A few weeks ago I wrote an article on the blog about the Dacia Duster Ice Racer that was set to race in the Trophee Andros cup. Well, the guys have been busy at work testing it, including former Formula 1 World Champion Alain Prost . As a result, we are now able to bring you some videos of the thing.
Category Archives: Motorsports
Chevron is returning
The UK has had plenty of car manufacturers over the years. No wonder many refer to it as the most car obsessed country in the world. Just a shame that the government clearly want’s to change that with all their stupid environmental and health and safety laws. This doesn’t stop new companies from appearing though. Just recently, Lee Noble announced Fenix Automotive. And, of course, he was responsible for Noble not too long ago. Now, another company has appeared. This one though is a revival of an old brand, Chevron.
It was founded back in 1965. Over 60 great racing cars were made over the course of their history. In 1986 though, Chevron died off. The brand now belongs to Westfield Sportscars, and they plan to bring it back.
The first car will be the GR8. It will be a spiritual successor to the B8, a lightweight, mid-engined racing car built in the late 60s. The new car will follow a similar formula. It will have fiberglass body over a steel spaceframe with a 255bhp 2.0L Cosworth engine mounted in the middle. 255bhp doesn’t sound like a lot, but they’re planning an extremely low weight of 600kg (About 1322 pounds), which will result in a power to weight ratio of over 400bhp per tonne.
Only 20 will be made at first, each at a price of roughly 83,000 USD (About £49,500). They will all be used in the GR8 Challenge Series, a one-make racing series for the car, so a bit like the Ferrari FXX or the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren 722 GT. The series opener is planned for April 2010. It will consist of 16 rounds, and you may choose to have a second driver to help split the costs and work. After that, the GR8 will be turned into a track-day special available to the public. Sadly, a road-going version isn’t planned.
Nonetheless, if you need a good track-day car, looks like this might be worth waiting for.
Audi Working on New Supercar
The R8 V10 is Audi's current range topping supercar, but this could change
Reports are saying that Audi may be working on a new range-topping supercar, something even faster than the R8 V10.
The car would use the same platform as the upcoming replacement to the Lamborghini Murcielago, known as the Jota. Unlike the Jota though, which will be using a V12, the Audi will use a V10 developing around 600hp.
This platform is expected to be based on the platform of the R8, but heavily modified. The car will have plenty of carbon fibre bits to keep the weight down, and a dual-clutch transmission for very quick shifting.
The name used may be the R10. This would be fitting, as the R8 used the name of the old R8 race car, and with the R10 TDI now out of racing, or at least out of Audi’s team, this would follow that same naming pattern.
This R10 will be longer and wider than the R8. Since the underpinnings will be from the Murcielago replacement, expect something about as big as the Murcielago. The car will come with Audi’s quattro AWD system as standard.
It is said that prototypes are already going around the Nurburgring disguised as Lamborghinis, but the car won’t be released until at least 2012.
Source: MotorAuthority
Bufori BMS R1 Makes Debut
Some time ago, I talked about the Bufori CS, a car being worked on by Malaysian manufacturer Bufori. The racing version, called the BMS R1, made it’s world debut at the Macau GT Cup earlier this week.
It did fairly well, advancing from 28th place to 23rd place in a matter of 3 laps. The driver was Alex Yoong. Best lap time was 3:00.388. It looked like it could place up high, but later in the race, a piece of debris flew into the car and jammed the throttle, ending the race for Bufori. They plan to further improve performance. They will be working on improving aerodynamics, reducing oversteer and increasing power.
As for looks, the front looks quite nice, much better than the pictures of the road version released a while back, and the rear end isn’t too bad, though it looks like a bit of a Ferrari 550 Maranello rip-off.
So they’ve done a good job on the race car by the looks of things, but if those previous pictures are anything to go by, the road car won’t be a looker, though the underpinnings might compensate. I’ll make a final judgment when the car is unveiled at the 2010 Beijing Auto Show. The BMS R1 will also be there, presumably some of the updates they want to do will be done by then and it’ll look a bit different.
Source: WorldCarFans
Great news! Dacia is set to race the Duster
The new Duster racer is quite a beautiful machine.
Well great news indeed (at least for me), as Dacia has announced that it is set to race its Duster model in an ice racing series called Trophee Andros.
Ferrari Builds Fiat 500 Endurace Racer
Just look at that back spoiler! It could easily go on a jumbo-jet.
