Window shopping for race cars

Always interesting to see what is for sale and how much money is being asked by sellers.  Just for giggles, have a look at these goodies courtesy of Racecarsdirect.com:

Reynard 2KQ that ran at LeMans in 2000 for €198,000.

2015 Audi TTRS that claimed multiple SP3T class VLN wins at the Nurburgring for €135,000.

Private collection of Adrian Reynard of eight open wheel cars.   Includes BAR Formula One cars from 2002 and 2003.  POA.

2001 Arrows A22-03 Formula One car for €85,000. Does not appear to be running.

2013 Mercedes AMG SLS for £180,000 run in British GT and undergoing a rebuild.

2012 Porsche 997 GT3 Cup for €89,000 with 25 hours on the engine and 5 hours on the gearbox.

2013 championship winning BMW Z4 GT3 for £180,000.  Ran ELMS, Blancpain and British GT with upgrades.  Extensive spares.

2014 Viper GT3-R run by Black Swan Racing in Pirelli World Challenge events for USD$500,000.  Includes extensive spares and is ready to race.

1995 Simtek Formula One car driven by Jos Verstappen for £115,000.

2012 McLaren MP4-12C GT3 for €158,000.  Blancpain Endurance and sprint history.  Some spares included and more available.

2012 Mercedes SLS GT3 with extensive race history, including Nurburgring 24 and many other races.  Updated to 2014 specs.  Car Collection owned in Germany.  €210,000.

Abt Racing 2013 Audi R8 LMS ultra GT3 for €150,000.   They also have three other Audi R8 race cars for sale as well.

2014 Phoenix Racing Audi R8 LMS Ultra for €225,000.

2013 Mercedes SLS GT3 for USD$295,000.  Car is in Australia.

2015 spec Marc VDS BMW Z4 GT3 car – second overall at the 2015 Nurburgring 24 for €250,000.  If the car would have finished one place better, surely it wouldn’t be for sale – let alone at this price.

These listings might suggest that the recent listing of the Falken Tyres 997 GT3 car on Mobile.de with an asking price of €500,000 is perhaps a bit ambitious.

With the new AMG GT3, Porsche 991 RSR, Audi R8, Ferrai 488 and BMW M6, there are lots of previously enjoyed GT3 cars for sale.  Happy shopping!

Chaparral 2X Vision Grand Turismo

In November 2014, General Motors and Chevrolet unveiled a concept car that was designed for the PlayStation Grand Turismo video game.  The design was pure fantasy – no specific rules to comply with and intended to work in the virtual world of the video game.  The concept envisions a laster-pulse propulsion system with the driver playing an integral part of the aerodynamics.  In fact, the driver lays on their stomach looking forward which certainly challenges conventional ergonomics.

Once designed in virtual reality, General Motors also created a physical concept car.  As a nod to the technology employed by Jim Hall and Chaparral Racing with Chevrolet power, the Grand Turismo concept was named Chaparral.

A design exercise for the General Motors studio was a rare chance to design a concept race car with very few constraints.  Even more rare, the physical concept car was brought by General Motors to the Art Center Car Classic.  The car doesn’t get shown publicly often, so it was a treat to see in person.  Thanks to GM for their support of the event and for bringing the car (and a few other goodies) to the event.

 

Best of Art Center Classic 2015

The Art Center Car Classic 2015 took place on October 25, 2015 in the hills above the Rose Bowl.  Chassis001 previously featured a race car – the Nissan R390.  Featured below is a round up of the best of stories and photo galleries from the event scoured from around the internet.  Photos don’t do the event justice, so start making your plans to attend in 2016.

Southwest Star (Mercedes club magazine) – starting on page 14 – Pasadena Art Center Car Classic – Time Travel Made Easy

Story from Autoweek – Tatra Coexists With Peterbilt at the 2015 Art Center Car Classic.

FormTrends story and photos – Art Center Car Classic Provides Inspiration

68 photos in a gallery from Kermaco photography blog.

Special Car Channel Youtube interview with Art Center Almni Henrik Fisker and the Ford Mustang Galpin Rocket.

Hagerty – Art Center’s Car Classic 2015 Showcases what matters

AutoDesignO – Tomorrowland at the Art Center Car Classic 2015 – photo gallery.

Sponsor Petrolicious posted this amazing photo gallery –Dawn Patrol at the Art Center Car Classic.

Fireball Tim Roberts Malibu Video Blog on Youtube.

Central Coast British Car Club – photo gallery.

The Daily Driver Project – story and photo gallery – The past brings about visions of the future.  Page 2 photo gallery.

Car Build Index – Better Late than Never story and photos.

Tim Scribbles photo gallery

Road and Track – Amazing Rides from the most interesting car show you’ve never heard of.

6 Speed Online – ArtCenter 2015 Car Classic – Visions of the Future

Falken Porsche 997 GT3 R For Sale

With thanks to Dailysportscar.com for the pointer, the Falken Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R (997) that has raced thousands of kilometers is now for sale.  The team is moving to the 991 platform for 2016, so they have put their 997 up for sale.  Interested?  Check out the listing on Mobile.de with a €500,000 asking price.  The car finished on the podium at the 2015 Nurburgring 24 hours – the team’s best ever result.  In honor of the team and the car, here is a gallery of shots from the 2015 N24 race.

