Racing

Alex Zanardi, the ever-green race-driver-turned-Paralympian, continues his recovery and is finally able to speak to his family once again. The 53-year-old has been recuperating following what can only be described as a heinous crash that took place in June 2020 while the two-time CART champ was racing on his handbike. The collision with a truck, which occurred during the ’Obiettivo Tricolore’ relay race, put Zanardi in an artificially-induced coma but the most recent reports coming out of Italy prove once again that there’s no stopping Zanardi.

Like the other TCR cars before it, the Elantra N TCR is a race car you can’t get to drive on public roads. It has been developed to serve private racing teams and it’s underpinned by the popular Elantra sedan; although not much is carried over from the original car except the chassis and well, the name.

Toyota Gazoo Racing will campaign a brand-new car in this year’s FIA World Endurance Championship, the top long-distance sports car series in the world. With both technical components and design cues taken from the multi-Le-Mans-winning TS050, the GR010 Hybrid is our first look at a novel breed of racing cars, the Le Mans Hypercars. Developed in conjunction with a road-going version that’s set to be launched later on this year, the GR010 is powered by a 3.5liter V-6 twin-turbo engine that, together with the hybrid system, delivers 940 horsepower to the wheels. Glickenhaus, ByKolles, Peugeot, and everyone else should heed the warning.

The Stephane Ratel Organization (SRO) is aiming to bridge the gap separating real racing from virtual racing in 2021 by awarding, for the first time ever, points in the world of simulation that count towards a real-life title. While it may sound insane and it may draw unwarranted parallels with a sci-fi classic - the cyborg - you should view it as merely a step in the ongoing process of legitimization that sim racing as a sport has been going through for the past several years.

There are moments when a carmaker’s ambitions go way beyond its financial or technological powers. But in pursuing said ambitions, only a select few companies managed to overcome any difficulties and deliver amazing car.

Take Renault, for example. Back in the late 70s and early 80s, the French firm simply couldn’t afford to fully develop a rally race car from the ground up. So it had to work with what it had, in this case the humble Renault 5, which through massive modding gave the raucous Renault R5 Turbo.

It’s only been a few months since we called for the creation of a racing series dedicated to all of the beautifully insane track-only hypercars that we’ve seen come out in the last few years, be it the Ferrari FXX-K Evo, the McLaren Senna GTR, or the Aston Martin Vulcan, and it seems like our prayers have been heard. The SRO Group, creator of the GT3 formula and conductor of the GT World Challenge championships around the globe, is finally getting ready to launch something it calls the ’GT1 Sports Club’. If the name GT1 rings some bells that’s because it should. Read on to see why this may be the coolest racing series that’s not actually a racing series.

The 2021 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup is the latest iteration of the company’s one-make series race car. Based on the latest, 992-generation 911, the GT3 Cup is essentially an FIA-compliant version of the road-legal GT3. The latest in a long line of GT3 Cup models that goes back to the early 1990s, the 2021 911 GT3 Cup retains the naturally aspirated flat-six layout of its predecessors, but it comes with more power than before. Rated at more than 500 horsepower, the 992 GT3 Cup is the most powerful of its kind. What sets it apart from the outgoing model and what racing series is it eligible for? Find out in the review below.

The Formula 1 World Championship has drawn to a close last weekend but, in the aftermath of the season’s 17th Grand Prix, it wasn’t Max Verstappen’s dominant victory that has gathered most of the headlines as, once again, sports car racing came to the fore with the announcement that Porsche will return to the sharp end of both the FIA World Endurance Championship and IMSA’s Weathertech Sportscar Championship in 2023 with the German automaker set to run a prototype built around the LMDh rules that will also be sold to customers.

Undefeated in its quest to take on the car world and conquer it one drag race (or three) at at time, the Hoonicorn takes on another rad build. This time, sparks fly as Ken Block’s tire-slashing Gymkhana car meets a Chevy Nova dragster.

Doug Fehan, the long-standing Program Manager that has masterminded all of Corvette Racing’s successes ever since the factory-backed team made its debut all the way back in 1999, has parted ways with GM fresh off the heels of one of Corvette Racing’s best seasons to date.

The news came shortly after Oshkosh made it official that it had purchased Pratt & Miller, the company responsible for the building of all of Corvette Racing’s cars. Do these developments suggest that the writing is on the wall for the oldest American racing program that’s still active or will we see Corvette Racing change its focus in the not too distant future? Read on to find out more about the latest puzzle that sports car racing has thrown at us in recent days.

French automaker Peugeot has announced its return to the 24 Hours of Le Mans with a hybrid prototype. Powered by a gasoline-electric powertrain that generates up to 939 horsepower, the hybrid is being developed in cooperation with oil company Total, Peugeot’s historic motorsport partner. Peugeot will return to Le Mans in 2022, 10 years after its last race at Circuit de la Sarthe.

