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Posted Mar 17 2010, 04:20 PM by Andy Blackmore with 9 comment(s)

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Some of you may be aware that I produce a number of Fan Spotter Guides, including the American Le Mans Series, which also publishes the guide. With the teams already set up at Sebring for the 12 hour endurance race, I have released the first guide of the year, supported by Speedhunters The guide features all the liveries, teams, drivers, classes and tyre information for use trackside or in the comfort of your living room. The majority of teams forwarded liveries and details to me, many under embargo...

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Posted Feb 04 2010, 10:30 AM by Andy Blackmore with 2 comment(s)

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On the same day the 2010 Le Mans 24 Hours entry list was released, I was sent a link to this great video from Audi.tv, a cool site full of Audi PR films, TV spots and advertisements. The video captures the atmosphere and drama of the 2009 Le Mans from Audi Sport’s perspective, complete with commentary from Radio Le Mans’s John Hindhaugh, the voice of Sports cars. Good on Audi for making this, given Peugeot beat them with a 1-2. They could have easily kept quiet about being beaten by the...

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Posted Feb 02 2010, 05:42 PM by Andy Blackmore with 20 comment(s)

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I often pass by Jon Sibal's blog and it never ceases to amaze me how he finds the time, in between his comic book work to create his artwork. I wish I could steal a few of his hours each day. I can’t remember when I was able to finish up a render to his standard, away from usual day-to-day stuff. So, back in November, I hit on a great idea. Why don’t I create a GTR version of the new McLaren MP4-12C complete with some of the classic liveries I designed way back 15 years ago. I started...

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Posted Jan 27 2010, 11:36 AM by Andy Blackmore with 13 comment(s)

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Continuing our rallying coverage, Rally site, eWRC.cz, has posted some great images of Kimi Raikkonens recent test in Finland in his new WRC ride, the Red Bull sponsored Citroen C4 WRC. Kimi’s preparations continue later this week on the Arctic Lapland Rally. Perfect preparation for Rally Sweden, the first round of the 2010 World Rally Championship, in two weeks time. Hop over to eWRC.cz for more great images from the test, which also marks the debut of the 2010 Red Blue/Citroen livery Let’s...

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Posted Jan 25 2010, 11:45 AM by Andy Blackmore with 14 comment(s)

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Regular Speedhunters will be aware from our preview last week that the Intercontinental Rally Challenge started its season last week with the Monte Carlo Rally. It was a dominant and quite surprising win from Mikko Hirvonen in the all new Ford Fiesta S2000. Hirvonen led from the start from Skoda’s Juho Hanninen. Peugeot followed closely with last year’s winner, Sebastien Ogier (above!) and Stephane Sarrazin and Kris Meeke in hot pursuit. One of the favourites, Jan Kopecky had a dire start...
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Posted Jan 19 2010, 02:40 PM by Andy Blackmore with 25 comment(s)

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The legendary Monte Carlo Rally starts today, with a prologue stage in the French Riviera, en-route to Monte Carlo. The ‘Monte’ is one of the longest running motorsport events, dating back to 1911, and is normally part of the World Rally Championship. Due to the ridiculous FIA rule that rally venues need to rotate in and out of the World Championship, the premier class this year is the popular Intercontinental Rally Championship. The 'IRC' started in 2006 with the assistance of...
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Posted Jan 13 2010, 05:00 AM by Andy Blackmore with 28 comment(s)

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The 2010 Motor Show season starts this week with the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Previously a show, full of announcements, the economic downturn and the state of the local car industry has pushed this show to an also-ran in the Motor Show season. The biggest news is the worldwide debut of the new all-world Ford Focus. Previously, North America has been laden with a reshelled version of the original Ford Focus which debuted back in 1998, while the rest of the World has a class...
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Posted Jan 06 2010, 10:47 AM by Andy Blackmore with 7 comment(s)

This new promo video from Porsche caught my eye over on Cold Track Days. Showcasing their long history in racing, but no 956/962. Despite this, some great imagery and classic footage.

