 season: the E21.
Since there aren’t a whole lot of changes in the series’ regulations, the E21 isn’t too far away from its predecessor in both form and function. On that note, the chassis of the E21 comes with a molded-carbon-fiber and aluminum-honeycomb-composite monocoque that was and designed to ensure maximum strength with minimum weight.
There have also been some slight changes, though, particularly the new suspension layout and the slightly modified front wing that Lotus describes as a "continuation of concepts" dating back to 2009. Additionally, the new Coanda exhaust and the team’s modified passive double DRS system are looked at as two critical adjustments that could catapult Lotus into the ranks of the proverbial big leagues.
It certainly helps that they have one of the best drivers in Formula One in the always affable Raikkonen, who managed to finish 3rd in last year’s Driver’s Championship, despite having been out of Formula One for the past few years. If the E21 proves to be a better ride than the E20, then look for Kimi to make serious noise in the 2013 season.
Instead of an image, McLaren has unveiled a teaser video of their Formula 1 racecar set to be unveiled on January 31st. The car will be named McLaren Mercedes MP4-28 and it will be driven by Jensen Button and new driver, Sergio Perez.
What we do know about the car is that it will keep the same 2.4-liter V-8 engine as previous version. In fact, 2013 will be the last year that this type of engine will be used, as starting in the 2014 racing season, it will be replaced by a 1.6-liter turbocharged V-6 engine.
The 2013 racing season will be a pretty interesting one for McLaren. First they will celebrate their 50th anniversary. And second, this is the first year that Lewis Hamilton will not be joining their team, as he has moved onto Mercedes.
We’ll update you with all of the official details on the McLaren MP4-28 F1 car once all of the details are released.
