Images

If nothing else, the 20/21 season of WEC will look GOOD

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.

917 in old photos

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.

RIP Ferdinand Piëch

That’s Piëch with chassis #917-001, painted to look like as the 1970 winning 917K #23.

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

Centodieci: the new Bugatti

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.

Equivalence of Technology for 2020

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?

And Toyota does it again!

Car #8 crossed the finish line in 1st, giving Toyota its second overall win. Not that there was much doubt about who would win, but there still was quite a lot of drama in the last hour of the race, between Toyota’s #7 and #8. All because the pit crew changed the WRONG TIRE on (at the time) leading #7. But that folks, is why Le Mans is so awesome 🙂

All in all, a TERRIFIC race, specially because of the battles between GTE-Pro cars (and Am too).

24 Heures du Mans 2019

The FIRST art cars in LMP1!

It’s about to kick off in about an hour and a half! So, will it be another win for Toyota? Their cars are starting on pole. I’m just disappointed that they won’t have any competition from the other big dogs, so unless they have some really bad luck, cars #7 or #8 will finish in first. So I’m secretly routing for the underdogs. What I think will be the best fight to watch will be GTE-Pro and Am. Some beautiful cars this year (and a few boring ones too), and if we get good fights, this could be an awesome race.

The first Porsche?

Most people think that the first Porsche model was the 356. If the person is a bit more knowledged, he or she would say it was in fact the 356 Gmünd. But no, they would be both technically wrong. Or kind of wrong.

Ferdinand Porsche created the Typ 64 in 1939, while he was still working on the KdF-Wagen (aka Volkswagen Beetle). The Typ 64 was a lighter sportscar version of the KdF-Wagen, built specifically for the Berlin-Rome race of 1939 and with VW parts.

Three cars were built, but because of World War II the race never happened and the car was almost never seen again. This is the only surviving example, and will be auctioned at Monterey in August. The price? It’s expected to fetch a cool $20 million. However, Porsche does NOT recognize it as the first Porsche, since the company was founded a decade later.

New Evora – GT4 Concept

Generally speaking, I’m not the biggest Lotus fan, but I’m really digging the Evora GT4 concept. Lotus revealed the new Evora this week at the Auto Shanghai motor show in China – Lotus is owned by the Chinese automotive company Geely. It weighs around 1200 kg (subject to ballast) and could reach over 270 km/h.

It’s still a concept though, but the production version will probably be very similar. And there’s hope to see it at La Sarthe…