The Ferrari 330 P4 stands as one of the most iconic Ferraris of all time. It’s certainly one of the rarest as only one original 330 P4 — chassis 0856 — is said to still exist. Last we heard, it’s owned by a Canadian collector, and if that collector decided to put the car up for sale, it could become the most expensive Ferrari of all time.

Acquiring the only remaining 330 P4 is a pipe dream for almost all of us, but if you’re suffering from a severe case of FOMO, you can still take ownership of a Ferrari 330 P4 courtesy of Amalgam Collection. It’s a lot cheaper, too, at just $1,358, though, I suppose, for a 1:18 scale model, that’s a premium price for the item that you’re buying. Either way, you get to go home with a Ferrari 330 P4. It’s 1/18th the size of the real one, but we’ll take our victories where we can get them.

Sim racing games have become, for many of us, an integral part of our daily routines, at least ever since the emergence of partial or complete lockdowns had us stuck indoors with not much to do. Platforms like iRacing, rFactor 2, or Asseto Corsa Competizione have grown exponentially since March and now one of the automakers that’s been paying a lot of attention to the world of sim racing makes the next step and introduces a unique wheel.

That automaker is BMW and, through its partnership with Fanatec, an established maker of sim racing gear, created a wheel that you can buy for your rig and also find inside the 2021 BMW M4 GT3 race car.

BRX is a new name for Dakar Rally fans but they’re not letting that get in the way. Bahrain Raid Xtreme on its full name, the race team will take part in Dakar 2021 with a Prodrive-designed off-roader and a star-filled driver lineup to match its ambitions.

Ken Block’s Hoonicorn is on a mission to conquer the world. The drag racing world, that is.

You’re probably familiar with the Hoonicorn vs The World series running on Hoonigan’s YouTube channel. If you’re not, then this video might as well serve as a pretty neat crash course, because the Hoonicorn is racing a car that it inspired.

Cyberpunk 2077 has already been lauded as one of the candidates for the video game of the year, and the game isn’t even a week old yet. There is a lot to like about the game. From the graphics to the original storyline to the gameplay, Cyberpunk 2077 does what all great video games do: it wraps you up in its world.

Car enthusiasts, in particular, should find a lot of appeal in the game, thanks to the roster of vehicles that are available in the game. So far, almost 30 vehicles have been discovered in the game with more cars expected to be revealed as the first batch of walkthrough videos arrive. Most of these rides aren’t licensed models — with a few notable exceptions — so developer CD Projekt took a lot of liberties in the designs of these cars.

For 2020, Ken Block is letting Gymkhana in the hands of Travis Pastrana, who took up the challenge in an otherworldly 862-horsepower WRX STI turned up to eleven with active aero and enlarged engine displacement.

Travis Pastrana himself is no stranger to the world of racing of the X-Games, motocross, supercross and rally ilk but Gymkhana is no walk in the park either as you’re about to see from Pastrana’s facial expressions during the run.

Over five decades after brothers Josef and Herbert Schnitzer Sr. began racing BMW sedans in Europe, their team, known as Schnitzer Motorsport, looks unable to continue as a privateer according to sources in Germany. The unexpected fall of one of Germany’s oldest racing teams comes as the direct result of a decision by BMW Motorsport to cut all ties with Schnitzer and thus no longer back the same outfit that had masterminded BMW’s sole 24 Hours of Le Mans win to date.

We’re nearing the end of 2020 meaning that it’s about time for each manufacturer that’s present in one area of motorsports or another to announce its plans for 2021 and beyond and the news is coming in thick and fast. Following Audi’s announcement that its factory team will leave Formula E at the conclusion of the 2020-2021 season, BMW followed suit by also saying it will no longer be on the grid of the all-electric championship after the seventh season comes to a close.

Elsewhere in Germany, Volkswagen announced that it will no longer participate in any form of motorsports effective immediately, dashing hopes of future all-electric racing programs in series such as eTCR or Pikes Peak.

Porsche is about to launch the first race car based on the 992-generation 911. It’s called the 911 GT3 Cup and will be raced in the company’s already iconic and popular one-make series. The latest 911 GT3 Cup is still being tested, so Porsche is only showing us a camouflaged version. But while the car may appear wrapped in the usual swirly camo seen on most prototypes out there, it actually hides abstract maps of the race track on which the one-series is held.

Gymkhana Takeover featuring Travis Pastrana is coming soon and to build up some hype, the Hoonigans just dropped a video showcasing the rad Subaru WRX STI that’s going to burn rubber for our delight.

It turns out, however, that the video encapsulates a teaser for the upcoming Gymkhana installment. We won’t be complaining, though, as this is likely the very best dose of goodness to kick off the week.

Porsche’s partnership with LEGO isn’t exactly new and while so far it has involved the churning out of stunning brick-made cars under the Speed Champions and Technic monikers, the two brands just switched it up to a more laidback, slowed-down vibe.

Sure, you won’t see a real 911 RSR on public roads because race cars aren’t allowed there. But if you happen to know a skilled photographer like Tomek Makolski, then you’re in for a treat. One that’s not a mirage, by the way.