Category Archives: Race Reflections

Nürburg Notes

Leave a Reply

36th DMV 4 Hour Race.

There is something very special about being at the Nürburgring when the winner of the race is a Mercédès-Benz.


One recalls the company’s first post-war win on the Nordschleife in 1952, when a team of four 300SL models (uniquely in open form just this once) dominated the sports car race which accompanied the German Grand Prix that year. These cars had a close affinity to the current SLS AMG GT3 cars, as Engineer Rudi Uhlenhaut had been given permission by the Daimler-Benz board to create a sports car provided that it made as much use as possible of parts from the production 300 Saloon. The resultant car did admittedly have a space frame but it evolved a year or so later into the famous production gullwing 300SL Coupe which was as much a GT as anything at the time.


( Image courtesy of Daimler-Benz AG )

The occasion for this latest three-pointed star success was the second round of this year’s Veranstaltergemeinschaft  Langstreckenmeisterschaft Nürburgring or VLN for short!

It is a series of races round the Nordschleife “proper” circuit for GT/Touring cars and on average there are usually about 200 starters which, like the similar field in the 24 Hour race, are set off in three separate packs. It seems to work very well and if there is an incident official cars/rescue vehicles go round to the scene while everybody carries on racing – no safety cars picking up leaders here! There are plenty of classes to cater for different specifications – 26 categories in this race – and with such a long lap (14.2 miles) the cars are soon spread out.

This round was a four-hour event with 203 starters. Not surprisingly the manufacturers use these races as a preparation for the forthcoming 24 Hours. For example, BMW has elected to do the first three rounds this year, winning the season’s opener.

There were no less than eight of the new Mercédès taking part, all run by private teams but with the support of the factory. The car had made its competition debut here in the September 2010 VLN race but crashed early on; it scored its first win in the following round and took a third place in that year’s final race. (The car which finished 21st)

Porsche continued to develop its 911 Hybrid. This was the first appearance of this year’s new car: it is about 50 kilos lighter, has less engine power to improve economy and more power is sent to the front wheels. Also, the air intakes ahead of the rear wheels have been deleted.


The Aston Martin Test Centre nearby uses VLN races to perfect its products.

By the end of the race 63 cars had retired leaving 140 finishers. The always competitive Manthey Porsche followed the victorious Mercédès (driven by Chris Mamerow and Armin Hahne) home; then came one of the “works” BMWs, another Mercedes, the second factory BMW and in sixth place the first of the Audi R8s.


TAILPIECE


© 2011 Words and images by David Blumlein

Monza Miscellany

Leave a Reply

GT cars at Monza.

It is not generally known that the first race for cars that we now call GT cars took place at Monza: the Coppa Inter Europa in 1949. In this race three of the first five “street” Ferraris to be made (Tipo 166 Inter) were entered and they filled easily the first three places, Count Bruno Stersi winning in his Touring-bodied car and establishing already Ferrari superiority in the category. While GT cars remained front-engined Ferrari continued its domination, but then gradually Porsche, above all, came on the scene and since the demise of Group C the GT revival has witnessed real rivalry between Zϋffenhausen and Maranello. The ageless Porsche 911 is still a potent force – it won at Monza despite the presence of seven of the new Ferrari 458 Italias.

changing, yet changeless as canal water

 

The Monza circuit is set in a Royal Park. A stroll around the old banked section of the track – lined with beautiful woodlands full of bird song – is very rewarding.

Bank of Italy

One can still pick out traces of the chicanes which were installed at the entrance to the bankings for the 1000 kilometre sports car races from 1966 until the banking was used for the last time in 1969.

Chicanery

As a very fast circuit Monza has been no stranger to chicanes and by the mid-Thirties temporary devices were inserted on the faster stretches – those thundering Grand Prix  Auto Unions and Mercedes needed slowing down! By 1972 permanent chicanes, since modified, were installed before the Curva Grande and at the Ascari Curve with a third one, the Variante dell Roggia, preceding the fast Lesmo Curves four years later. Many other changes have occurred over the years not least the creation of the famous Parabolica to replace the Curva de Vedano which itself eventually eliminated the original South Banking, a raised curve rather than a fully banked corner.

