The new Corvette C8.R. It will substitute the current C7.R both in IMSA’s GTLM class and ACO’s LMGTE Pro. At least from here I see a lot of Ferrari in that car (almost can’t see Corvette in there), but the car looks fantastic. And now being a mid-engined beast it will sure spice up the competition.
So as I said in an earlier post, the 2020 WEC season, if nothing else, will look great.
Earlier this year Bentley Motors completed 100 years. And among the commemorative editions of their current cars, they will also release something vintage. And I mean really vintage. Twelve lucky (and wealthy) customers will be owners of a brand new 4½ Litre Team Blower. The cars will be built with “a mixture of cutting-edge technology and traditional construction methods” to make them as close to the original ones as possible. The engine will be a perfect replica of the original 4.4 l inline-4, and of course with the Amherst Villiers Mk IV roots-type supercharger.
The construction of the 12 cars will start later this year, and is expected to take two years for all to be completed. So there’s still time to get the piggy bank out…
Yesterday Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus showed renderings for their new SCG007. The SCG007 is James Glickenhaus’ new car for the Hypercar class of the WEC. Not much has been reveled about the new car, other than it will be powered by a biturbo V6 and that it will not be an hybrid.
Differently from what was expected, SCG’s hypercar is not based on the SCG003, being totally new. The new 007 looks a bit like the 330P4, and has a definite 60’s vibe to it. In principle the new hypercars will be a bit slower than current LMP2 cars, but if they’re all gorgeous like this, who cares?
More photos (renderings) at SCG.
Without a doubt, the 917, in all it’s iterations, is my favorite race car of all times. In my mind it’s intermingled with Le Mans and all things that makes motorsports interesting for me. With that, I’m always looking around for info and shots of the car. And to my delight, Petrolicious has a very nice article with old photos of the 917.
I’m a big fan of Petrolicius, and I do follow their Facebook page, since they’re always showing interesting stuff. But some how I missed this article from last year. Most of those photos I’ve seen before, but a few were totally new to me. So if you want to see some very cool shots of the 917s in 1970 and 1971, click on the link.
Last night WEC announced new “Equivalence of Technology” (EoT) rules for LMP1:
-Weight: The Toyota TS050 HYBRIDS will each carry an additional 14kg compared to the TOTAL 6 Hours of Spa 2019, thus +40kg compared to the car’s minimum regulation weight;
-Fuel tank capacity: The fuel tank capacity will be adjusted to ensure an equal number of laps per stint for both LMP1 H and LMP1 NH for every round including Le Mans;
-Refuelling time: At each pit stop LMP1 H cars will refuel 1 second slower than LMP1 NH cars to compensate for the advantage they have restarting in electric mode;
-Success handicap: A success handicap will be introduced whereby the performance of all cars – hybrid or non-hybrid – will be adjusted before each race to take into consideration points scored in the Championship.
At Lemans.org you can find the whole article. So does that mean that for 202o Toyota will have some serious competition?
It started out as a rumor early this year but some time before Le Mans both ACO and FIA confirmed. We’re really going to have hypercars at La Sarthe and other WEC races! So from 2020 onward, we won’t have LMP1 as the top WEC class. The video above succinctly explains what this new class is about.
I’m really excited about this because this new category kind of reminds me of the glorious Group 5 (“silhouette racing”) era and all the g-o-r-g-e-o-u-s cars that we had.
Watch. NOW!
Today VWs’ ID R did a full lap at Nürburgring in 6:05,336. That’s only slower than Porsche’s 919 Evo ( 5:19,546) and even faster than Stephan Bellof’s 1983 record.
That means I definitively need the ID R in the W-143 Garage… 🙂