Porsche make some great videos, so its worth checking out their YouTube Channel. Enjoy!

-Andy Blackmore

Porsche channel on You Tube

 

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Posted Dec 18 2009, 11:20 AM by Andy Blackmore with 36 comment(s)

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It has been a painful year for many people and companies at every level. Many companies have seen massive restructing, administration, closeures and bail outs. Unfortunately there have been many casualties and many people will be having a torrid Christmas out of work. So spare a though for anyone affected by this whole mess. Sadly, another casualty was announced today. GM has announced, Svenska Aeroplan AB, otherwise known as ‘Saab’ will be no more. Despite a number of buy-out discussions...
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Posted Oct 09 2009, 10:45 AM by Andy Blackmore with 9 comment(s)

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Gil de Ferran, 2000, 2001 Champ Car champion and 2003 Indy 500 winner, enters his final race as a driver this weekend at Laguna Seca, the finale to the 2009 ALMS championship. There are a number of celebrations to mark his retirement, the most prominent being the de Ferran Motorsport Acura LMP1 car carrying a cool Chaparral inspired livery. Jim Hall and his Chaparrals Race cars were leaders in race car design and aerodynamics. The cars always looked stunning with their form and white bodywork. Gil...
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Posted Oct 02 2009, 06:21 AM by Andy Blackmore with 10 comment(s)

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In part 2 of our McLaren F1 GTR Retrospective, we are going to look at the 1996 season. McLaren Cars made a number of improvements for the 1996 season with revised aerodynamics, cooling and fuel system. Many components were re-engineered. As I explained at the beginning of the month , a new test car, Chassis ‘10R’ was completed and used to announce the 1996 season, although ironically the car still carried some 1995 aerodynamics. We needed a livery which jumped out of the page and also...
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Posted Oct 01 2009, 04:40 PM by Andy Blackmore with 15 comment(s)

Speedhunters
As our BMW Feature Month comes to an end, I have been asked to give my personal reflections on the golden years of the McLaren F1 GTR. Grab yourself a coffee….it’s a long one! With the aid of Rod's images from his recent visit to Rahal Letterman and John Brooks extensive collection, I'll attempt to cover the two seasons in which the short-tail GTR changed the face of GT racing. It may not have been part of the original McLaren F1 project, but the story of the McLaren F1 GTR was...
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Posted Sep 28 2009, 11:20 AM by Andy Blackmore with 3 comment(s)

I’m still recovering from my first American Le Mans Race, and a strange race it was. Luckily I was there for a few days, so enjoyed the practice and qualifying before the ‘Trèz-Petit’!

One of the most impressive things about the weekend was seeing how the Patron Highcroft race team built up a new race car after Scott Sharp destroyed the original during practice (above, with Radio Le Mans commentary). It was one of the biggest accidents I’ve ever seen and it’s a testament to today’s safety standards that he walked away.

The car was completely destroyed and ended up back at the pits on two trucks! Only 10% of the parts were salvageable. A new tub was sent from California overnight and the mechanics built up the car during the course of Friday, amazingly ready for warm-up on Sunday morning. The mechanics looked shattered by the end of it.

This is a great time lapse video of the rebuild.

More from Petit during the week.

 

-Andy Blackmore

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Posted Sep 21 2009, 11:33 AM by Andy Blackmore with 10 comment(s)

Speedhunters
The 'Petit Le Mans' round of the American Le Mans Series takes place this coming weekend and Speedhunters will be bringing you coverage of the10hour endurance event. A closed test took place over the weekend and was the first chance to see the 'Need For Speed Shift' liveried #92 BMW M3 which Jörg Müller,Tommy Milner and Dirk Müller will compete in. If you look closely, you will also notice Speedhunters.com stickers on the Rear wing end plate! In addition to our coverage...