2016 Nurburgring 24h

Have you ever wanted to enter the Nurburgring 24 Hours?  Good news!  The entry form for the 2016 event has now been posted and is available here.  Interestingly enough, it is in English!  There are interesting gems for those who are interested in the race.

Initial entry deadline is April 5, 2016 which gets you the reduced entry fee in excess of €6000  (which includes an irrevocable fee for armco and crash damage).  Need a little more time?  Final entry deadline is April 21, 2016 and the entry fee goes up a bit.

Space is a premium for the 24 hour race – both in the pits and paddock.  The entry form makes clear that you may need to share your pit box with up to 7 additional teams, but the Germans also permit you to designate the teams with whom you’d like to share space.  No promises, but you can even request which pit box you prefer.

Before you send in your entry, make sure you read the regulations – all 132 pages are posted here in both German and English.  The regulations are comprehensive.  They confirm the start time for the race will be 1600 (4pm).  The maximum number of cars that can run in the race is 180.

Given the risks, the rules also include provisions like this:  “The Clerk of the Course reserves the right to observe the performances of the teams and drivers during the practice sessions in order to then decide about the final admission to the race. The Clerk of the Course may pronounce a “night driving ban”, if necessary, for any driver. For this purpose, “night” is considered to start one hour after sunset and to end one hour before sunrise. The failure to respect a night driving ban, if imposed, will result in the exclusion of the team concerned.”

The 44th edition of the Nurburging 24 hours will run on May 28-29, 2016.  There is nothing like the starting grid anywhere else.

 

IMSA GT Silly Season

The news and changes have been flowing, including some surprises.

Christina Nielsen is moving to Scuderia Corsa to drive a Ferrari 488 in the IMSA GTD category.   She is moving from The Racers Group and the Aston Martin.  She finished just behind the Scuderia Corsa car in the 2016 GTD championship.

The 2016 IMSA GTD championship winning drivers for Scuderia Corsa, Townsend Bell and Bill Sweedler are moving to O’Gara Motorsports to drive a brand new Lamborghini Huracan GT3 in the IMSA GTD class.  The team hasn’t yet taken delivery of the car, but they’ve been busy winning the 2015 2015 Lamborghini Super Trofeo championship.  A single Lamborghini Huracan has been shared by multiple customer teams and drivers, steadily putting on mile after mile.

Somehow Dion von Moltke still doesn’t have a ride for 2016.  He tied for third in the GTD standings with the Paul Miller Audi.  The Paul Miller team is joining the move to the Lamborghini Huracan platform for 2016.   For a driver line-up, Brian Sellers, Madison Snow and Bryce Miller will drive the Paul Miller Lamborghini.   Miller joins for the endurance races.  The pairing of Sellers and Snow is a very potent combination.

Meanwhile, the Porsche ranks are starting to become more clear.  Cars for Alex Job and Black Swan are coming.  Park Place Porsche is also reportedly going to run in 2016 with a brand new 911RSR, but driver Patrick Lindsey will not be continuing with the team.  Could there be more?

As if the IMSA GT class isn’t busy enough, the Pirelli World Challenge is busy on its own.  Somehow, Andy Pilgrim Andy Pilgrim has been dropped by Cadillac in PwC.  Could he find his way to an IMSA ride?  Gainsco/Bob Stallings, historically associated with the IMSA series, will be entering a McLaren 650 in the PWC series with Jon Fogarty at the wheel.  Sadly, McLaren is not an authorized manufacturer partner with IMSA, so the car is ineligible to run in 2016 IMSA events.

How about another Viper in the form of Lone Star Racing?  The team ran at COTA and expects to run the 2016 season with Dan Knox and Marc Goosens.  The ViperExchange 2016 details were released in October, so there should be at least two Vipers on the grid in 2016.

In the meantime, Risi expects to take delivery of its brand new Ferrari 488 in December.  Perhaps not a surprise at this point, but still worth a note that timing may be tight to get the car and get it prepared for the Roar prior to the Rolex 24.

Audi will be represented by several customer teams, including Magnus Racing with John Potter and some guy named Andy Lally.  Stevenson Racing is not only making the move to the Audi R8 platform, but took home the shared Audi test vehicle after the Daytona test.  Don’t think there has been a public announcement, but rumor suggests Flying Lizard will be running a new Audi (or two?) as well.

Oh yes.  In the category of open secrets, the full time drivers for the Ganassi Ford GT IMSA season were announced.

Is there more?  Undoubtedly.  Lots of work for teams as they start to take delivery of new cars and get them prepared for the Roar and the Rolex 24. It still would have been more fun at Daytona with Aston Martin and Mercedes.  Stay tuned…

IMSA Daytona Test notes

Once again, Marshall Pruett is a journalistic machine.  He continues to turn out high quality pieces on open wheel and sportscar topics.  The latest is a rewind on the IMSA test at Daytona posted on Racer.com.  Marshall has lots of goodies about people, tires, testing, Balance of Performance and development.

