Racing and Competition

The highly-anticipated Aston Martin Vulcan will attend the showpiece of the Blancpain Endurance Series, the TOTAL 24 Hours of Spa, this weekend (25 July) and will demonstrate its abilities as the ultimate track-only machine as it completes two flying laps of the world-famous circuit. With its 800-plus bhp powertrain developed in conjunction with Aston Martin Racing, the 7.0-litre V12 Aston Martin Vulcan will be driven by works driver Darren Turner (GB), who has been involved in the design and development of the car from its inception. Turner has more than 20 years experience in developing racing cars and relished the opportunity to put this track-knowledge into Aston Martin’s most extreme sportscar. “It’s been amazing to have been involved in this project from the beginning,” said Turner. “From the conceptual sketches through to working with the designers on driver ergonomics, it […]

The largest field of pre-war race cars ever assembled will compete at the Silverstone Classic this weekend in the inaugural Kidston Trophy – named for legendary Bentley Boy and Le Mans winner, Glen Kidston. Among the 57 competitors will be 12 of the rarest and most valuable Bentleys in the world. This stellar ensemble includes several Bentley 3 Litre models, and a collection of 4½ Litre racers including a legendary Supercharged ‘Blower’. Glen Kidston and Bentley Chairman, Woolf Barnato, famously won the 1930 Le Mans 24-Hour race in the Bentley Speed Six ‘Old Number 1’. This was the second year in succession that the Speed Six had taken the chequered flag and the fourth year in a row that a Bentley was victorious. Richard Charlesworth, Director of Royal Relations & Heritage, said: “For one of Bentley’s most famous characters to […]

Pendine Sands came alive as hundreds of spectators watched a commemorative run of the iconic 350hp Sunbeam, on the 90th anniversary of Sir Malcolm Campbell’s World Land Speed Record of 150mph. The National Motor Museum, Beaulieu, marked the anniversary with a low speed demonstration run in the restored Sunbeam with Sir Malcolm’s grandson Don Wales at the wheel. Don Wales and the Beaulieu team also recreated two iconic pictures from the original run. Don, who is also a Land Speed Record holder, said: “I was thrilled to be given this amazing opportunity to sit at the wheel of my grandfather’s car back at Pendine where he set his record. It was an honour both to follow in his footsteps and to drive this iconic car on such a special occasion. “My grandfather was a remarkable man and for us to […]

Bentley Team M-Sport is on its way to Belgium for the most significant challenge of the 2015 Blancpain Endurance Series – the TOTAL 24 Hours of Spa. As the blue-riband event of the season, the 24-hour marathon rewards the quickest competitors with more points than any other race in the championship – with points for positions at the six, 12 and 24-hour marks. The larger volume of points available means that the contest is the focal point of Bentley’s season, and the team is looking to improve on a difficult race in 2014 when both cars suffered misfortune but still finished P9 and P11 in class. Bentley will race with four Continental GT3 cars – two from Bentley Team M-Sport and a second pair run by the Bentley Team HTP customer outfit. The Bentley Team M-Sport drivers continue, with car […]

Over 400 historic race cars dating from the 1990s back to the 1920s will line up on the grid at Donington Park to compete in a spectacular series of races in the 2016 edition of the Donington Historic Festival, over the Bank Holiday weekend of Saturday, April 30th, Sunday, May 1st and Monday, May 2nd 2016 – a Spring date to look forward to! With its much-admired combination of highly competitive, world-class historic motor racing and an open-access paddock that allows visitors to get up close to that priceless metal, plus tyre-smoking historic rally car demonstrations, historic karts action and hundreds of classic cars on show in the infield, the Donington Historic Festival is a hugely popular fixture in the international historic calendar.

Jaguar’s Project 7 is to return to Shelsley Walsh this Sunday (19th July) as part of The Midland Automobile Club’s Jaguar Celebrations. The Project 7 concept car was filmed at Shelsley Walsh before its unveiling at THE Goodwood Festival Of Speed in 2013. F-TYPE Project 7 is the first Jaguar performance vehicle from Jaguar Land Rover’s Special Operations team, and will be produced in an exclusive, limited-edition run of up to 250 units. Its distinctive roadster body, introduced in concept form in 2014, pays tribute to one of the most famous and iconic racing Jaguars: the three-time Le Mans winning D-type. F-TYPE Project 7’s name pays homage to Jaguar’s seven outright Le Mans wins. The Jaguar F-TYPE Project 7 is not only the most focused derivative of the award-winning F-TYPE range, but is also the fastest and most powerful production […]

