According to Motorsport.com, that might be a possibility. If so, Porsche is considering the new LMDh class, that supposedly should start in 2021. Nobody knows much about this new class, but basically it will allow the same car to compete both in WEC and IMSA races. Everything is on hold right now because of the pandemic, but if Porsche is actually thinking about it, maybe there’s hope for the future of endurance racing.
What can I say? This was a given 😷. According to WEC’s website the race will occur on September 19th and 20th. I think it’s pretty logical to assume that by June the COVID-19 epidemic will be dying down, but it will take longer for the world to get back to normal again. So September is probably a safe bet.
All motorsports enthusiasts (like yours truly) moan that regulatory bodies are always castrating the sport. And if it wasn’t for racing bodies, motorsports would be more fun 🙄. Well, once (just once) FIA said what the hey and essentially pulled all the stops. That’s basically how Group B came to be, and tragically, it was too much.
The video above succinctly explains what happened.
An interesting look on how the Daytona Coupe, in the hands of Bob Bondurant, won the World Manufacturers’ GT Championship in 1965. Until seeing this I wasn’t aware of the all the team drama that happened that year.
Earlier this week we heard that Aston Martin is pulling out of the new Hypercar class, and therefore the Valkyrie project was put on hold (canceled?). So far only Toyota has what looks to be a “working project”, but nothing yet from McLaren, Peugeot or Glickenhause. Well, the later, on Tweeter, said they do have something in the oven. We’re almost in March now, and Le Mans is in June, so with all that (lack of) news I’m worried.
Jalopnik has a much better story on this. And unfortunately, it’s a troublesome read.
Honestly, I’m amazed it still hasn’t been banned yet. No guardrails, no braking markers, not many turn indicators, nothing. And of course, to the side of the road there’s a precipice. If that isn’t enough, take into consideration that cars manage all that at around 220 km/h. Oh, and close to the top, the air becomes a LOT thinner, so in theory you should take an oxygen bottle.
Bonkers, to say the least 😲.
I’m half way through this book, and I can’t recommend it more. Very nicely written, with tons of info specially about the back-stages of what happened in Maranello. I always knew Enzo Ferrari was kind of an a-hole, but in reality, the man was a grade A+ summa com laude a-hole. Still, the best thing about the book in my opinion is to see how absolutely brutal GP and F1 racing was back then.
Even if you are not a ferrarista, this is a very interesting read for the gearhead and race fan in general.
According to Road & Track, this weekend both race bodies announced that from 2021 onward Le Mans and Daytona will be raced with the same rules. That is huge, since it means that the same car will now be able to compete at Daytona and La Sarthe, an immense incentive to race car manufacturers. Starting in 2021, Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO) and the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) agreed on a new class, called Le Mans Daytona h (LMDh). There will also be LMP2 and Hypercars, and both classes will be legal in both series.
Everything is all official, so this means that starting next year things will be very interesting for Le Mans. And by that I mean more manufacturers, ergo, more variety and cool cars 🤞.
In the 90s, with everybody trying their hand at GT1 racing, Lamborghini didn’t want to miss the fun. So despite basically ZERO racing experience, they contracted French Signes Advanced Technology to build them a race car. Based on the lines of the current Diablo, they came up with the Lamborghini 132 GT1.
With a specially designed 6-liter engine delivering around 655 hp, they built one road-going example. And even got it homologated by the FIA in April of 1998. However, in September Audi bought Lamborghini and the program stopped right there.
And that was that, no Diablo at La Sarthe. What a shame! I for one would love to have a racing Raging Bull in the W-143 Garage.
1969 Porsche 917 Pilots: J. Siffert, K. Ahrens Team: Karl Freiherr v. Wendt Race: 1st overall (S5.0) at Zeltweg in 1969 Spark - MAP 02043119 (resin)
Review HERE
