Seeing a Mustang racing at an IMSA or World Challenge race isn’t a surprising sight. Seeing one racing in Europe, duking it out with the emerging GT4 cars (M4 GT4, Cayman GT4 Clubsport, McLaren 570 GT4) is about to become a reailty.
Multimatic, the people who build the racing Mustangs and all of the Ford GTs, took a new Shelby GT350R, and made it so it could play in Europe, Asia, anywhere that is adopting the new GT4 rule set. Places like IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge (GS class) and Pirelli World Challenge (GTS/G4). The car retains the 5.2 liter flat-plane crank V8, but mates it with a 6 speed, paddle shifted transmission. It has dampers, lower control arms, and rear stabilizers bars that will take the abuse of the different series it’ll be seeing.
It even comes with an FIA compliant roll cage. And a fancy switch panel!
It also sports revised aerodynamics, complete with words of caution. Expect to see the car storming around in the coming years. And if you’re thinking of getting into GT4 racing, take a look at this slice of Americana
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I missed the F1 race (How about Haas, eh?), and the 24H series race at Silverstone. I’m not too torn up about it, but I’ve got a hankering for some racing! Today I listened to some highlights of the Silverstone race on Radio Le Mans, but I want to watch something damnit! What to do? Well, there are a number of options available.
The 24H Series has all of their races on their YouTube page, and the fine folks at NISMO have a ton of races on their page as well. Is DTM more your flavor? You can watch every race and qualifying session from the 2015 season! If judged motorsports are more your flavor, you can check out the 2016 D1GP and Formula D events, with English commentary on the D1 stuff by Alexi from Nori Yaro, over on the Scrapeddd YouTube page.
There’s a lot for you to watch, and I’m conveniently showing this to you in the middle of the day… Hmm, I wounder what could ever come of this…
*Article and Photos are copyright of CAMautoMag.Com and their respective owners.
I got some complaints after the last list of races you should watch was posted. “Where’s Le Mans?” “What, no Formula 1?!” Well you can stop complaining, because here’s the list of international* races you should watch! All times are MST
Australian V8 Super Cars
It’s been described as Australian NASCAR. They’re not entirely wrong, think if a NASCAR Sprint Cup Car had a glorious one night stand with a British Touring Car Championship Civic Type-R. The love child would be an Australian V8 Super Car: raw power, functional doors, and zero problems with contact. We had the opportunity to see the series’ lone American race, and it was insane. They have a lot of races on the calendar, but here are three you should watch:
Darwin Triple Crown, May 20-22: Darwin has a massive front straight, with top speeds over 165mph. Then the drag race is over, because turn 1 is a tight left hander that spits the drivers into the twisty back half of the track. Did I mention that it’s hot at the track the whole weekend? Oh, and there are three races instead of two. Yeah, every V8SC race is a double header.
Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000, October 6-9: Mount Panorama, like Sarth and the Nurburgring, is a public road. However, there are homes and businesses on the track. It also hosts two of the craziest races in the world: the Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hour and the Super Cheapauto Bathurst 1000. The latter is a 1000km (620 mile) race, in V8 Super Cars, on a track that has all sorts of dangers including random kangaroos jumping onto the track. Chaz Mostert had a monster wreck last year, and their always seems to be a big one every year. This is the longest single race of the year, and it’s worth watching every second of it.
Coates Hire Sydney 500, November 25-27: It’s the last race of the year. Every driver on every team battles every second of the race. Races. All three of them. Yup, it’s another triple header. And they do it on the streets. Yes, the final race of the V8 Super Cars season is a fight on the streets of Sydney.
How to watch: If you feel like spending money you can subscribe to SuperView, the series’ streaming service. I can’t tell you a price right now, because they haven’t started selling subscriptions yet. If that isn’t your cup of tea, there’s always something on Livestream. Seriously, the last few years I’ve watched plenty of races on it with the only hiccups coming from my patchy wifi. We’ll definitely post a link for Bathurst, so we can all watch together.
