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Posted Oct 09 2009, 10:45 AM by Andy Blackmore with 9 comment(s)

EVENT>> GIL DE FERRAN/CHAPARRAL TRIBUTE
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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)

RETROSPECTIVE>>McLAREN F1 GTR SHORT TAIL: PART 2
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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 13 comment(s)

RETROSPECTIVE>>McLAREN F1 GTR SHORT TAIL: PART 1
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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)

VIDEO ROLL>> ACURA DESTROY AND BUILD
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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)

RANDOM SNAP>> NEED FOR SPEED SHIFT BMW M3 GT2 TESTING
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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)

VIDEO ROLL>> BMW IMSA-GTP WIN
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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)

NEW CARS>>McLAREN MP4-12C
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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)

CAR FEATURE>> 'AIRWAVES BMW' 320Si BTCC TOURING CAR
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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)

EVENT>>BTCC 2009 - SILVERSTONE
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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)

EVENT>>BTCC 2009 - KNOCKHILL
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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 21 comment(s)

VIDEO ROLL>>McLAREN F1 GTR ' 96-GTR LAUNCH CAR'
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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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Posted Sep 02 2009, 07:51 AM by Andy Blackmore with 9 comment(s)

EVENT>>ALMS 2009 CATCH-UP
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Workload has resulted in a lack of ALMS updates from me for most of the season, but it is now time to bring you up to date, in preparation for 'Petit Le Mans' later this month. At the front, the series suffered from the withdrawal from Audi and their R15 TDi after Sebring 12hours. The economic climate also resulted in Audi pulling out of the European Le Mans Series. A decision that Audi probably has since regretted, as lack of running and development cost them victory in the 2009 Le Mans...
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Posted Aug 07 2009, 12:58 PM by Andy Blackmore with 9 comment(s)

EVENT>>BTCC 2009 - SNETTERTON
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It has been a while, with a long summer break, but the British Touring Car Championship returned to the track last weekend at Snetterton, in Norfolk. Current Champion Fabrizio Giovanardi and Colin Turkington shared the top spot of the podium during the three race event. Turkington was a little fortunate to take the final race win of the day after original winner, James Nash, was excluded. Jason Plato started the day in pole position for Race One in his Silverline Racing Chevrolet Lacetti. Turkington...
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Posted Aug 04 2009, 11:23 AM by Andy Blackmore with 20 comment(s)

NEW CARS>>CHEVROLET CORVETTE GT2 RACE CAR
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Hot off the press! Corvette Racing have have just announced their new Corvette C6.R GT2 race car. The car new will make its competition debut in the American Le Mans Series this weekend, at Mid-Ohio. The new 'vette will be joining a very competitive class, with the likes of BMW, Porsche, Ferrari, Panoz and Ford. Previous versions of the Corvette C5-R and C6.R race cars have dominated the GTS and GT1 categories in the last decade, winning 77 races and eight consecutive ALMS championships. The...
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Posted Aug 04 2009, 10:50 AM by Andy Blackmore with 1 comment(s)

DESKTOP>> AUGUST 2009 CALENDAR
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Sorry for the slight delay with this months calendar. It was worth the wait! This month, we bring you the Top Secret Toyota Supra V12 which achieved a top speed of 222mph at tje Nardo High speed test track last year. The Calendar is available in our desktop section as a standard (1600) size or the widescreen (1900) format. More on this car later this month as part of our Speed Features -Andy...

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Posted Jul 31 2009, 04:50 PM by Andy Blackmore with 12 comment(s)

VIDEO ROLL>> BEFORE FOUR WHEEL DRIVE
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I thought I would search out some good youtube Rally action following the Group B retrospective today, but I ended up choosing two great clips of Ari Vatanen and co-driver, Terry Harryman on the Manx Rally, way back in 1983.

Most people will be aware of the famous Pikes Peak video which is so good, we've featured it twice! Always good to feature something different.

 

Vatanen was driving a rear wheel drive Opel Manta 400 Group 4 Rally car. Even so, some great action, particularly when Ari slides through a gate around 1.40 in the second video! Got to love the 1980's on screen graphics!

Today, Vatanen is up against his old Peugeot boss, Jean Todt for the FIA presidency later this year. There is an interesting interview with him here, from RadioLeMans.com Midweek Motorsport show earlier this week if you are interested.

 

Andy Blackmore

 

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Posted Jul 31 2009, 03:31 AM by Andy Blackmore with 21 comment(s)

RETROSPECTIVE>>THE CARS OF GROUP B RALLYING
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We round off this AWD month on Speedhunters with a look back to the golden age of Rallying, Group B. A time when rally cars were true supercars. Four wheel drive, over 500bhp, mid-engine layouts, space-frame chassis and massive budgets. It is remembered as the golden era of Rallying, but it would only last a few years. Rallying in the 1970’s was all about the domination of Ford Escort. One of the most successful rally cars of all time. It won multiple national and international championships...
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Posted Jul 03 2009, 02:29 PM by Andy Blackmore with 11 comment(s)

GALLERY>> GOODWOOD CENTRAL DISPLAYS
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Other than family, the biggest thing I miss about the UK is Goodwood Festival of Speed. I went to every one until 2005 and it was always a highlight in my Motor Racing year. I would see few cars run up the hill climbs. I would spend most of the time in the paddocks or on the front lawn where a stunning display was always to be had. The very wet 1997 FoS was the second date with my future wife, Joanne! Must be a petrol head. Anyway, I digress. Gerry Judah always creates a fantastic sculpture each...
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Posted Jul 01 2009, 02:02 AM by Andy Blackmore with 7 comment(s)

CALENDAR>>JULY 2009
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We start off July, otherwise known as 'AWD Feature Month' with our Calendar Desktop, featuring the awesome HKS CT230R EVO. Check back later today for an in depth feature on this car by Mike Garrett. Not to be missed. You can download the July Calendar in Standard (1600) and Wide Screen (1900) formats in our desktop section. -Andy Blackmore PS: Happy Canada Day!

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Posted Jun 29 2009, 03:22 PM by Andy Blackmore with 27 comment(s)

NEW CARS>>ASTON MARTIN CYGNET CONCEPT
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When this dropped into my inbox this morning, I thought it was a hoax.. Aston Martin have developed a 'luxury commuter concept', the Cygnet, which is based on the Toyota iQ. According to AM, the concept represents a creative, environmentally conscious solution, being small, yet with presence, fuel efficient with the prestige of Aston Martin's luxury brand ownership. Surprisingly, the clay shows how well the front end has been integrated into the main iQ body using the existing Toyota...

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