Racing and Competition

An extreme McLaren GT racing car is today confirmed as an exclusive choice for gamers in the hugely anticipated PlayStation 4 title, Gran Turismo Sport, which will be available starting October 17, 2017. The McLaren Ultimate Vision Gran Turismo was designed in response to a call from game creator, Kazunori Yamauchi, for vehicle manufacturers to design ‘visionary GT cars’ to compete in Gran Turismo Sport. While not a prototype for any future McLaren model, the Ultimate Vision Gran Turismo showcases the kind of car that McLaren could produce beyond 2030. Players will be able to choose from three liveries: Performance, Ulterior and Noir.

Aston Martin Racing has triumphed in Texas, as Paul Dalla Lana (C), Pedro Lamy (P) and Mathias Lauda (A) took GTE Am victory in the Six Hours of Circuit of The Americas. After taking pole position yesterday, their second win of the 2017 season ensured the trio both maximised their points haul for the weekend and regained the lead in both the team and drivers GT Am championships.

Jaguar Land Rover has unveiled the Jaguar I-PACE race car that will compete in a pioneering single-make series supporting the FIA Formula E world championship. The electric racer is based on the Jaguar I-PACE – the world’s first premium, performance, all-electric SUV that launches next year and is already a hit with customers around the globe placing their deposits. The new Jaguar I-PACE eTROPHY series will join the Formula E circuit in 2018.

Renault Sport Racing and McLaren Racing are pleased to announce they have agreed on an engine supply partnership for the 2018, 2019 and 2020 seasons. The deal will see Renault Sport Racing supply McLaren with Formula 1 power units, while also establishing a close working relationship with McLaren’s engineers and technicians. Despite a combined Formula 1 presence that stretches back to 1977 (McLaren Racing has contested 814 GPs; Renault 591 in its role as an engine manufacturer), this will mark the first time that the two brands have ever collaborated.

Porter Press is delighted to announce the release of their latest ‘Great Cars’ book, number 10 in the series, Lotus 18 – the autobiography of Stirling Moss’s ‘912’. This lavish book tells the story of the car in which Stirling Moss achieved two of his most famous Grand Prix victories. The first World Championship race of the 1½-litre Formula 1 era introduced for 1961 was the Monaco Grand Prix and Ferrari’s powerful new ‘shark-nose’ cars were expected to dominate it, but Moss used all his craft and guile to take a celebrated win in his Lotus 18.

The FIA World Endurance Championship is ready for action in the Wild West; as the 6 Hours of Circuit of The Americas is set to take place this weekend in Austin, Texas. After winning last time out in Mexico with the #95 V8 Vantage GTE, Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorensen will be hoping to continue that run of form this week and repeat last year’s victory in Austin; a result that catapulted their 2016 championship bid.

GKN has agreed to a multi-year partnership with Panasonic Jaguar Racing, which will see the global engineering group provide design, manufacturing and consultancy services to the Formula E team. The official partnership was announced at the Frankfurt Motor Show, in advance of the 2017/18 FIA Formula E championship that commences in Hong Kong on 2 December, and continues GKN’s longstanding relationship with Jaguar.

After becoming the first premium manufacturer to enter Formula E in 2016, Jaguar has created eTROPHY, the world’s first production battery electric vehicle race series. The Jaguar I-PACE eTROPHY will be the support series for the FIA Formula E championship, taking place on the same weekends at the same city circuits, starting in late 2018.

The BMW Group has chosen the IAA Cars 2017 show in Frankfurt to present the modern racing essence of a MINI – in the shape of the MINI John Cooper Works GP Concept. Inspired by the carmaker’s legendary triumphs in the Monte Carlo Rally exactly 50 years ago, this design study embodies undiluted dynamic flair and the ultimate in driving fun – on both the race track and the road. The concept car picks up the baton from the 2012 MINI John Cooper Works GP and 2006 MINI Cooper S with John Cooper Works GP Kit. Produced in strictly limited numbers (2,000 examples each), these two models explored the outer limits of their performance capability at the time. The MINI John Cooper Works GP Concept is all about the unfettered feeling of driving and levels of performance found in motor […]

Aston Martin Racing is ready to kick off the second half of the 2017 FIA World Endurance Championship, as the premier racing series touches down in Mexico City. After taking a GTE Pro double podium in 2016 – scoring a victory and third place – Aston Martin Racing will be hoping to claim yet another strong points-haul 12 months on. While the intense heat and 2,250m altitude of the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez challenged both the drivers and V8 Vantage GTE last year, it will be the severe weather and temperamental thunderstorms that will provide the team with a serious test this weekend.

