Autoblog

Mercedes SLS AMG Black Series fears for its tires with Chris Harris at the wheel

Zach Bowman — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 12:45:00 EST

Filed under: Coupe, Performance, Videos, Mercedes-Benz, Luxury

By now, you should know it takes quite a machine to get Chris Harris excited. The guy spends plenty of time being nonplussed by a bevy of lustworthy hardware. But the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Black Series seems to have done the impossible by getting under his skin. The ultra-exclusive, circuit-bred version of everyone's favorite gullwing features a wider track, substantially less weight, a revised engine and carbon ceramic brakes. With 630 horsepower on hand, the monster has no trouble dispatching the straights and corners of France's Paul Ricard with prejudice.

Harris turns two laps in the latest Mercedes-Benz monster, one with the intent of going as quickly as possible and the second with the aim of hanging the tail out past Jupiter. Seems like he succeeds at both goals. you can check out his hijinks in the video below for yourself. Set your jealousy to stun.

Continue reading Mercedes SLS AMG Black Series fears for its tires with Chris Harris at the wheel

Mercedes SLS AMG Black Series fears for its tires with Chris Harris at the wheel originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 21 Mar 2013 12:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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F1 race in New Jersey could be postponed

Noah Joseph — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 18:20:00 EST

Filed under: Motorsports, Etc.

After years of doing without a grand prix in the United States altogether, Formula One is gearing up to return to these shores in a big way. The United States Grand Prix is set to take place later this year at the newly constructed Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. And next year, the Grand Prix of America is scheduled to join the calendar in New Jersey, just across the river from Manhattan. But will the Jersey race be ready in time?

According to the latest reports, that second grand prix in the U.S. could be pushed off until 2014. This according to a quote attributed to Bernie Ecclestone, the man who orchestrates the commercial aspects of the sport - including where the races are held.

While he was at it, Ecclestone also reportedly indicated that the French Grand Prix will be back on the calendar within the next couple of years. But rather than holding it at Magny-Cours where it was held from 1991 through 2008, the renewed French Grand Prix - absent from the calendar every year since - will go back to the Paul Ricard circuit where it was held in the 70s and 80s (a track which Ecclestone just happens to own himself).

The arrangement will, according to reports, alternate year-to-year with the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa.

F1 race in New Jersey could be postponed originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 17 Apr 2012 18:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Toyota pushes back TS030 race debut after test-session crash

Noah Joseph — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 18:30:00 EST

Filed under: Motorsports, Toyota

"Mentsch tracht, Gott lacht," goes the old Yiddish proverb. Man plans, God laughs. And that certainly applies to motor racing, where engineers, mechanics, strategists... entire teams spend day and night over the course of months preparing to campaign their new race car, only for it all to go horribly wrong at the last minute. And that's what the folks at Toyota Motorsport GmbH in Cologne, Germany, are apparently facing now.

After having their Formula One program shut down a couple of years ago by corporate headquarters, Toyota Motorsport has been hunting for a new project ever since. That new project turned out to be the TS030 Hybrid, an advanced Le Mans prototype which they've been gearing up to campaign in the new FIA World Endurance Championship and its headline event, the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Only those plans were set back some - if not ground to a halt - last Wednesday when the only working example of the TS030 crashed while undergoing testing at the Paul Ricard circuit in the South of France.

In the statement after the jump, Toyota doesn't specify exactly what happened or who was driving at the time, but you can be sure he's feeling pretty morose right now, because the chassis was damaged so extensively that the team won't be able to repair it in time for the Six Hours of Spa where the car was supposed to make its race debut on May 5. Toyota does, however, expect to be up and running again in time for Le Mans in June, although whether that will leave the team with enough time to build the two cars it was expecting to field there or have to revert to a single entrant remains to be seen.

Continue reading Toyota pushes back TS030 race debut after test-session crash

Toyota pushes back TS030 race debut after test-session crash originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 11 Apr 2012 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Toyota begins testing new hybrid LMP1

Noah Joseph — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 10:27:00 EST

Filed under: Motorsports, Coupe, Hybrid, Europe, Toyota, Racing

The sudden departure of Peugeot from the Le Mans racing scene came as quite a shock, we know. But don't count the inaugural FIA World Endurance Championship - or the famed 24-hour race at its center - out for the count before it's even started, because another powerhouse is already gearing up to take Peugeot's place. And that powerhouse is Toyota.

