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All 311 articles posted since 2013, sorted into 17 categories and tagged with a combination of 366 unique keywords.

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Proposed 2021 Formula 1 Power Unit Regulations

Formula 1 and governing body the FIA have laid out proposals for the next generation of F1 power units (PU), with improved noise, reduced cost, and a more level playing field among the key objectives.

More hybrid power using standard components and electronics, more revs, no MGUH, stricter turbo and fuel regs, tighter design paramaters.

A few new manufacturers have been waiting for these, I wonder if the strategy will work or has everyone already jumped across to Formula E?

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Hartley Gets F1 Call-up

Factory Porsche driver, 2015 WEC series champion, and 2017 Le Mans 24 Hours winner Brendon Hartley is set to make his Formula 1 race debut at the upcoming Austin GP, driving for the Toro Rosso squad.

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Jaguar E-Type Reborn

As a follow-on from crafting the ‘lost’ series of E-Type Lightweights, JLR Classic has now turned its attention to producing nut-and-bolt restorations of Jaguar’s iconic Series I E-Type.

The inital batch of 10 ‘Reborn’ cars should set you back an entirely reasonable £285,000.

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Porsche 911 GT2 Smashes Auction Sales Records

A 1995 Porsche 911 GT2 (Type 993), one of 57 road-going examples, finished in ‘Riviera Blue’, being sold as part of the original owner’s collection with just 12,730 km on the clock.

Sold! for an astounding £1,848,000.

Porsche prices have been kooky for a while now but this one is beyond kooky.

The recent London sales by RM Sotherby’s featured a few other stand-out results for desirable Porsches: 1993 Porsche 911 Carrera RS 3.8 got £716,800 and this 1993 Porsche 911 Turbo S Lightweight fetched and equally astonishing £974,400.

Us? We’d have taken home this (relative) bargain 993 RSCS over any of that lot for ‘just’ £403,200.

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Subaru Australia Will Now Sell You a Turnkey WRX STI NR4

As part of a program to support local Group N competitors, Subaru Australia via Possum Bourne Motorsport can now supply FIA-homologated competition cars in three different tiers and any combination of six option packs to suit a range of different series requirements.

Official presser.

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BMW x McLaren Supercar for 2019?

CAR Magazine has the scoop on early talks of a collaboration between BMW and McLaren to develop a proper supercar for the Munich marque.

BMW is developing a mid-engined supercar with a V8 engine – and is in talks with McLaren to put the car into production. CAR can reveal that the top secret flagship is scheduled for a Frankfurt show unveiling in exactly two years’ time, if talks with Britain’s supercar specialists are successfully concluded.

Last time these two got together, they made McLaren F1 babies. Good times ahead if this story holds any water.

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TVR Reborn and Sold Out

Steve Cropley for Autocar reports on TVR’s plans for a return to production:

Returning after an absence of nearly 10 years, the new TVR has been designed by engineering guru Gordon Murray and will be powered by a unique, hugely powerful Cosworth V8 engine and backed by an ambitious and well-funded ownership team.

The iconic sports car marque’s backers have already spelled out the first details of a 10-year plan that will put at least four new TVRs on the road from 2017.

Selling out the first year’s production certainly sounds promising. Great to see some Gordon Murray Design iStream tech being used also.

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Volkswagen Emissions Scandal Roundup

Autocar have posted an excellent writeup of the circumstances and background to the sensational emissions cheating allegations brought forward against Volkswagen in the last few days.

It takes something truly spectacular to have Always Garaged reporting current news events.

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Vale: The V8 Sedan

According to CarsGuide, it’s the end of the line for the classic V8 sedan in Australia:

Aussie V8 fans will have to get used to four-cylinder and V6 power for their future performance sedans, the Asia-Pacific boss of General Motors Stefan Jacoby has confirmed what has long been feared.

The Holden V8 will die once manufacturing comes to an end at Holden’s factory in Elizabeth in South Australia at the end of 2017.

In an interview with Australian media at the Frankfurt motor show overnight, Mr Jacoby said: “The world obviously is changing and the V8 period is coming to an end.”

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Pininfarina to Mahindra?

Hot on the heals of the Bertone auction, another Italian design house appears likely to change hands shortly, with Indian manufacturer Mahindra said to be close to acquiring Pininfarina:

The takeover of Turin-based Pininfarina, the creator of the Ferrari 458 Spider roadster, marks a move by Mahindra to add flair following its acquisitions of South Korean carmaker Ssangyong and the scooter unit of French auto manufacturer PSA Peugeot Citroen. The designer already cooperates with Mumbai- based Mahindra on SUV development and worked with it on the TUV300 compact SUV, which the company introduce later this week.

Pininfarina has been unprofitable for 10 of the past 11 years while struggling with debt. It shut a floundering division that built cars for other manufacturers three years ago. Chairman Paolo Pininfarina, a grandson of the company’s founder, said on April 22 that a new investor will provide “financial solidity and bolster growth in coming years.”

via Road and Track

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Mark Webber Takes Delivery of His Personal 918 Spyder

A short news item from Porsche celebrating the delivery of Mark Webber’s personal 918 Spyder, just in time for his 39th birthday on 27th August 2015.

