After the Champagne (or whatever fizzy stuff they use in Monterey) had been washed away, it was a matter of what direction do we take from here for AMG Mercedes Benz? They had cars, drivers and budget, where could they race for the 1999 season? The FIA GT Championship was going to run to GT2 rules, so that avenue was closed. Stephane Ratel held a meeting
Down to earth with a bump, the AMG Mercedes squad trailed back to Affalterbach to conduct the post mortem on the Le Mans debacle. That the two engine failures suffered were as a result of the failure of a very minor part added to the sense of injustice. But the AMG squad are real professionals, so the problem was put right and everyone focused on the
Place: Le Mans, France Date: 6th June 1998 The Mayor of Atlanta, Georgia, waves the Tricolour and the 66th Grand Prix of Endurance bursts into life. There is a huge crowd of spectators, attracted no doubt by the prospect of the battles between the factory teams from Mercedes Benz, BMW, Porsche, Nissan and Toyota. Right from the off the race did not
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
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
Around the office at EA, the Speedhunters audience is always referred to as "the hardcore" ... That is, you guys are so much more than casual automotive fans; you eat, sleep and breath this stuff... But among automotive enthusiasts there are the hardcore and then there are the REAL hardcore . People whose automotive knowledge reaches encyclopedic
Ok enough drift articles for the moment... the big event this weekend is the Le Mans 24HRs which starts tomorrow morning. As I don't own a television, I'm going to be getting up at 05:30 to head over to a buddy's apartment to watch the first few hours of the race. I should then hopefully be able to stream video and/or audio from the rest
Anniversaries are tricky things, looking back tends to fade the negative and accentuate the positive. Nostalgia for a safe past rather than the uncertain present or unknown future. But the years do rattle past quickly so some form of marker post is necessary if only to give focus to the things to come. Back in 1984 I never imagined that I would be still