Perhaps the most potentially disappointing tidbit is the note that a deal between IMSA and either Aston Martin or Mercedes is unlikely which means no customer GT cars on the IMSA grid in 2016.

DragonSpeed brought two SLS models to the test and TRG had an Aston Martin in action as well.  (Incidentally, the Sportscar365 team posted several reports on the test.  If you haven’t read the Tuesday notebook or the Wednesday notebook, they are both worth a read.   The site also features photo galleries like this.  Dailysportscar also has posted a photo gallery from the test.)

AMG has said that their order books for the new GT3 are busy and existing customers are first in line, so they weren’t expecting to have cars available – at least early in the season.

It could still be an interesting IMSA season with a new Audi, a gaggle of Lamborghinis, a new BMW M6 platform, a new Porsche 911, a new Ford GT, the new Ferrari 488, the return of the Viper, and other news, but hopefully the Aston Martin and Mercedes can find their way to the grid at some point.  The more the merrier…

 

2017 Porsche 911 RSR development

Could we see a mid-engined 911 racing in 2017?  According to this story in Sportscar365, it a possibility.  Porsche apparently is taking 2016 off from the full factory GTE support in the FIA WEC series to get working on the 2017 911RSR model.  Development has already been underway with on-track testing targeted for the middle of 2016.  

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the article is the acknowledgement that Porsche has looked seriously at a mid-engined concept and has spoken with the FIA about the idea of moving the engine more forward than the road version of the car.  There surely will be a vigorous discussion and debate about the rules and the Balance of Performance.  Recent experiences with the BMW Z4 and Ford GT will either help Porsche’s case or give ammunition to argue against waivers.

Presumably, Porsche is wedded to the rear-engine platform of the 911 for marketing purposes which makes moving the engine forward for racing purposes a bit tricky. The Cayman mid-engined platform appears to be reserved for customers and club racers rather than a full factory platform.

Rumors have circulated for years about a Ferrari figher non-hybrid 918 type platform, known as the 960 or 961.  Early 2013 was really the last time anyone made noise about such a prospect.     Could the end result be a resurrection of the GT1 platform?  Stranger things have happened.  If the crowds surrounding the GT1 and GT1-98 at the Rennsport Reunion are any indicator, there still is an incredible aura around those platforms.

Porsche Junior Program for 2016

Want to get a good sense for the next generation of sportscar drivers who will be standing atop podiums in the coming years?  Look no further than the Porsche Junior Program.  Last week, Porsche announced that four drivers would be selected for factory support.  Norwegian Dennis Olsen (19) and Frenchman Mathieu Jaminet (21) join the squad while Italian Matteo Cairoli (19) and German Sven Müller (23) will continue for another year.

Olsen will run in the Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland.  Jaminet, Carioli and Müller will run in the Porsche Supercup which supports the European Formula 1 races. The Porsche junior program has a long history of success.

Porsche’s junior program has operated since 1997.  Recognized names such as Timo Bernhard, Patrick Long, Michael Christensen, and Marc Lieb have been developed through the program.   2015 LeMans winner Earl Bamber participated in the 2014 edition of the junior program. American Connor De Phillipi has run as a Porsche Junior driver for the last several years in the Carrera Cup Deutschland series and Porsche Supercup Series.

For my money, Sven Müller is one to watch in particular.  Stay tuned…

 

IMSA Daytona Test News

Cars haven’t turned wheels on the track, but lots of IMSA news coming out of Daytona today.  Some exciting, some disappointing.  Here we go…

First, the disappointing – for now at least.  The new Mercedes AMG GT3 will be at the test, but will not be on the grid for the early part of the 2016 IMSA season.  The good news is that there is a lot of interest.  Mercedes will deliver cars to existing customers who put in orders early, which means no AMG GT3 at the Rolex 24.  The silver lining also may be that Mercedes sounds interested and the issue is just a matter of logistics.  The other good news is that DragonSpeed intends to be at Daytona with two Mercedes SLS GT3 cars, so hopefully they’ll make the Rolex 24.

Second, Turner Motorsports will be running to BMW M6 GT3 entries in the GTD class.  Turner had an October test at Sebring with the car and will take delivery of its twin M6 models in December.

Third, Corvette Racing is adding some deep talent to its enduro driver line ups in the form of Marcel Fassler and Mike Rockenfeller.  Both are more recently known for success with Audi, so it is a little surprising that they haven’t ended up in Audi GTD entries if they were going to spend time in IMSA.  However, Fassler has prior Corvette GT experience and Rockenfeller has run with several times in a Corvette DP.

While not connected to the GT class, Starworks announced that Indycar driver Jack Hawksworth will join the team for the Rolex 24 in their PC class entry. Jack has prior PC experience in 2015 with another team and will be in the car during the test at Daytona to get acquainted with the team.

Want to see some photos and read some other odds and ends from Daytona?  Check out Sportscar365.com for Monday news and notes.  We should expect to see more comprehensive coverage from multiple outlets starting Tuesday.