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Posted Sep 14 2009, 05:19 PM by Andy Blackmore with 7 comment(s)

Speedhunters
Regular Speedhunters photo contributor, and SpeedTV.com Auto Racing editor, Marshall Pruett has been working on an excellent new website, grandtouringprototype.com , which showcases the IMSA GTP Series, a golden era in North American Sports car racing. The predecessor to the current American Le Mans Series. The site now has more than 50 hours of video, in conjunction with IMSA/ALMS, from old telecasts from years gone by. It is an amazing Aladdin’s cave for anyone into Sportscar racing. Also...
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Posted Sep 10 2009, 12:15 PM by Andy Blackmore with 53 comment(s)

Speedhunters
McLaren Automotive launched their new MP4-12C Supercar earlier this week at their Technical Centre in the UK. The new car will go into production in 2011 and feature a McLaren design and developed Twin Turbo V8 and cost around £150,000 CEO, Ron Dennis' plan is for McLaren to produce a range of sports cars in the coming years and the MP4-12C fits into the Ferrari 458/Lamborghini Gallardo class. Personally, I am somewhat underwhelmed with the styling, but I do understand the reasons for this...
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Posted Sep 07 2009, 05:40 AM by Andy Blackmore with 10 comment(s)

Speedhunters
The BMW 320Si is one of the most popular and successful touring cars of the modern era. In this car feature, we will look at the Team Airwaves British Touring Cars of Jonathan Adam and Rob Collard with the aid of images from Peter Still, John Brooks and Jonathan Moore. The BMW 320si is a S2000 class touring car introduced at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 2005. Over 2000 production road cars were built to suit homologation. The production cars are powered by a 2-litre unit based on the older E46’s...
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Posted Sep 04 2009, 07:07 AM by Andy Blackmore with 2 comment(s)

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John Brooks was on duty at Silverstone last weekend, so we have a hugh gallery of images form Rounds 22, 23 and 24 of the British Touring Car Championship with some additions from our friends at PSP-Images. A few driver changes. Ex Formula 1 driver, Johnny Herbert joined Team Dynamics, replacing James Thompson who has commitments in the Danish, World Touring Car Championships and the Australian V8 Supercar championship – busy boy! Tom Onslow-Cole was also called up as a stand in for the second...
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Posted Sep 03 2009, 11:35 AM by Andy Blackmore with 3 comment(s)

Speedhunters
Another catch up post! This time we focus on the latest rounds of the British Touring Car Championship at Knockhill. Silverstone will follow tomorrow. The Knockhill rounds took place in mid August. A smaller field than normal as a couple of teams decided to skip this Scottish Round. After a few lack-luster results, Jason Plato dominated the first race of the day in his Chevrolet Lacetti from Pole Position. Local boy, Gordon Shedden was close behind, under pressure from the Airwaves BMW’s of...
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Posted Sep 02 2009, 05:04 PM by Andy Blackmore with 22 comment(s)

This popped up on my twitter account earlier. Autocar Magazine in the UK released a video of Nick Masons road-legal BMW powered McLaren F1 GTR around, what looks like Chobham test track in the UK. I believe an article appears in this week's Autocar Magazine.

Despite what the video says, I don't think '10R' is the most famous, by any means. I would suggest the 1995 Le Mans winning Ueno Clinic car or GTC Gulf cars would hold that 'title'.

This car has recently had its yellow '96 GTR' launch livery re-applied. This was designed to announce the 1996 version of the GTR and needed to stand out on the page. I had real difficulty in coming up with a livery for the car which was already painted Red, so I asked the paint-shop at McLaren to cut me some 'GTR' stickers for my scale model....

.....I came back from lunch and a couple of GTR stickers were lying hap-hazard on my desk, on top of some elevation drawings. I thought that works, and that was that, onto the next project! 

I do remember it was a pain for the guys to sticker though!

-Andy Blackmore

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