JD Classics completed a dominant one-two finish in the Jaguar Heritage Challenge race held at the Brands Hatch Superprix this weekend. The team’s expertly prepared lightweight E-Types, piloted by Chris Ward and John Young, crossed the finish line nearly a minute ahead of the third place car. This was the third round of the Jaguar Heritage Challenge, open to all pre-‘66 Jaguars, the pinnacle of which is the class contested by racing E-Types. JD Classics entered two of its most successful racers: ‘1196 WK’ driven by the team’s in-house racing driver, Chris Ward, and ’61 E’ driven by historic racer John Young. Saturday morning’s qualifying session provided the first glimpse of the JD Classics cars’ pace, with Chris Ward setting successive fastest laps to put ‘1196 WK’ comfortably on pole. The first three cars on the grid were separated by […]

A closely-guarded partnership between Rolls-Royce Motor Cars and a team of budding racers finally broke cover on Sunday. The venerable environs of the Goodwood Motor Circuit did little to intimidate this team of maverick designers, engineers and drivers who produced a highly encouraging performance despite the wet track conditions. The car, a specially engineered electric racer, reached speeds of 8mph as it made short work of a track that has proved the scourge of some of the most revered names in motor racing history. From practice through to the final race, the twin-battery 24 volt power-unit and aero package worked in perfect harmony. The team, an enthusiastic group of 10 and 11 year-olds from The March Church of England Primary School, just 100 metres from the Home of Rolls-Royce on the westerly corner of the Goodwood Estate, were ecstatic with […]

At Sir Stirling’s suggestion, Porter Press have reprinted their most popular Scrapbook on the 60th anniversary of his amazing 1955 year which of course included the Mille Miglia win and first GP victory. The first editions are already going up in price; they have limited it to just 900 second edition copies. The first of a series of Stirling Moss scrapbooks which now includes as separate volumes 1926-54, 1956-60, and 1961, the 1955 Scrapbook evokes memories of the heyday of classic motorsport. Stirling Moss is a national treasure. Arguably the world’s greatest all-round racing driver, he was a hero to several generations of schoolboys and enthusiasts throughout the world. Moss is now so iconic his name is often used as a metaphor for “racing driver” – the name alone invokes mental images of speed, bravado, the jet-set lifestyle and a […]

Car enthusiast and judge on the hit TV series The Great British Bake Off, Paul Hollywood, is set to race in the Jaguar Heritage Challenge at the Brands Hatch Super Prix on 11th and 12th July 2015. Hollywood will race in a stunning XK120 in the third round of the new and exciting racing series that is composed entirely of pre-1966 Jaguar models. Also lining up on the grid will be former Jaguar works driver and 1988 Le Mans winner, Andy Wallace in a MkI Saloon. Competing alongside Paul as part of the Tester Racing team will be current British Dunlop Endurance Championship leader, Calum Lockie, also piloting an XK120.

Specialist insurance broker Footman James has announced the winner of a recent competition. John Thomas, from Llanelli in South Wales won free entry into the recent London to Brighton Run; the prize also included overnight accommodation, parking, dinner as well as a host of commemorative goodies. The event, which took place on Sunday 31 May, was the first year that Footman James had sponsored it; the company has also confirmed it will be sponsoring the 2016 event. The London to Brighton Veteran Car Run has been taking place every November since 1927, commemorating the Emancipation Run of 14 November 1896 which celebrated the passing into law of the Locomotives on the Highway Act – which raised the speed limit for ‘light locomotives’ from 4mph to a heady 14mph and abolished the requirement for these vehicles to be preceded by ‘a […]

The Jaguar F-PACE broke cover today in front of a predicted live audience of one million people as it supported Team Sky on Stage One of the Tour de France in Utrecht. Over two billion more were also estimated to have watched on television or online around the world. Five Team Sky riders – Ian Stannard, Luke Rowe, Peter Kennaugh, Leopold König  and Chris Froome – were supported by the F-PACE during the Grand Depart, providing a pressurised real world test of Jaguar’s first performance crossover. A cutting edge bike rack, designed with an innovative telescopic clamp by Jaguar Land Rover’s Special Vehicle Operations, was developed specifically for the stage and carried two Team Sky’s Pinarello Bolide Time Trial bikes. The F-PACE shed its hard camouflage in public for the first time and instead sported a specially created wrap, hinting […]

