• design
• motorsport

Designer Peter Stevens reflects on turning the McLaren F1 into the GTR and taking it to Le Mans back in 1995:

It has often been repeated that the car was not designed to be a racecar, but I always thought that, with the GT regulations of that time, it was clearly well suited to become a competitive racer. The road version had gone from early sketch ideas to a finished design that was expensive, but with a wonderful engine from BMW it was well received by the press, public and customers. Two of those customers, Thomas Bscher and Ray Bellm suggested to McLaren that the F1 would make a good racecar for the BPR. McLaren quickly developed a race version, which, by the company’s own admission, was little changed from the road car

Don’t miss this article for early design sketches of what would become the iconic supercar.

• motorsport
• news
• video

Peugeot have announced a new contender for European single make and production-based endurance race series, the Peugeot 308 Racing Cup.

Your regular variety 308 wouldn’t receive much attention around these parts, so we’ll make an exception for this one. Just look at it!

From the official presser:

The PEUGEOT 308 Racing Cup will be available from the end of 2016 to customers all around the world. It is intended that it will succeed the RCZ Racing Cup in both single-make championships and saloon and sportscar racing series such as the VLN in Germany, CER in Spain, CITE in Italy and BGDC in Belgium, or even endurance championships like the 24H Series.

Don’t miss the accompanying photo gallery.

More of this please Peugeot!

• for sale

After qualifying in 7th place, the Silk Cut Jaguar team’s quartet of XJR-12s were looking strong at the 1990 24 Hours of Le Mans—especially once the fast qualifying Nissan R90CKs faltered. Ultimately only two of the distinctive purple and white sportscars made it across the finish line, though finish they did—taking a historic 1-2 for the marque.

Taylor and Crawley have listed chassis 12-C-190 for sale, the #4 car as raced at the 1990 classic:

Chassis 190 was shaken down at Silverstone by Andy Wallace and the first race was Le Mans in June. Crewed by Davy Jones, Michel Ferte and Elisio Salazar, #190 lined up 7th on the grid, the fastest of the four car Jaguar team. The 7.4 litre 750bhp V12 topped 220mph on the Mulsanne in spite of the new chicanes and lapped at nearly 140mph. Running well up for the first half of the race but on Sunday morning a long pitstop for repairs to the nose and brakes cost it time and subsequent stops for the same problems dropped it down the order to 12th and at midday it was retired.

Price on application.

via 24hr Le Mans

• for sale
• review
• video

Another cracking video from Mr Harris, this time behind the wheel of one of our all time favourite supercars: the Bugatti EB110 SuperSport.

The Bugatti EB110 was one of the three great supercars of the 1990s. Romano Artioli’s dream took four years to create, but the result was a compact, all-wheel drive machine with huge performance. But six months later Bugatti announced a faster ‘110, the SuperSport…

A very very special car. One of the only 30 or so SuperSports from the already tiny total EB110 factory run of around about 130 cars.

As you’ll gather from the video, this particular example is being auctioned by RM Sotherby’s at their upcoming 7 September event in London.

Bidding range estimate £600,000- £770,000.

UPDATE: Sold for £560,000 (source)

• builders
• video

A well executed take on the classic Mazda RX-3. Built by Savant Young, profiled on Jay Leno’s Garage.

• motorsport
• video

Watch and learn as nine-time World Rally Championship winner Sébastien Loeb hustles his Citroën C-Elysée WTCC car around the full Nurburgring last year.

• video

On a break from its promo tour of Australian Porsche dealerships, five-times Carrera Cup Australia winner Craig Baird unleashes a Porsche 918 Spyder on the Northern Territory’s unrestricted Stuart Highway.

• review
• video

11 minutes of road and (wet) track impressions of AM’s latest iteration of their V12 Vantage, this one a stripped out wide-bodied and bewinged 600 hp race car for the road.

I think Chris Harris likes it:

Normally aspirated V12. I don’t care what you do with turbochargers. You can make them very very impressive, you can make them very very fast, but the raw simplicity and—for want of a better word—emotion of this engine… And this is such a powerhouse this thing, that it will marmalise even 325-section rears. That has to be a good thing.

• video

A supercut of some of the best and most memorable chase sequences in cinema. Featuring, as you would expect, everything from ‘Smokey and the Bandit’, ‘Bullitt’, the ‘Mad Max’ series, ‘The Transporter’, and even a little bit of ‘E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial’.

Don’t miss background from the video’s creator, Michael Mirasol, at Movie Mezzanine; and yet more meta over at No Film School.

Our pick as the greatest: ’Ronin‘.

• interview

Street Machine catches up with journalist Mel Nichols and photographer Uwe Kuessner, instigators of the infamous ‘Wheels’ magazine review of the Ford Falcon GT-HO Phase III back in 1971.

Peering at the instruments, I can still see the tacho cranking past 6000rpm and the speedo nudging beyond 140mph. When I look at my hands on that big, thin wheel, I can feel the car thrusting forward, rock-steady. We were doing better than 140mph but it felt as right as rain. No worries about keeping it all straight on that narrow bit of road, long before the Hume had any multi-lane sections – or 110km/h speed limit.

Hell, running flat out in the GTHO was a fine moment. I understand blokes all over Australia have posters of Uwe’s memorable picture up on their walls, which, more than anything else, captures the magic of the mighty HO!