Parabolica

We have seen how, since the Thirties, the sports-racing car has gradually pushed aside the series production sports car in the major endurance events. This trend was encouraged particularly in the Mille Miglia and was taken up after the War by the Le Mans organisers with their Prototype class (originally intended to be temporary in the aftermath of the conflict) but the public loved the big fast racers and they seem here to stay. So it is refreshing to see at Monza the GT3/GT4 cars, especially the latter category whose cars are much more akin to those original participants in the Coppa Inter Europa races. The GT4 class had seven runners, made up of five different marques including a Maserati MC GranTurismo GT4.

Trident Tested

 

 

The attractive Lotus Evoras took the first two places in the GT4 class despite suffering punctures.

Lotus Flowered

 

 

The 3-Hour race was happily free of any major incident and there was no use of the Safety Car. Of the thirty-two starters just seven were unclassified. Here we can see the no. 42 Ferrari abandoned as the French-entered Ferrari 458 Italia enters the Variante Ascari.

Ferrari Park

 

 

One of the joys of visiting Monza is the sense of history all around. The Sala Tazio Nuvolari, named in honour of Italy’s (the world’s ?) greatest driver, contains an example of a Lancia V4 motor as fitted to the Lambda, one of Italy’s most innovative cars.

Pedigree

 

 

TAILPIECE

Artisan

The little Piaggio Ape P3, one of Monza’s workhorses

 

©2011 Words and Images by David Blumlein.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Song of the Mistral

Leave a Reply

David Blumlein is on a roll. Following on from Essen, he travelled south to Le Castellet for the opening round of the 2011 Le Mans Series. His observations can be found below.

The Circuit du Castellet, set on a high plateau between Marseille and Toulon, overlooked by the mountainous hills of Sainte-Baume, has not a long tradition of long distance sports car racing. One recalls the Matra V-12s at the height of their fame coming here in 1973 but the circuit is chiefly remembered for its staging of the prestigious Grand Prix de France in former years. Having since fulfilled the rôle of a test track, it is now back to hosting international races and was chosen as the venue for the opening round of the Le Mans Series in 2010 when the race was of eight hours’ duration. Happily it was the opener again this year but the race was reduced to six hours.

Unhappily this event will be chiefly remembered for the inexcusable confusion at the start, which severely damaged four GTE Pro Porsches and the Jota Aston Martin – only the latter car and one of the German cars were able to resume albeit way down the field. It seems that the Pace Car decided to do a second starting lap and the GT runners at the back could not see this and, finding that the lights on the starting gantry were set at green, began racing in earnest.

All this pandemonium spoilt the real Porsche versus Ferrari battle that is a regular feature of the GT field.

One of the endearing qualities of long distance sports car racing is the opportunity it provides for a good car to carry on winning even after several years of involvement in competition. Look at the Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 in the Thirties and the Aston Martin DB3S, which still made it to a fine second place at Le Mans in 1958 after five seasons of successes. So it is with the Pescarolo which unusually came back from a year’s absence during which the team’s very existence was in doubt! From the back of the grid at the start (to where it was relegated owing to a small technical infringement in practice) to the front at the end was a dream result for Henri Pescarolo and his loyal team, but it seems relevant to ask what future developments  can they look forward to?

 

The LM P2 class was rich in variety. Among the nine entries were six different chassis and three types of engines. We had two different Lola chassis, one the ex-RML MG Lola, the Greaves Motorsport Zytek Z11SN, two HPD ARX-01d cars, three of the new Oreca-03 chassis built nearby to the circuit and the Norma M200P which made its début at Le Mans in 2010.The HPDs are an interesting mixture: they use a Courage-based tub on to which is grafted the work of Nick Wirth and they are powered by the Honda developed 2.8-litre twin-turbo V6.

The RML team could not have been happy to see their former MG-Lola finishing two places ahead of their newer car – older cars doing well in long distance events again! The new Nissan 4.5-litre V8 was used in two of the Oreca-03 chassis and in the Greaves Zytek; the rest of the class had the Judd HK, a 3.6-litre V8.

The Rebellion Lolas marked the return of Toyota to international sports car racing, the Japanese motor giant having developed a 3.4-litre V8 derived from a Formula Nippon block.

Having opted to give Sebring a miss, Aston Martin gave its new LM P1 challenger, the AMR-One, its race début at Le Castellet. The car is still too new and the team was in reality treating the race as a test session. It arrived at Paul Ricard having recently tested at Pembrey and Dijon and its unready state was emphasised by its only doing one solitary lap in Friday practice. The car differs from its rivals at Audi and Peugeot by having an open cockpit and, most interestingly, a 2-litre straight-six turbo motor; such a configuration has not been seen in the LMP class for many a year. The car started the race but later spent a long time in the pits, apparently with a misfire. Aston Martin has been very tight-lipped over the details of its newcomer but it is clear that the engine has been causing problems. The car came out again during the last half hour of the race, almost unnoticed.