The Japanese auto giant announced its plans to build and campaign a new LMP1 racer at Le Mans and the WEC back in October. Toyota Motorsport GmbH (which ran the company's F1 team until its withdrawal in 2009) then set about designing the car, partnering with Team Oreca to help with the logistics of entering the pinnacle of endurance racing, and hired three top pilots to, you know, actually drive the thing.

With all those pieces in place, the Toyota team began testing their new prototype racer last week at the Paul Ricard test track in France. Toyota itself didn't release much in the way of details, but Alex Wurz was said to have led the shake-down, with his team-mates Nicolas Lapierre and Kazuki Nakajima on hand to share in the driving duties as well.

And while no "official" photos were "officially" released, Toyota PR rep Scott Brownlee tweeted a couple of snapshots to whet our appetites. The result looks, predictably enough, much like the latest LMP1 racers fielded by Audi and the departed Peugeot, but as with most things, it's what's underneath the surface that will count the most. In Toyota's sake, that would be a gasoline-electric hybrid drivetrain of some sort, but we'll have to wait a little while longer - as the next round of testing and the car's anticipated debut at Spa come May approach - to find out more.

Toyota begins testing new hybrid LMP1 originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 19 Jan 2012 10:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Audi R18 TDI debuts in full race livery for ahead of Le Mans

Noah Joseph — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 16:39:00 EST

Filed under: Motorsports, Coupe, Audi, Diesel, Racing

Audi R18 TDI in full livery testing at Paul Ricard - Click above for high-res image gallery

The domination of racing teams and the factories that support them wax and wane across countless motorsports disciplines around the world from year to year. But arguably none has continued to dominate like Audi at Le Mans. Since the turn of the millennium, Audi has won the iconic French endurance race every year but two: In 2003 when its own sister company Bentley took top honors, and in 2009, when its chief rival, Peugeot took the win.

Audi has introduced a succession of sports prototype racers to uphold its honor, from the original R8 through the R10 TDI and the R15 TDI that won last year. The latest is the closed-cockpit R18 TDI, which the German automaker has yet to field in an actual race but which has now undergone its first test sessions in the full battle livery you see here.

The trio of silver and black racers will again be differentiated by the red, yellow and black highlights, and feature a number of body parts crafted from carbon fiber, giving the R18 TDI a lightweight form on which Audi is banking to fend off Peugeot, which started off the season strong by defeating the outgoing R15 at Sebring.

Will the new R18 prove capable of shutting out its French rivals for the title event at Le Mans this coming June? We'll have to wait and see, but with the preliminary test sessions at the Circuit de la Sarthe reinstituted this past weekend after a two-year absence, the Audis were on top of the time sheets, the Peugeots only narrowly beating out the third of them. Follow the jump for press releases from the Paul Ricard and La Sarthe test sessions and take a closer look in the high-resolution image gallery below.

Gallery: 2011 Audi R18 TDI (final livery)

[Source: Audi]

Continue reading Audi R18 TDI debuts in full race livery for ahead of Le Mans

Audi R18 TDI debuts in full race livery for ahead of Le Mans originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 26 Apr 2011 16:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Video: See and hear P4/5 Competizione on track from the driver's seat

Jeff Glucker — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 12:31:00 EST

Filed under: Motorsports, Videos

P4/5 Competizione takes on the Paul Ricard Circuit - Click above to watch video after the jump

We've seen the P4/5 Competizione take to the track on clear days as well as days mired in fog. Now the team is out on the Paul Ricard Circuit in Le Castellet, France. Rather than watch from the outside as the James Glickenhaus-owned racecar tears up the course, we are treated to an in-cabin view that looks out the front windshield.

Click past the jump to get a first-person point-of-view of what it's like behind the wheel of the P4/5 Competizione. Thanks to all for the tips!

Gallery: Glickenhaus Ferrari P4/5 Competizione

[Source: YouTube]

Continue reading Video: See and hear P4/5 Competizione on track from the driver's seat

Video: See and hear P4/5 Competizione on track from the driver's seat originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 18 Mar 2011 12:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EVO drives the new Lancia Stratos

Zach Bowman — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 18:58:00 EST

Filed under: Concept Cars, Coupe, Performance, Europe, Specialty, Design/Style

Pininfarina Lancia Stratos - Click above for high-res image gallery

It's a shame the Pininfarina Stratos probably won't see widespread production. The car is hewn straight from the naughtiest of our automotive dreams, and with some of its aluminum bones borrowed from the Ferrari 430 Scuderia it promises to be as fun to fling as anything with four wheels. The crew at EVO was lucky enough to weasel their way behind the wheel of the lovely one-off, becoming the first journalists to do so in the process. That sound? It's the noise our boundless jealousy makes when agitated.