One Offs
So, there are some races that don’t really fit into any particular series, which is why I’m giving you a few to watch
Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hour, February 7: Actually the action will get going Friday at 6:30PM for us. Thanks time zones and datelines! A long endurance race on a ridiculous track in a country where all the flora and fauna wants to kill you?? SIGN US UP!!! With an international field featuring cars ranging from full on GT3 cars, Porsche GT3 Cup cars, and even RWD V8 powered Ford Foci and Mazda 3’s! And guess what! Watching this thing is stupid easy! They conveniently provide a link for those of us not in Australia. And I’m providing it to you: http://bathurst12hour.com.au/stream-int
ADAC Zurich 24-Hour Race, May 28-29: I was going to tell you to watch the WEC race at the Nurburgring, but that’s only on the GP circuit. This bad boy takes place on the GP circuit AND the Nordschleife. And it’s only GT cars, and possibly Jim Glickenhaus’s SCG 003. Which is a sight in its own right. Tell me you aren’t itching to see a 24 hour race on the Green Hell. Seeing a pack of cars run through the Karussell, in the middle of the night is making me feel all tingly in inappropriate places. And you should be feeling the same, unless you’re dead inside. Last year the race was streamed through the ADAC Zurich YouTube page, which is an interesting place in and of itself. Go ahead and spend some time there.
Formula 1
No, I didn’t forget about Formula 1. Truth be told, it’s not my open wheel series of choice, BUT I do recognize that it is an amazing series. So in keeping with the three race theme, here are the three races I think you should tune into this year.
Monaco Grand Prix, May 29: One of the three legs of the Motorsport Triple Crown, and a classic in every sense of the word. Run on the streets of Monaco in Monte Carlo since 1929, it has played host to many legendary drives. Most notably Ayrton Senna’s 1984 rain soaked charge. In that race he qualified 13th in his Toleman TG184, drove like a mad man, and passed everyone but Alain Prost (his future teammate) in 31 laps. Thus began a legendary career. Since then greats such as Schumacher, Coulthard, Alonso, and Keke’s kid have won the race multiple times. This year we might be seeing the inter-team rivalry at Mercedes continue, but who knows? The Silver Arrows can’t be dominant forever. This race, like all Formula 1 races, are boradcast on the NBC family of networks. This race, being legendary and all, is on the full peacock: NBC.
Belgian Grand Prix, August 28:You come into the corner downhill, have a sudden change [of direction] at the bottom and then go very steep uphill. From the cockpit, you cannot see the exit and as you come over the crest, you don’t know where you will land. It is a crucial corner for the timed lap, and also in the race, because you have a long uphill straight afterwards where you can lose a lot of time if you make a mistake. But it is also an important corner for the driver’s feeling. It makes a special impression every lap, because you also have a compression in your body as you go through the bottom of the corner. It is very strange – but good fun as well. – Fernando Alonso, describing the Eau Rouge-Radillon combination.
Yeah, and they take it at over 180mph. Reason enough to watch. Another reason? The weather can, and will, be different at one end of the track than the other. It’s a gorgeous track being driven by some of the best drivers in the world. And Pastor. This one will be on NBCSN.
Japanese Grand Prix, October 9: Suzuka has been hosting Japan’s F1 race off and on since 1987. It’s the only Figure 8 track on the F1 calendar, and has been the backdrop for some legendary battles. The Prost-Senna battles from 1988-1990 determined championships and became the stuff of legend. It’s also seen its tragedies. The 2014 race saw the tragic wreck of Jules Bianchi, which led to his untimely passing. Forza Jules.
The race will be broadcast on NBCSN. And now back to sports car racing!
24H Series
With its inaugural season in 2008, the 24H Series is a newcomer to the sports car world. As its name implies, it’s long races. Either 12 or 24 hours, with fields populated by GT3, GT4, touring, sports and silhouette cars. The series hosts the first endurance race of the year, Dubai, and spends time at some great tracks across the globe. Let’s start the tour in jolly old England
Silverstone, April 1-3: 24 hours on April Fool’s Day? I am in! And you should be too. I may or may not have had the Dubai race on at work, via Radio Le Mans, and it was an excellent broadcast. And as we’ve seen, Silverstone is a fantastic place for a 24 Hour race. They put all the races on their YouTube page after the checkered flag flies, so you can watch the races whenever you’d like!
Paul Ricard, July 15-17: Back to back endurance races in France? Why not? While Circuit Paul Ricard doesn’t include public roads like Circuit del la Sarthe, it does have it’s share of history. It hosted the French Grand Prix fourteen times between 1971 and 1990, and it’s the track Alain Prost cut his teeth on. It’s a 3.6 mile track, and like Sarthe it had its monster straight neutered with a chicane. It’s a very fast and flat track, and should provide plenty of action over the course of the 24 hour race.
Barcelona, September 2-4: Oh I’m going to tell you to watch a Spanish race, just not the F1 race. If you’re going to spend time at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, why not spend an entire day? 2.89 miles, 16 turns, elevation changes, ever changing winds that make getting the aero package right insanely difficult (ask Fernando Alonso about the wind) will make this seem like several races in one. Go fire up Forza and give it a few laps, then tell me you don’t want to see a full field of GT cars running door to door.