Their review of the ‘HO shocked a nation with boasts of covering ‘200 miles in two hours’ and a photo of the car running down the public highway at an indicated 104 mph. Little did the readership know, the true top speed run was a rather higher. High enough for the editors to lose their nerve, opting to run with a doctored photo of top speed run showing the car’s speedometer needle at ‘only’ 104 mph rather than the actual and even more incredible 145 mph.

• motorsport

Larry Webster for Road & Track has the skinny on motorsport’s Area 51, a place steeped in legend and lore. A secret tunnel used to test race cars in perfect secrecy and—most importantly—near perfect atmospheric (viz. aerodynamic) conditions.

And then I was at the bottom, standing on an old roadway with weeds sprouting through the cracked pavement. I was staring at a new, shiny silver, domed structure that ran along the road for about 300 yards and ended at a decaying tunnel entrance. A stack of slick racing tires stood nearby, the final clue that I had found the place that symbolizes all that is fantastic about motorsports. Now I just had to figure out how to tell the story.

• news

Mike Costello for CarAdvice:

The Audi Sport moniker has been set up to more clearly delineate Audi’s hardcore sports car (RS models and the R8) and racing activities from the rest of the brand — in essence, it’s the new forward-facing name for its quattro GmbH subsidiary (Audi’s version of AMG or BMW M).

Makes perfect sense for Audi to leverage more from their extensive motorsport activities by their factory WEC, GT, and DTM squads, as well as numerous customer teams and Audi Sport TT Cup program. As much as I liked the use of quattro GmbH as their ‘RS’ skunkworks, ‘quattro’ as a brand does have legacy motorsport and production car issues to overcome, had it been used as Audi’s equivalent ‘BMW M’ or ‘AMG’ division.

• review
• video

evo’s Jethro Bovingdon reacquaints himself with Ferrari’s benchmark 458 Speciale and F40 before heading to Italy to take a first taste of the new twin-turbo 488 GTB.

• review
• video

Another take on the Ferrari 488 GTB, this time with Autocar’s Matt Prior.

Similar drill: give it a good belting around Fiorano, then punch it sideways out of every decent hairpin bend in the hills above Modena.

• review
• video

Spend 18 minutes with Chris Harris as he wrings the neck of Ferrari’s new twin-turbo 670 hp 488 GTB on track at Fiorano and then on the road up in the hills around Modena.

• motorsport
• news

Peter McKay for Wheels Magazine:

The surprise move to purchase the rights to promote and run the 12 Hour certainly triggered a tsunami of comment in the grown-up media as well as the usual gossip – much of it ill-informed and hysterical – on blogs, Twitter and Facebook.

In some quarters, the bold act by V8 Supercars – the same rival category that earlier this year blocked its drivers from competing in the Bathurst 12 Hour – could be interpreted as being bad for the future of that enduro.

Some even suggested the V8s only wanted it to kill off a rising threat, a race with real momentum and one that in recent years has been emerging as an increasingly popular and significant event internationally.

Not so. V8 Supercars Australia (using owner Archer Capital’s money) wanted the 12 Hour for many fascinating reasons – mostly very positive for V8SA and some potentially beneficial for the race.

Let’s hope he’s right on this one.

• marques

To celebrate Honda’s 700th motorcycle Grand Prix victory last Sunday, Motor Sport Magazine have taken a look back to where it all began: the 1959 Isle of Man TT.

Honda’s nine staff – including five riders, who did double duty as mechanics – flew to the Isle of Man from Tokyo, via Hong Kong, Bangkok, Calcutta, Karachi, Beirut, Frankfurt and London. They flew most of the way in a BOAC Comet, the world’s first commercial jetliner.

During the previous months they had spent their time learning how to eat with a knife and fork, how to wear a suit and tie, instead of traditional Japanese dress, and also mourning the death of a team-mate, who had died while doing stunts for a Japanese biker movie. All these men were members of the Honda Speed Club, a gang of keen young Honda employees who raced and did movie stunts on Hondas.

• collections
• video

A long update on the multitude of projects on the go—and being planned—at Jay Leno’s Big Dog Garage.

Don’t miss the previous installment from earlier in the year.

• for sale
• video

A short video of the 1983 24 Hours of Le Mans winning Porsche 956-003 that Gooding & Company have on the block at this weekend’s Pebble Beach auctions.

The illustrious racing career of 956-003 started at the 1982 24 Hours of Le Mans when driven by Jochen Mass and Vern Schuppan. It placed second overall as part of a Porsche sweep of the top three positions. After that fantastic initial result, this 956 went on to win the next four races in which it was entered and was piloted by the best drivers of the era including Jacky Ickx, Jochen Mass, and Derek Bell. In 1983, 956-003 was again pressed into duty as one of three cars entered by the Porsche factory team for the 24 Hours of Le Mans. After 24 hours of grueling competition, 956-003, with Al Holbert aboard, crossed the finish line in first place, 63 seconds ahead of 956-001 and Bell in one of the most thrilling finishes in Le Mans history. With its exclusive works car status, longtail Le Mans bodywork, iconic Rothmans livery, and exceptional competition record, 956-003 must be considered among the most significant Porsche racing cars, and thus, one of the finest competition cars built since WWII.

Don’t miss Goodman & Company’s even more detailed write-up and provenance statement.

Bidding range estimate US $7,000,000–$9,000,000.

UPDATE: Sold for US$10,120,000 (source)

• motorsport
• video

Short video of Jeff Zwart’s campaign, behind the wheel of his trusty Porsche 997 GT3 Cup Turbo.

Good enough for 1st in his class and 4th overall behind only an open wheeler and two very specialised electric machines.