Well since the Fiat 500 was launched we had the privilege to witness quite a few mad versions of it: first it was the 500 Abarth which was quite frisky with 135 horsepower but then someone decided that what they actually needed was more power, so they did a 160 bhp model. Now for a car this small 160 horses is quite insane. But no. We then got the Assetto Corse which was a stripped-out , rollcaged version for touring car racing. By this version we already had 3 hot 500’s. But then we got more: they’ve made a Ferrari tribute model, a rallying 500 and now we’ve got this: The Fiat 500 GT endurance racer. You might think it’s a cute, cheap, italian city car. With a 1.4 litre engine you might think it’s slow as well but mad people at work have managed to extract a whopping 360 horsepower out of it! That’s 250 bhp per litre of displacement! Not even a Ferrari can manage that! Tully bonkers! It’s built for endurance racing by a guy called Romeo Ferraris (that I think explains the article title) and it will debut at the 6 Hours of Vallelunga endurance race on November 22. Now I love small, Italian cars and this has to be the absolute ultimate really. I’m just curious what wil it do in the race. Even if it fails spectacularly, I don’t care because it’s just a brilliant piece of engineering.
Source: Autoblog
Michael Schumacher may return to Formula 1
Michael Schumacher, holder of an insane amount of Formula 1 records, including the most drivers championships won, may be returning to Formula 1 to race with Mercedes-Benz GP, previously known as Brawn GP, but now taken over by Mercedes, hence the new name.
Mercedes has done a lot for Schumacher. He begun his career racing sportscars there, and they helped him get into Formula 1. Now, Mercedes is giving him a chance to return the sport. They want him as their lead driver. Currently, Schumacher is under a contract with Ferrari, but BCC F1 pundit Eddie Jordan says “…I understand he was due to meet Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo with a view to him being released – and that it will be approved because it is in the interests of F1.” Strangely enough, I saw another article which seems to contradict Autocar’s, saying that he has been sacked from the Formula 1 team as advisor. Mind you, it also mentions that he’s still working with them in the road car department, so perhaps that’s the contract they are talking about.
Jordan told the BBC “I also believe Ross and Michael have spoken in recent times and that Michael likes the idea of driving a Mercedes run by Ross. It’s a mouth-watering idea,” and “Schumacher was bitterly disappointed he didn’t get to come back to replace Massa – he’s keen to race again. And this is a dream for both parties.” That, along with his past relationship with Mercedes, may mean that he’ll end up racing for them. I’d really like to see that. Alex had his doubts about Mercedes-Benz GP doing well next season, but if they get Schumacher on, perhaps that disadvantage will be evened out to create some close competition.
New hardcore 911 racer
Well we quite like a track racer here on The Blog of Cars and today we have a really, really good one. Porsche has launched its hardcore, ready for the track version of the 911 GT3 called the 911 GT3 R.
Well you might think that’s one S worse than the 911 GT3 RS street car, but you’d be wrong. This one comes with a luxury interior equipped with…urm…a seat, pedals, oh, and a steering wheel. It has a 4.0-litre six-cylinder boxer engine which churns out 480 bhp. The grunt goes to the rear wheels through a six-speed sequential racing ‘box. This is a replacement for the old 911 GT3 Cup S which, it turns out, was too much of a slouch. New modifications include a wider track and flared wheel arches. It also features LED lights and weighs in at just 1200 kg. Then there’s ABS and traction control which should make this stripped-out track car easier to handle for beginners.
The only niggle I have with this car (Indeed it seems this new Alex guy hates something from every car) is that it’s just too heavy. That would be ok if it would be more powerful but with “only” 480 bhp it’s just not light enough. Don’t get me wrong I’m not in any way suggesting this is slow but for a track car, it’s not that fast. You can buy road cars that are faster. What I say doesn’t matter though because this is just an awesome car to start your racing career with. Provided you have 280,000 Euros in your wallet.
Source: Autocar
Mercedes buys Brawn GP
Yes, it seems the rumours were true, Mercedes-Benz has indeed bought the double-championship winning Brawn team and it’s aiming to return to Formula 1 as a manufacturer since 1955. The German giant has bought about 75% of the English team and they say that Ross Brawn will remain team principal. They will also continue their deal with McLaren as they must supply engines for free for another 6 years to them.
Over the next two-year period McLaren will buy back actions worth 40% back from Mercedes. The new Mercedes-Benz GP team will be also based in the current Brawn GP factory in Brackley. The thing is, I just don’t understand what Mercedes is trying to play here. They will return to F1 by buying a team that has won a few weeks ago both world championships.
You might think: ok, that’s very intelligent then, they chose a winning team so it’s very good. You see, in F1, development takes time, so in general, the team which has the most time, experience and money turns up with the best car for the next year. Now Brawn have been fighting for the championship until the penultimate race so they kept their eyes focused on the 2009 car while others like Ferrari for instance had already began their development on their 2010 car.
The driver lineup will also be a problem. Rumours say that there will be an all-British layout at McLaren : Button and Hamilton, and an all-German layout at Mercedes: Heidfeld and Rosberg. Imagine that: the Germans will be laying the red carpet for each other in the ultimate fair-play team game begging each other to overtake while the Brits will be having a massive fight for who should be nr 1 .