The McLaren 650S GT3 continues the strong start to the season with further silverware as McLaren GT customer team FFF Racing Team by ACM claimed outright victory in the GT Asia championship. Former Formula 1 driver Vitantonio Liuzzi (ITA) alongside former series race winner Hiroshi Hamaguchi (JPN) took victory at the Okayama circuit, Japan. The result marks the maiden win for the 650S GT3 in Asia, and the 11th for the Woking built racer in only its first season. The FFF Racing team by ACM is making its debut in the GT Asia championship this season, running three examples of the McLaren 650S GT3. Liuzzi and Hamaguchi are joined in the team by Fu Song Yang (CHN), Andrea Caldarelli (ITA), Jiang Xin (CHN) and Max Wiser (ITA). The double-header race weekend saw FFF Racing team by ACM with strong pace […]

This weekend, Bentley Team Dyson Racing returns to the circuit that kicked off their successful 2014 debut season at the infamous Road America in Elkhart Lake, WI. The weekend will feature a triple-header schedule including a makeup race from last month’s Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix which was cancelled due to inclement weather and safety concerns. The team enters the weekend with optimism and reflection on their first successful first race year which has seen the inclusion of a second Continental GT3 and Bentley’s first victory in North America, as well as multiple podium finishes. Driver of the #20 car, Butch Leitzinger, drove the Continental GT3 in its North American debut at Road America a year ago which resulted in 6th and 4th place finishes. He comments: “Our Bentleys are well-suited to Road America. The Continental GT3 has very good […]

Months of anticipation for Aston Martin enthusiasts around the world are, today, brought to a close with the exciting global dynamic debut of the Aston Martin Vulcan – a track-only supercar and the British luxury brand’s most intense and exhilarating creation to date. Patrons attending today’s session of the 23rd Goodwood Festival of Speed in the grounds of historic Goodwood House, West Sussex, have been treated to a historic occasion of their own – with the first public running of the Aston Martin Vulcan following its unveiling at the Geneva Motor Show earlier this year. The 800-plus bhp, all-carbon fibre, Aston Martin Vulcan today delivered on its promise of truly extreme performance with a series of spine-tingling sprints up the famous hill climb with Aston Martin Racing works’ driver Darren Turner at the wheel. Before its inaugural run, the new […]

The first ever season of the FIA Formula E Championship reaches its conclusion this weekend in London. In the heart of Battersea Park, the double-header will see six drivers fight to become the first Champion of the category. Among the contenders, the two members of the e.dams-Renault team will be going all out not only to win the drivers’ championship but also to secure the Teams’ title for the French outfit. After two years of work and intense racing, the outcome of the very first FIA Formula E Championship is about to be decided. Throughout the last twelve months, the 40 Spark-Renault SRT01_E – the architecture of which is supervised by Renaultsport – have demonstrated their qualities. Reflecting the fairness with which all the competitors have been treated, no fewer than six drivers are still in with a chance of […]

This weekend’s Goodwood Festival of Speed will see a collection of McLaren models, displayed statically at McLaren House, adjacent to the famous Goodwood House, and in the Supercar Paddock prepared by McLaren Special Operations (MSO). The bespoke arm of McLaren Automotive has prepared models from the Sports Series, Super Series and Ultimate Series, the three newly-announced model tiers. Each of these celebrate this year’s Festival of Speed ‘Flat-out and Fearless’ theme, highlighting a milestone or ‘moment’ from the history of McLaren, and honouring some of the legendary drivers who have driven for the team over the years. The Ultimate Series is represented by the McLaren P1™, prepared by MSO, with inspiration drawn from the patriotic French livery of the helmet worn by four-time Formula 1 world champion, Alain Prost. Colour-matched to the famous design, the carbon fibre bodywork of the […]

A selection of iconic racing cars rarely seen on the open market will be available in the competition car-only Silverstone Auctions sale held ahead of the Silverstone Classic on 23 July 2015. For the first time since its conception in 2011, Silverstone Auctions has introduced a stand-alone Competition Car Sale. Due to the unprecedented demand and appeal of historic racing cars and the increased demand of Silverstone Classic, the auction house have introduced a dedicated racing car-only sale on 23 July. The event will complement the two main classic car sales over 24-26* July.