World Endurance Championship
“Where’s Le Mans???” IT’S IN HERE! How dare you think I’d forget Le Mans. And I’ve thrown in a couple of other notable races to book end your WEC viewing experience.
6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, May 7: You should watch all the races at Spa that you possibly can! The WEC field will be slower than the F1 field, but the fact that this is a six hour race at the beginning of summer will make this a fantastic viewing experience. Plus you get to see the prototypes from Audi, Porsche and Toyota battle it out while knifing through the GT cars! It’s going to be quite a sight. And a sight you can watch via the stream on the WEC website, with commentary from Radio Le Mans!
24 Heures du Mans, June 18-19: Just look at that pretentious spelling! If this were any other race you’d have every right to punch me the next time you saw me, BUT THIS IS LE MANS! It deserves to have that ridiculous spelling, because THIS is the crown jewel of endurance racing. I don’t need to explain the history. I don’t need to tell you about Ford going 1-2-3 in 1966, of a privateer team in a McLaren F1 GTR (essentially a street car) taking the OVERALL win in 1995, or Mark Webber going ass over tea kettle in a Mercedes-Benz CLR during a practice session in 1998. There are many great races on this list, but this is THE ONE you should watch. From beginning to end, from tech inspection to the parade, from practice and qualifying to the race itself. Watch every second of this you can, tune into Radio Le Mans and listen, if you can jump on plane and watch it live, do it!
6 Hours of Fuji, October 16: The other home of the Japanese Grand Prix! Unfortunately Fuji hasn’t hosted the race since 2010, but it has hosted the old World Sports Car Championship, D1, JGTC, Super GT, Super Taikyu, and World Endurance Championship. This is a storied circuit. It’s where James Hunt and Niki Lauda settled the 1976 Formula 1 Driver’s Championship, and it’s also the site of an ugly incident during a JGTC race in 1998. Anyway, this track is always interesting. The first turn is a sharp right hander, coming at the end of a nearly mile long front straightaway. Watch the race just to see how that is navigated by the field.
And there you have it. 14 more races for you to watch, and enjoy. We’re not responsible for any strain this puts on your personal or professional relationships, loss of employment, or anything else that might happen because you decide to spend all your time watching great racing.
*”But Michael, there’s a Formula 1 race in Texas!” Yeah, I know. I also know that it’s subject to being canceled, so it’s not on the list.
*Article and Photos are copyright of CAMautoMag.Com and their respective owners.
Probably. Yes, today everyone at the North American International Auto Show is going nuts over the 600hp, 3.5L twin-turbo V6 Ecoboost powered Ford GT. And they should be doing just that. Look at that thing! It’s glorious! It’s what the GT40 was! Kinda…
The GT40 was a giant middle finger aimed at Enzo Ferrari and his precious cars and race program. Ferrari doesn’t do much of the factory backed GT racing anymore, because they’ve gone all in on F1.
Ok, so it isn’t EXACTLY like the GT40, but it is like it in that it is a potentially world beating super car made by a company whose headquarters are in a crumbling metropolis. Who is it going to beat, and where is it going to beat them?
Why are those two logos mashed together? Because it can, and eventually will, be seen in both! The 3.5L twin turbo mill fits nicely into the confines of the WEC’s LM GTE class. IMSA TUDOR USCC’s GTLM class ‘s rules are pretty much the same as the WEC’s LM GTE class rules. That said, we’ll probably see it storming around here at home in TUSC before it goes abroad and plants Old Glory in everything. The current rumor, according to Sportscar365, regarding that TUSC endeavor is that it will be a 2 car, factory team with Chip Ganassi Racing running it. And Chip Ganassi knows a few things about running a winning team.
Will it be successful? Maybe. The new Vipers came out of the gate with a whimper, but ended with a roar and won the GTLM class before Dodge killed the factory effort. We can speculate more on this when we get more details, but right now let’s all look at how awesome this thing looks
Words by Michael Chandler, photos by Ford Motor Company and Michael Chandler
*Article and Photos are copyright of CAMautoMag.Com and their respective owners.
Out in Tooele, at a shop at Miller Motorsports Park, is a man breathing life back into a pair of F1 chassis. They aren’t ground breaking achievements in the sport, they’re a pair of chassis that more often than not finished poorly or failed to qualify. They were made by a historic name, during an uneventful time in their history. They are a pair of Brabham chassis, a BT59 and a BT60, and they’re being restored by Steven Costello, a man who knows more about putting these together than any of us ever could.
