Category: News

Oh well…

Against all my wishes, Maranello wins again… 🤣 At least it was a privateer (whatever the brand, I’ll always side with the little guy). Nonetheless, a nice race, and contrary to last year, almost no safety car. After the hyperpole I had hopes specially for Cadillac and perhaps, Alpine and BMW. Yet, Cadillac never got close to the lead, just like BMW and Alpine. About Toyota, on the other hand, I was sure they would be up in the front, with Ferrari and Porsche, but they had a very slow race.

Nonetheless, my money was on Ferrari to win again, unless they had their F1 team to manage things in La Sarthe 😂. I didn’t think the 963 had a great chance and I was glad to see the Valkyries finishing the race. In LMP2, my favorite, the ORECA 07 #199 “Spike the Dragon”, finished in third (well, first in LMP2 Pro-Am). For GT3 I was routing for the Iron Dames’ #85, but they finished all the way in the back 😥.

A nice race overall, with not much drama on track. In terms of 1:43rd, I really want the Spike ORECA, BMW’s M Hybrid V8 #20 (beautiful!) and the Dames’ #85. Oh, and possibly Mercedes AMG-GT3 #61.

What do you know? Toyota CAN make cool liveries…

Revealed yesterday, a special livery for La Sarthe this year. It’s not something original or particularly artsy, but a homage to the beautiful TS-020 (GT-One) of 1998. Even so, still MUCH better than the bland, tasteless, weak, flavorless, vapid, insipid, uninspired, flat, dull, mild and savorless current black-red-and-white liveries.

So, is there hope for Toyota? 🤔

Hypercar is getting crowdy…

One more brand for the LMH class: Genesis, from Korea. Yesterday they reveled their GMR-001 hypercar, to race in the WEC starting in 2026. GMR stands for “Genesis Magma Racing”, and Genesis is developing the prototype in a partnership with ORECA. The presentation yesterday showed the prototype without an engine, since that is still in development. Magma Racing seems to be serious about their race intentions: not only do they have a VERY hot-looking car, they also contracted André Lotterer and Pipo Derani for the team. Head over to Jalopnik for more info.

As I kind of expected (predicted?), LMH is becoming the GT1 of the 20s, with everybody wanting to get in. I only hope that the FIA, ACO and manufacturers keep up the enthusiasm for a long time.

And Ferrari does it again!

After a grueling 24 hours, Ferrari comes on top again. However, their victory only defined itself in the last hour or so, with plenty of drama and risks. Like having to pit to get a door closed or finishing the race with basically only fumes left in the tank 😲! A very nice race overall, with Porsche Manthey taking first place in GT3 and United Autosport first in LMP2.

For us collectors, Ferrari wining is not exactly great. Why? Because the only game in town will be $Looksmart$, if you want the overall winner 💀. Even so, we now have a hypercar art car (BMW) to look forward to in 1:43, hopefully from Spark (please!).