Very sad to hear of the passing of Syd Silverman. Syd was very involved in vintage racing in a number of respects for many years.  He was a strong supporter of the MG Vintage Racers and he raced his MGTC with us a number of times. In fact, his MGTC was the TC that was Carroll Shelby’s first race car.  He was the recipient of SVRA’s “Collier Cup” in 2003.  We will miss him. Syd Silverman was the owner and chairman of Vintage Motorsport from 1990-2012. He was a staunch supporter and participant in the preservation, presentation, and celebration of motorsports and its history for nearly four decades. Syd died of a sudden illness Sunday, Aug. 27 in Boca Raton, Florida. He was 85

Congratulations to all the winners and many thanks to all those competitors who supported AMOC Racing’s third meeting of the season at Brands Hatch on Saturday. The sunshine provided the perfect conditions for five exciting races with the usual high standard of competition. Opening the day’s racing was the Pre-War Team Challenge and with the grid released in a staggered handicap start, Keith Piper’s Aston Martin was flagged away first, with the Bentley of Stuart Morley last to be released 45-seconds later.

Just received notice of a new book by Quentin Spurring title “Le Mans: The Official History 1930-1939” published by Evro Publishing Limited. Officially licensed with the ACO, the organizers of the annual Le Mans 24 Hours race, this beautiful book is the seventh title in this decade-by-decade series and completes coverage of the endurance classic from its very beginning to the end of the 20th century. This title covers the nine races of the 1930s (no race was held in 1936) in which honors were divided between Italian, French and British manufacturers. Each race is exhaustively covered in vivid photographs, an insightful commentary providing more detailed information than has ever been published about the period, and full statistics. It includes great stories such as: The 1930 race Bentley achieved its fourth consecutive success, Woolf Barnato and Glen Kidston the winning […]

Our video this week comes from Petrolicious. The video, Aston Martin DBR1 – A British Racing Rarity, was produced in partnership with RM Sotheby’s. In this six-minute video, they go for a lively ride in one of Britain’s (if not the world’s) most beautiful automobiles. I just can’t beat what they already have to say about this car and experience, so I am just going to hand it over to them.

Panasonic Jaguar Racing brought their debut season in FIA Formula E to a close today in Montréal with both Jaguar I-TYPEs racing hard but ultimately missing out on further points.  Mitch Evans lined up P17 and Adam Carroll P19 after a difficult qualifying session with track temperatures noticeably warmer than yesterday. Following a strong seventh place finish on Saturday for the Kiwi, Mitch battled throughout the race to finish just outside the points in P12. Adam drove a faultless race and brought his Jaguar I-TYPE home in P14 and completed a full set of race finishes for the British driver. Both drivers made up five places during the race despite having to manage their energy carefully over 37 laps.

Burlen Ltd, the world’s only manufacturer of genuine SU (Skinner’s Union), AMAL and Zenith carburetors, is celebrating a hugely successful promotion of the flagship race of the 2017 Brands Hatch Mini Festival. Earlier in July, the Salisbury-based company promoted the Historic Mini Races – named ‘The SU Carburetters Cup for Pre-66 Minis’ – and pulled out all the stops to create an event that will live long in the memory.

Bentley Motorsport has finished in second place in the largest GT3 race in the world, the 24 Hours of Spa, with its #8 Continental GT3 and drivers Maxime Soulet (BE), Andy Soucek (ES) and Vince Abril (MC). With a carefully pre-determined race strategy, the Bentley Team M-Sport crew ran out-of-sync with many of the leading GT3 competitors for most of the race but the long-term gains came to fruition in the final stages of the 24-hour endurance event.

The Bentley Team M-Sport #8 Continental GT3 marked a milestone in Bentley’s history books yesterday as it took the model’s 500th race start at the largest GT3 endurance race in the world, the 24 Hours of Spa. The third chapter of Bentley’s motorsport story began with the unveiling of the first Continental GT3 concept at the Paris Motor Show in 2012, followed by the first public running of the first test car at Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2013. Since then the Continental GT3 has celebrated series and race wins around the globe, with the most recent victories in the past month in Blancpain GT Series at Paul Ricard 1000kms, Pirelli World Challenge at Road America and British GT at Spa Francorchamps.