Racing and Competition

The E-type Club’s ROUND BRITAIN COASTAL DRIVE, supporting Prostate Cancer UK is really gathering momentum. Over 100 Jaguar E-types have already booked for one or more of the 18 daily stages around the coastal roads of Great Britain. One of those is Formula 1 legend Ross Brawn who masterminded Michael Schumacher’s seven World Championships. Brawn has a fantastic collection of cars, reflecting his time with Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz and Jaguar, including a pair of stunning E-types.

Our video this week is of a rarely heard of, and even less seen, Mini-based beast, the Unipower GT. Not a kit, but a true production sports car in the vein of TVR and Marcos. To quote Wikipedia, because I honestly didn’t know much about the cars… The Unipower GT was a British specialist sports car first shown at the January 1966 Racing Car Show, and produced by truck maker Universal Power Drives Ltd in Perivale, Middlesex and later by U.W.F. Automotive in London until production ceased in early 1970, by which time around 71 cars are believed to have been made, including about 15 built by U.W.F. Originally the brainchild of Ernie Unger and Attila sports racing car designer Val Dare Bryan in the early 1960s the design of Unipower GT was actually said to have been penned by […]

Aston Martin Racing has achieved double podium success at the 6 Hours of Nürburgring, taking victory in the GTE Am class and 3rd in GTE Pro. With conditions remaining dry throughout the fourth round of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), the trio of Paul Dalla Lana (C), Pedro Lamy (P) and Mathias Lauda (A) drove a faultless race to bring their V8 Vantage GTE home in 1st.

A host of competitors past and present, race organisers and sponsors gathered on Wednesday night in the company of Sir Stirling and Lady Moss at the Royal Automobile Club in Pall Mall to celebrate the 10thanniversary of the Royal Automobile Club Woodcote Trophy race series. Launched in 2006, the Royal Automobile Club and Motor Racing Legends conceived a race series for genuine, pre-1956 sports-racers, to be called the Royal Automobile Club Woodcote Trophy. 10 years on – this highly respected race series is still going strong.

For the first time in more than 30 years, three giant-killing MG Metro Turbos will take to the track at the Silverstone Classic later this month (29-31 July). Adding to the sense of history, the evocative, three-pronged attack is being masterminded by touring car hero Patrick Watts, who himself will race one of the trio of pocket rockets in the Historic Touring Car Challenge at the Classic on Tin Top Sunday. The ever-effervescent Watts, now 59, has a special relationship with these cars having been an integral part of the ARG (Austin Rover Group) factory team back in the early eighties. Such is his indefatigable passion that he has spent the past few years tracking down and restoring three of the five esteemed racers originally built in period.

A tiny British electric vehicle from the 1970s has become the world’s quickest street legal EV in the hands of motoring journalist and serial car modifier Jonny Smith. The Enfield 8000, a forgotten city car built on the Isle of Wight in the oil crisis era, stormed through the quarter mile sprint at Santa Pod on Saturday in a record-smashing 9.86 seconds at an average 121mph. Originally boasting just 8hp, the car dubbed the Flux Capacitor now packs more than 800bhp, 1,200lbft of torque and quietly rockets to 113mph in six seconds.

The unique 1966 Jaguar XJ13, conceived to continue Jaguar’s winning ways at the Le Mans 24 Hours, will finally make its debut at the legendary Circuit de la Sarthe, 50 years later. A victim of timing and changing regulations, the XJ13 never raced in period despite its incredible pace, so the car’s entry at Le Mans Classic this weekend marks the fitting conclusion to one of Jaguar’s greatest historic cars, on its 50th anniversary. With a beautiful and now iconic lightweight aerodynamic body penned by Malcolm Sayer – the man behind Le Mans legends like the C-Type and D-Type – and a mid-mounted 5.0-litre V12 engine, the XJ13 had all the ingredients for Le Mans success. Indeed, it set an unofficial closed lap record at Silverstone in 1967 with David Hobbs at the wheel, which stood until the McLaren F1 […]

The only Jaguar XK140 FHC to race in the 24 hours of Le Mans in 1956, and was erroneously black flagged, returns to the famous circuit 60 years later for a rematch at Le Mans Classic this weekend. This XK140 was privately entered into the race and driven by Roger Walshaw and Peter Bolton in 1956, but it was erroneously disqualified while running in 11th place with 206 laps. The car, which was recently restored and race prepared by world-leading restorers and Jaguar specialists Classic Motor Cars of Bridgnorth (CMC), is being taken back by its current owner Mr. Peter Neumark. It will be competing in the Grid 2 class for cars manufactured between 1949 and 1956 and also in the Jaguar Classic Challenge. “The opportunity to restore the only Jaguar XK140 to race in the 24hs of Le Mans […]

Jaguar Classic today announced that the hotly-anticipated continuation Jaguar XKSS will receive its world debut presentation in November this year in California, North America. The presentation will coincide with the opening of the Los Angeles Auto Show. Production of the ultra-exclusive continuation Jaguar XKSS will be limited to just nine examples, hand-crafted by Jaguar Classic expert technicians and manufactured to the exact same specification as those produced in 1957.