Webber’s car, chassis #605/918, features the iconic ‘Salzberg Racing’ livery worn by the 1970 24 Hours of Le Mans winning 917K. Standard in the lightweight ‘Weissach Pack’ fitted to this car is a full-body wrap which would otherwise contribute 2.3 kg of the total 41 kg stripped out of the standard car. Interestingly Mark’s opted to forgo that saving by having one of the available wrap schemes painted on his car instead.

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First Look: Peugeot 308 Racing Cup

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!

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Audi Piloting 'Audi Sport' Branding in Australia

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.

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Why V8 Supercars Had to Buy the Bathurst 12 Hour

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.

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BMW Z4 GT3 gets a winning send off at Spa-Francorchamps

Marc VDS Racing Team gives the BMW Z4 GT3 the ultimate retirement present by winning the grueling 24 Hours of Spa.

BMW are set to replace the Z4 with an all new 6er based GT3 contender for the 2016 season.

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The last Porsche 918 Spyder has been built

After 21 months of production, the 918th and last Porsche 918 Spyder has been built.

The 918 Spyder was systematically developed to be a performance hybrid with plug-in technology. The hybrid super sports concept car made its debut at the 2010 Geneva International Motor Show where it met with overwhelming approval. In the summer of 2010, the Supervisory Board of Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG gave the green light for its production development. When the car was launched on the market in late 2013, the 918 Spyder represented a continuation of a series of super sports cars in Porsche history. As technology pioneers they were, without exception, among the ultimate sports cars of their respective decades: the 904 Carrera GTS, the 959, the 911 GT1 and the Carrera GT.

Future classic?

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Porsche goes one-two at Le Mans

Porsche took its first overall victory in the Le Mans 24 Hours since 1998, with Formula 1 driver Nico Hulkenberg, Nick Tandy and Earl Bamber leading a one-two.

The #19 919 Hybrid moved to prominence through the night, with stints from Hulkenberg and Tandy hauling it back into contention after it lost some ground during an early safety car period.

Bamber then picked up the mantle in the early hours of the morning, and as Sunday progressed any threat from Audi behind crumbled as all three of its cars required unscheduled pitstops.

All that was left after that was for Porsche to nurse its #19 and #17 home to a one-two finish, including taking care during a light rainshower in the final 10 minutes.

Porsche’s 17th outright victory at Le Mans, and a class act.

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Porsche on pole at Le Mans 2015

It can’t get much better for Porsche at Le Mans, taking the first three grid positions for today’s race. The trio of turbo/hybrid V4 919’s have shown incredible pace during each qualifying session, hopefully this pace is also reliable enough to be sustained over the full race distance.

To put their relative speed into perspective:

It is the fastest pole lap set at Le Mans since the introduction of the chicanes on the Mulsanne Straight, and the sixth fastest in history in terms of laptime regardless of configuration.

It is also the first Porsche to take pole at Le Mans since Michele Alboreto in the Joest WSC 95 in 1997.

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Ford set to announce their return to Le Mans

Strong rumours suggest that Ford will shortly announce thir return to factory sportscar racing in 2016 with a GTE-spec version of their 2015 Ford GT concept car.

According to Autosport:

Ford’s return to Le Mans has been timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the first of its four consecutive victories in the 24 Hours from 1966.

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Ford quits V8 Supercars from 2016

Bob Graziano, President and CEO of FoMoCo of Australia, sends the word via an internal email, as scooped by Speedcafe.com:

As we continue to transform our business, we would like to share with you news that will break soon on decisions we are making to ensure a bright future for Ford Australia.

This afternoon, we will announce we will provide support to teams racing Ford Falcons in the 2015 V8 Supercars series but will not renew our sponsorships after the 2015 season.

We are electing to invest our funds to continue expanding and refreshing our product lineup while delivering a leading consumer experience.

At least now there’s no uncertainty.

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Penske confirms 2015 V8 Supercars entry

SpeedCafe reports:

American giant Team Penske has confirmed it will join the 2015 V8 Supercars Championship with Marcos Ambrose in partnership with legendary outfit Dick Johnson Racing.

Ford, Dick Johnson Racing, Marcos Ambrose driving #17, and Team Penske. What could possibly go wrong?

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First look at Jaguar Special Operation's 'new' E-Type Lightweight

“The development of the body-in-white tooling was undertaken by the same department that builds all Jaguar Land Rover prototype vehicles, so the expertise applied to the project was world-class. The build process and assembly procedures were initially proved out on Car Zero; this is effectively an engineering prototype and will not carry one of the six Lightweight chassis numbers.”

Incredible attention to detail.

‘Car Zero’ is to be shown at the upcoming Pebble Beach Automotive weekend.

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Nissan signals intent to join WEC LM P1 ranks in 2015

Nissan wants to join the big boys:

Nissan will unleash the GT-R and go head-to-head with Audi, Porsche and Toyota at Le Mans in 2015. The Japanese manufacturer will also contest the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship with a full factory effort of two LM P1 cars.