EVO was able to take the car out for a couple of hot laps around Circuit Paul Ricard, and the verdict is that, as you might expect, the car is plenty nimble and just as quick. There is some indication that the vehicle's short wheelbase would likely make for some hair-raising antics at higher speeds, though. EVO even goes so far as to say that the vehicle has a completely different personality compared to its Prancing Horse donor. Even better, there may be a very small production run in the vehicle's future.

Sign us up.

Gallery: New Lancia Stratos

[Source: EVO]

EVO drives the new Lancia Stratos originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 29 Nov 2010 18:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aston Martin debuts new Le Mans Prototype at Paul Ricard

Noah Joseph — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 10:29:00 EST

Filed under: Motorsports, Aston Martin

Click above for a hi-res gallery of the Aston Martin LMP1 at Paul Ricard

Given its relatively small current model line, you'd be forgiven for categorizing Aston Martin as a small automaker. But the British sportscar-maker is one of the busiest in the business. As if developing the new Rapide four-door coupe didn't demand enough resources from a company that recently went independent after years under the Ford umbrella, Aston rolled into Geneva with the new V12 Vantage, DBS Volante and One-77, while reviving its Lagonda marque with a new crossover concept. Oh, and while they were at it, they redesigned London's famous double-decker city bus.

With that much going on, most other automakers would have scrapped their racing programs - in fact, many have, and with less to show for it - but at Aston's headquarters in Gaydon, England, it's full steam ahead. Not only have they developed new GT2 and GT4 versions of the V8 Vantage, but after dabbling their toes in the proverbial waters last year with partner Charouz Racing to admirable effect, they're speeding head-first into the top-level Le Mans Prototype (LMP1) category to dice it up with Audi and Peugeot in pursuit of an overall Le Mans win this year, 50 years since Aston Martin's historic victory at La Sarthe in 1959.

To that end, Aston participated in the Le Mans Series group test at the Paul Ricard track in France, opened to the public for the first time in ten years as 3,500 spectators got a view of Aston's new challenger for the first time. With a Lola chassis and V12 engine from the DBR9 (which the works team won't be fielding this year while they focus on LMP1), the new car looks the business in retro Gulf orange and blue livery and bearing the numbers 007 and 009. We'll just have to stay tuned to see if Aston and racing partner Prodrive, both under the direction of David Richards, can translate their expertise from the GT1 category into overall victory. In the meantime, feel free to check out the hi-res images in the gallery below and the details in the press release after the jump.

Gallery: Aston Martin LMP1 at Paul Ricard LMS test

[Source: Aston Martin]

Continue reading Aston Martin debuts new Le Mans Prototype at Paul Ricard

Aston Martin debuts new Le Mans Prototype at Paul Ricard originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 10 Mar 2009 10:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aston Martin Racing takes a bitchin' family portrait

John Neff — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 17:26:00 EST

Filed under: Motorsports, Aston Martin

Click above to enlarge (1,980 pixels wide)

It's pretty incredible to think that three years ago there were no Aston Martin race cars. Now we can watch them in the European Le Mans Series, American Le Mans Series, FIA GT racing, as well as endurance races like the 24 Hours of Nurburgring and the famed 24 Hours of Le Mans. To celebrate both the factory-backed and privately-owned teams, Aston Martin hosted all of its racing cars at the Paul Ricard circuit in France for a little preseason test. The product of that event, aside from many famous drivers taking their turn behind the wheel of each and every car, was this family portrait of Aston Martin Racing. Front and center is the Gulf livery DBR9 flanked by the new Vantage GT2 on its left (our right) and one of many V8 Vantage N24 cars on its right. See that white car being left in the dust way in the back? That's the V12 Vantage RS concept that just got off a plane returning from the Geneva Motor Show. Since we know you want to make this pic your desktop wallpaper, we've included an extra special 1,980-pixel-wide version for you to download, and there are more Aston Martin Racing galleries after the jump.

Gallery: 2008 Aston Martin Racing Gulf DBR9

[Source: Aston Martin]

Continue reading Aston Martin Racing takes a bitchin' family portrait

Aston Martin Racing takes a bitchin' family portrait originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 06 Mar 2008 17:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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