Aston Martin and Red Bull Racing are today revealing their ground-breaking hypercar; codenamed AM-RB 001. The product of a unique Innovation Partnership between the British luxury brand and eminent F1TM team, this ambitious, uncompromising and wholly extraordinary collaboration combines the vision and skills of two world-leading brands to create a road car the like of which has never been seen before. The three men charged with realising this shared vision are Adrian Newey, Red Bull Racing’s Chief Technical Officer and the world’s most successful F1TM designer, Marek Reichman, Aston Martin EVP and Chief Creative Officer and David King, VP and Chief Special Operations Officer. Together they spearhead a formidable alliance. One that combines more than a hundred years of specialism – both with heritage, making some of the world’s most beautiful and charismatic GT cars, and with technological brilliance and […]

Aston Martin is celebrating another fabulous Festival of Speed after four days at glorious Goodwood, where a sell-out crowd witnessed the very best that the luxury British sports car brand has to offer. Billed as the world’s largest automotive garden party, the Goodwood Festival of Speed began in 1993 in the grounds of Goodwood House in West Sussex and has since become the automotive highlight of the British summer season.

Aston Martin Racing came away from the 84th running of the Le Mans 24 Hours leading the FIA World Endurance Championship GT Manufacturer’s title. After running a near-faultless race, both the #95 and #97 GTE Pro entries finished in fifth and sixth place respectively. With the team focused on ensuring a safe and steady pace throughout the early stages of the race and throughout the night, each of the entries were tasked to make progress at dawn. The #95 Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GTE, driven by Nicki Thiim (DN), Marco Sørensen (DN) and Darren Turner (GB) finished fifth, having given a spirited fight to its rivals and stayed in podium contention through the night. However, the cruel nature of Le Mans struck as Turner suffered a right rear puncture in the 20th hour, caused by debris on track. Turner said following […]

In 1960, Colin Chapman sought to identify the most straightforward and uncomplicated way of building a Formula 1 car. The result was his first rear-engined design, the trendsetting Lotus 18. Lotus 18 – Colin Chapman’s U-turn by Mark Whitelock, the new book from Veloce Publishing, charts the 18’s competition history, from its inception, up to 1966 – via sensational victories over Ferrari at Monaco and the Nürburgring. Colin Chapman’s previous attempts at producing a Formula 1 car had been a complete disappointment. Despite being technically advanced, extreme lightness led to numerous structural failures. In 1960, Chapman decided to start with a clean sheet of paper, assessing the basic requirements for a contemporary Formula 1 car, and identifying how to achieve them in the most straightforward, uncomplicated way. The result was one of Chapman’s greatest creations – the Lotus 18 – a […]

Bentley Motors returns to Goodwood Festival of Speed 2016 with a trio of powerful and luxurious UK debuts. The award-winning Bentayga SUV and new Flying Spur V8 S sedan will demonstrate their performance credentials on the Goodwood hill-climb, while both models will also be displayed on the Bentley stand alongside the new Continental GT Speed – the fastest production Bentley ever.

McLaren Automotive will return to the Goodwood Festival of Speed this summer celebrating race wins and titles spanning more than five decades. McLaren will honour the drivers and championships where the team has claimed the top step of the podium, in the ultimate expression of ‘Full Throttle – The Endless Pursuit of Power’. McLaren House will once again return to the lawns of the Goodwood Estate, with iconic racers displayed alongside the full range of modern-day McLaren models in the Sports Series, Super Series and Ultimate Series. The broad selection of models, spanning more than 50 years of the McLaren name, will be the most extensive display of McLaren models ever showcased, including the new 570GT. As in previous years, McLaren will also be present in the Supercar Paddock with models from each of the three tier range. The recently announced […]

This year’s Peking to Paris Motor Challenge, billed as the world’s toughest endurance rally for classic and vintage cars, will feature a Mini for the first time in the event’s history. Concerned for the Packard, Paul contacted Owen Turner from the Rover Centre whom he had met on last year’s Sahara Challenge, for some advice and seeing just how much work still needed to be done on the old American car, advised against taking it on the grueling 36-day 8,500mile event that journeys through some extremely difficult terrain. Needing a car in a hurry to meet the shipping deadline, the best option was to buy the Mini Owen had prepared for himself for the 2015 Marrakesh event as well as Le Jog. Owen explains: “The Packard needed a lot of work still doing and would not have coped with the […]

Motor racing luminaries came together with industry colleagues and, for the first time, the public, as the Motor Sport Hall of Fame moved away from its regular London ceremony to a day’s celebrations at the Royal Automobile Club’s Woodcote Park clubhouse in Epsom. The oldest motoring club and oldest motor sport magazine in Britain came together to present a motor sport spectacle, which started off with an early afternoon panel discussion on ‘The Great Rivals’ and included nine-time Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen, two-time Le Mans class winner Darren Turner, former Formula 1 driver and team owner Jackie Oliver, five-time Le Mans winner Derek Bell, Isle of Man TT winner and Motor Sport magazine writer Mat Oxley and Motor Sport editor Damien Smith. The panel was hosted by Formula 1 presenter Jennie Gow and covered both the sport’s historic rivalries […]

Bentley Motorsport has out-performed its second-year target for the Nürburgring 24 Hours by finishing well inside the top-ten with a seventh place result by the #38 Continental GT3 of European partner team Bentley Team Abt. The yellow #38 Deutsche Post-liveried Continental GT3 was the highest finishing British entry in the gruelling 24-hour endurance race, and beat all but two manufacturers, including many German marques that consider the 25 km track their home. Drivers Guy Smith (GB), Fabien Hamprecht (DE), Christian Menzel (DE) and Chris Brück (DE) completed 131 laps of the Nürburgring Nordschleife to cross the line ahead of more than 150 cars. “Success at the Nürburgring 24 hours requires at least a three-year plan and we’re pleased that at the end of year two we’re ahead of our target,”commented Bentely’s Director of Motorsport, Brian Gush. “We set out to […]