We just hope they’re not spreading their marketing budget too thin: Formula 1, LM P2, GT3, Garage 56, GT Academy, the Olympics, Champions League football, and now WEC with an LM P1.

Something’s got to give.

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The Lightweight E-type Is Reborn

A fascinating project by the new JLR Special Operations department:

Jaguar is to build six brand new ‘Lightweight’ E-types - the ‘missing’ six Lightweights that were never built from the intended 18-car series.

You can’t get much more special than this.

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Audi wins dramatic Le Mans

Motorsport Magazine reports:

Audi scored its 13th victory in 15 attempts at the Le Mans 24 Hours, and Andre Lotterer, Benoit Treluyer and Marcel Fassler their third in four years, but only after one of the most dramatic races in the grand euduro’s long history.

What a race! The last few hours had us on the edge of our seats. Porsche #20 was looking like an outside chance with just two hours to go, until engine issues put paid to a fairy tale return to La Sarthe.

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Porsche Formula 1 rumours gaining traction

AUSmotive reports on swirling rumours of an engine deal with RedBull Racing from 2016.

Considering the synergies between the FIA’s new LMP1 sportscar and F1 technical regulations, rumours of this deal might have some legs.

Porsche’s somewhat odd choice of a V4 configuration engine for the 919 now doesn’t seem that odd at all, considering the possibility they may be able to use the same basic architecture to produce a V6 version of the same platform for F1.

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Reports link Michelin to F1 tyre contract bid

Crash.net:

Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport publication reported on Sunday that tyre manufacturer Michelin is close to making a formal announcement that it will enter the next tendering process for the supply contract.

A week’s been and gone and still no announcement. Has the silly season started early?

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Aston Martin In Technical Partnership With Mercedes-AMG GmbH

Ian Minards, Aston Martin Product Development Director:

“Working with Mercedes-AMG in this way while, of course, remaining independent and preserving the unique character and style of Aston Martin that has been the mainstay of the company throughout its 100-year history, points to a very bright future for the company as it starts its second century in business.”

So thumping AMG V8 and V12 engines in next-gen Astons? Looks like someone’s birthday wish came true.

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Return of the Nissan GT-R to Mount Panorama for the 2014 Bathurst 12 hour

Nissan Motorsport Australia:

“Mount Panorama is one of the world’s iconic racing circuits and the Nissan GT-R has incredible history there. We are pleased to be at Bathurst with Nissan Motorsport in V8 Supercars this October, and then again with the Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 next February for the Bathurst 12 Hour.”

Crack “Nismo Athlete Global Team” GT3 squad fielding drivers from their newly announced “Nismo Global Driver Exchange” program which includes winners of Nissan’s GT Academy virtual-to-real world racing competition.

The B12hr just gets better and better.

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Daniel Ricciardo joins Red Bull for Silverstone F1 test

Edd Straw reporting for Autosport:

He is known to be highly-rated by the crew that ran him for Red Bull in the young driver tests in 2009 and 2010 and a strong performance at Silverstone could be decisive in whether he lands a race seat for next year.

Sounds good to us.

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Onboard video of Sebastien Loeb's record-breaking run at Pikes Peak

Tom Bellingham for Red Bull International:

Many expected something special from nine-time WRC champion Sebastien Loeb as he took part in the 91st running of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb yesterday (30 June), but not many predicted him to completely obliterate the record.

The Frenchman clocked an incredible time of 8m13.878s, becoming the first driver ever to do a sub nine-minute time and beating the previous Pikes Peak record by over a minute and a half.

A minute and a half. A minute and a half…

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Le Mans 24 Hours: Kristensen, McNish, Duval clinch Audi victory

Autosport:

Tom Kristensen, Allan McNish and Loic Duval took a commanding victory in a Le Mans 24 Hours that was overshadowed by the death of Danish driver Allan Simonsen early in the race.

An epic race, sadly to be remembered for the wrong reasons. RIP Allan Simonsen.

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Volvo joins V8 Supercars

Matt Braid, Volvo Car Australia Managing Director:

“Volvo has a rich motorsport heritage in this country, including winning Australia’s most famous race, Bathurst, 15 years ago this coming October.

As the first luxury car brand to enter a factory team in the V8 Supercars Championship, we’re determined to add to this heritage, while strengthening the presence of the S60 model line and the Volvo brand here in Australia.”

A two-car team fielded by Garry Rogers Motorsport from 2014 onwards with support from Volvo’s global motorsports partner, Polestar, and the backing of Volvo Car Australia. Early reports indicate the team will use a Polestar-led development of the Yamaha B8444S V8 usually found in XC90 or S80 models.

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Vettel extends deal with Red Bull until 2015

But only by one additional year, to which Joe Saward speculates:

“It is fairly clear that by agreeing to a one year deal Vettel is positioning himself to be available for Ferrari if Fernando Alonso does not extend his deal; or to go to Mercedes when Lewis Hamilton’s contract is up.”

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