Late this week Petrolicius uploaded a delightful article about the 1976 Japanese Grand Prix. Full of fantastic shots of the race and backstage, it captures very well the huge drama that occurred. The Japanese GP was the last race of the season, and both Niki Lauda and James Hunt had a solid shot at the title. However, Mother Nature played an important role, that meant victory for one and defeat for the other.
Click on the link above for the full article and photos.
Yes, a Concours d’Elegance on the top of a building. In New York city. Definitively not a setting that you would expect for a Concours d’Elegance, but très cool nonetheless. Mingling classic cars with modern fashion and a rock show proved to be a winning formula. It happened on October 5th, and was such a success that the 2020 event is already confirmed.
More info and photos at the NYC Concours page.
You HAVE TO stop at the Museo Ferrari, at Maranello. From the web site:
The Ferrari Museum in Maranello invites visitors to live the Prancing Horse dream first-hand. It offers a unique and enthralling voyage of discovery, a story told through cars that have made automotive history on streets and circuits the world over.
The coolest part, of course, is to see the cars. Right now the current exhibition is called “90 Years”, celebrating Ferrari’s 90th anniversary in 2019. With that, you can see from the Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Spider of 1932 to the Laferrari. So without a doubt there will be LOTS to see for the petrolheads. And to drool for.
Earlier this year Aston Martin announced that they would produce the new DBS GT Zagato. This week they showed the car. Ice cool³ and all, but you would have to also buy the DB4 Zagato Continuation with it. Aston will build 19 sets of the cars, and you can’t have one without the other. Not counting the garage space, you will also have to come up with £6 million.
No mention about colors yet. So do I have to have them both in the same color?
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.
This Sunday passed away Ferdinand Karl Piëch, grandson of Ferdinand Porsche. A controversial figure in the motorsport industry, Ferdinand Piëch was at the helm of Volkswagen and Audi for many years. He is credited for saving VW from bankruptcy in the early 90’s and transforming Audi in a premium brand.
But to me, though, he will always be remembered as the father of the Porsche 917.
Ferdinand Karl Piëch
*04/17/1937
+08/25/2019
In theory nobody should know about this car yet, but well, it sucks to keep secrets with the interweb… This is the Bugatti Centodieci, Bugatti’s new hypercar that is a homage to the venerable EB110.
The new car was going to debut this weekend, but since yesterday images have been doing the rounds on the web. It’s heavily based on the Chiron, but with a very different body. The engine is also the same W16 engine, but upgraded to deliver 1550 ponies (because 1500 is too few, right?).
I’m a big fan of Bugatti and the EB110, and I liked the Centodieci. A lot, in fact. Now let’s hope it also gets released in 1:43rd.