I say he knows more about this because he does. He has had a long career in motorsports, both driving and turning wrenches. In the nineties he was one of a handful of Americans working as mechanics in Formula 1. He was employed by Equipe Ligier, and now he’s using those years of knowledge to bring yet another Brabham chassis to life for Race Co.
These chassis were bought at auction by a pair of brothers. Included in their purchase were all manner of spares, fasteners, and paperwork including spec sheets for individual practices, qualifying sessions and races. The brothers plan to race these things, against each other, at Miller upon their completion. When I stopped in on Halloween Steven had the BT59 on stands, with the Judd V8 mounted. It was looking like a race car, while the BT60 was still in pieces. The 59 was more complete, but still nowhere near done. It was waiting on some components to be shipped back from being rebuilt. You can’t easily find some of these parts, and you can’t just drop it off at your local shop to be rebuilt or tackle it yourself with your handy dandy socket set.
And some of the parts had to be sent off for inspection. Those suspension arms you see next to the blue tote? They were x-rayed to ensure they weren’t cracked. And they aren’t powder coated. It’s a special compound that you see on every major open wheel car, because it’s lighter and doesn’t hinder inspection processes.
Speaking of lightness, do you see all of those containers? They’re full of fasteners. Fasteners made of titanium. This is a back marker team. A team that finished 9th in the Constructor’s Championship in 1990, and was doing so bad in the first half of 1991 that the FIA made them pre-qualify for races in the second half of the season. And they outright failed to qualify twice! They finished 9th in the Constructor’s Championship behind a struggling Lotus, and then collapsed.
After a team collapses things go up for sale. Sometimes the people who buy the team’s assets use them in their own attempt to race. Others buy the big, showy pieces (engines, cockpits, nose cones, spoilers, etc) and display them or piece together a shell of a car for display purposes. And sometimes a privateer buys them, and takes them to a place that has experience with rebuilding old chassis, in an effort to bring them back to life so they can go race them. Thankfully those brothers took the latter route, and took them to a great shop who brought in an extremely knowledgeable man to bring them back to life. Hopefully we’ll see the cars back together, out pairing off with the BT60 chassis Race Co already restored this year, in our own historic gathering.
Words and photos by Michael Chandler
*Article and Photos are copyright of CAMautoMag.Com and their respective owners.
Yes you read that right. Along with changes to Prototype, GT Le Mans, and Prototype Challenge; IMSA announced the changes that would be coming to the GT Daytona class. Here’s a quick little run down of what will be new and different, and when it will be new and different:
Prototype
Through 2016 it will be the same: Daytona Prototypes, Automobile Club l’Quest (ACO) LM P2 cars and the Deltawing. Starting in 2017 there will be a “globally unified Prototype format” for the IMSA TUDOR United Sportscar Championship, FIA World Endurance Championship, and the a fore mentioned ACO. This new format will have a vehicle life of three years, and it will still feature mostly professional drivers, with some pro/am drivers in the mix.
GT Le Mans
It is basically ACO GTE cars, and in 2016 there will be new GTE specifications. Along with those there will be a planned vehicle life of three years. Still a bunch of factory back teams, mostly professional drivers with some pro/am drivers competing as well.
Prototype Challenge
This class will still be a spec class, if you will. Everyone uses the Oreca FLM09 chassis and a 6.2L Chevrolet V8. After 2016 the class will change, but only after the cost, performance levels and design of the new LMP3 chassis and new Prototype are finalized.
GT Daytona
Through the end of the 2015 season, no changes. 2016 is when full on FIA GT3 specs will be adopted for all the cars in the class. That means the full aerodynamic package, ABS and traction control seen on your favorite GT3 carswill now bee seen on your favorite GTD cars! Naturally they won’t just let the teams go whole hog the whole season. There will be an “Adjustment of Performance” process done all season long using weight and restrictors. And as always, a mix of professional and amateur drivers are required for the lineup of each team. So long as this guy doesn’t show up I think we’ll all be ok.
And that is the big TUDOR news ahead of the Road America race. That race airs on Fox Sports 1 starting at 4:30PM local time on Sunday.
Words by Michael Chandler. Photos by Michael Chandler and Tommy Ratsapasith
*Article and Photos are copyright of CAMAutoMag.Com and their respective owners.
The Good Dr. Z, that’s Michael Wells, sent us some photos from the last NASA Utah round. These are all from the Sunday of that weekend, so we have some snaps of the Formula 3 race, along with some snaps of your favorite locals.
As has been reported by many people (many, many, many people) the FIA is looking to ban the front and rear interconnected suspension system. Why did they do this? Well, first I need to explain exactly what it is first.
Basically it is a system that keeps the cars’ ride heights as stable as possible, using hydraulics and witchcraft. Technically it is only supposed to work to keep the front and rear ride heights as similar as possible through the corners. TECHNICALLY. One team (definitely not Mercedes AMG Petronas) has accused another (probably Mercedes AMG Petronas) of advancing the system to also work left to right. According to Charlie Whiting, FIA race director, the system’s primary use is now aerodynamic, which makes the whole system illegal for everyone!
Photo Credit: Force India
Well sort of. Mr. Whiting views the system as illegal, but it hasn’t actually been banned yet. The teams have an opportunity to push the ban to the start of the 2015 season, but that’s probably not going to happen. For the ban to be pushed back there needs to be a unanimous vote, and that’s not going to happen. Force India doesn’t use a FRIC system, so if it’s banned they don’t lose anything, and if someone violates the ban and is excluded from the results Force India could definitely benefit. Caterham and Sauber could close the gap between them and Marussia, who are on the bleeding edge of suiting the system to their car.
“Yes! Maybe some teams could be more affected than us, I would say.”
So there you have it. Mercedes could come back to the pack (in Germany of all places) because their suspension control system will be banned because at least three teams have no reason to not ban it. And also a Valtteri Bottas quote to boot.
The German Grand Prix will be happening on July 20 at Hockenheim. You can watch it on CNBC starting at 6:00 AM (Mountain), or on the internet somewhere. The choice is yours.
Words by Michael Chandler, photos as credited.
*Article and Photos are copyright of CAMAutoMag.Com and their respective owners.
Hooray for the six of us who enjoy World Challenge!: Jalopnik broke the news that the glorious GT3 spec race cars of Europe will be racing in the SCCA Pirelli World Challenge. What does this mean? Which cars are GT3s? Who has the edge: the WC GT cars or the GT3s? Let’s start by introducing our new guests’ family.
Photo credit: Getty Images
GT3 started out as a production based Pro-Am series, fielded by privateers in customer cars. GT1 (C6.R, DBR9s) and GT2 (911 GT3 RSR, M3 GTs) reigned above GT3 for several years, until some things happened. Notably GT1 breathing its last breath. Now GT3 has sub classes for pro-pro and pro-am drivers, and is raced all over the world in various series: British GT, SUPER GT GT 300, Grand Am GT and some others.
Now that that’s covered, let’s talk about what kind of cars you’ll see in addition to the usual World Challenge GT fare.
(There are four classes in World Challenge, but we’re going to focus on the GT class because it’s the top tier class and is probably where the GT3 cars will land)
Photo credit: Mark Weber
The GT field has some serious metal: Cadillac CTS-V.Rs, 911 GT3 Cups, Audi R8s and… Volvo S60’s? Before you scoff at the Swedes just know they finished second in the manufacturer’s points behind Cadillac and ahead of Nissan, Corvette AND Porsche! It’s a stacked, and rather diverse field, but it’s not as deep as the GT3 field: 10 different models for WC GT compared to 13 for GT3. And whereas the WC GT field features (dare I say) pedestrian fare, the GT3 field has more exotics. 458s, Gallardos, even Ford GTs are still legal and McLaren announced the MP4-12C GT3 recently. Almost seems unfair…
Where will they fit in? Who knows. As it stands we just know the GT3 cars are coming and the World Challenge cars will be legal in other series across the world. What may happen is they new cars will push the current cars out like they did in GT 300, which would be sad because the current cars are pretty cool. Or they may create a new class for them, or they might just all get along. Either way, we’re gonna see some awesome match ups.
photo credit: hkedwardtong on flickr
Lets take a look at the top two GT cars against the top two GT3 cars we end up with CTS-V.R vs. SLS AMG and S60 vs. 458. One is far more interesting than the other: the one with the Volvo. Why? Because the S60s have beat out 430GTs, R8s and 911s, so out gunning a 458 isn’t too far fetched.
We’ll also get to see how Cadillac stands up to international competition, and then there will be McLarens against Lamborghinis and Aston Matrins. It’ll be like Forza or Gran Turismo or the SPEED channel, except in person and with other races! This is a golden age my friends.
Now if only we can get the Trans Am series going again…
Words by Michael Chandler, photos as credited. Special thanks to Fred Smith, aka @porsche914yr74 on twitter and on Jalopnik for his article where I got the information about GT3
*Article, photos and video are copyright of CAMautoMag.com and their respective owners. Images and words may not be re-posted, re-distributed, modified or copied without expressed written consent from CAMautoMag.com
Photo credit: Getty Images
Photo credit: Mark Weber
photo credit: hkedwardtong on flickr