 

 

 

 

With the Porsche ranks depleted in GTE Pro, the new Ferrari 458 Italias  helped themselves to the class win but one notices that Zuffenhausen put it over Maranello in the GT Am category with the remaining Felbermayr car.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How pleasing to see Nissan win the LMP2 class with their new engine especially in view of the awful troubles back in the homeland. This success was by courtesy of the Greaves Zytek, the combination staking claim to the third spot on the overall  podium as well.

David Blumlein, April 2011

Bump and Grind

1 Reply

Bill Oursler has sat down to consider the events that unfolded in the Central Highlands of Florida last week, here are some of his observations. John Brooks, March 2011.

So what did we learn from this year’s annual Sebring 12-Hour? The answer is not much that we already didn’t know. At Sebring both the slower 2011 prototypes and their 2010 spec predecessors, now hobbled by the rules so they don’t outshine the lesser performing 2011 models were present. And, in looking at the results, if the outcome of the venerable Central Florida affair suggested anything, it was that perhaps, at least at this stage, it might have been better if newer cars had been left home.

And, for those who might need further convincing that the new generation prototypes are ready. there is the fact that the fourth home 2010 bred Audi turbo diesel R15+ had spent more than a little time in the paddock. It was being repaired from its tangle with the second Factory 908 (which eventually struggled across the line in eighth) and lapped as quickly as 2011-spec 908 in front of it, once it returned to the track.


Now, if all of this doesn’t send the ACO boys reaching for the headache powder, perhaps the second place performance of the gasoline powered Highcroft Racing ARX-01e will.

Delivered to Highcroft less than a week before the start, with its paint figuratively still soft to the touch, it ran like a freight train, fighting for the lead for much of the way. Maybe, the ACO will solve the Highcroft Acura issue by simply not inviting it to come over this June; although, given the current Japanese disaster, that might seem like hitting someone when they’re flat on their back. (One never needs bad press, you know.)

I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again: motorsport in general, and the people in charge of Le Mans in particular, never seem to understand when they have a good thing going. In the last several years the current formula has worked out well, if not perfectly (keep in mind that the gasoline contingent could have used a little more help towards getting an even playing field with the diesels). More importantly, the ACO might likewise want to recognize that manufacturer participation is at best problematical, less centered around winning, than the strength of car sales and the amount of black ink those sales generate.

Differing, and constantly changing agendas over the years, have done little to make sportscar racing’s future a secure one. Stability, on the other hand, has. In a time of economic problems, forcing the sports car racing community to continually spend money appears to this writer to be somewhat stupid. In my view, the ACO ought to keep its fingers off the keys of its word processors and let stability, and the close racing it tends to create, reign and leave the advanced technology avenue to Formula One which now requires the presence of  lawyers and engineers to explain the rules to its fan base.

Bill Oursler, March 2011

 

 

 

 

Sands of Time – Uno

Leave a Reply

Caravanserai

For the past five years the Motosports’ world has been kick-started into life each January by the Dubai 24 Hours. The event has grown in scale and stature with the organisers taking good care of their customers, that is evident by the 84 cars that took the flag this year to commence the long pound round in the sand.

For those of us from the UK, we must be doubly thankful that attendance of the race in the United Arab Emirates gives us the perfect excuse to miss the Autosport Show held at the ghastly NEC. That alone is worth the price of the flight.

All the Sizes, All the Colours

The Dutch organisers, Creventic, have taken full advantage of the popularity and accessability of the GT3 and GT4 classes. They have also learned from the VLN and Nurburgring 24 Hours to try and accommodate a mix of GT and Touring cars. Some are factory efforts in all but name while many are genuine privateer teams who show great resourcefulness in taking on that most challenging of motorsport tasks, racing non-stop  for 24 hours.

Dutch and German Silver Arrows

Creventic have also been assisted in their mission by Grand-Am taking the Daytona 24 Hours on a different route from the rest of the endurance world. Right now the GT2-3-4 cars do not comply with Grand-Am rules and therefore cannot race at the Rolex, though Grand-Am’s management are having a good look at that issue. They may be too late. The traditional trip to Florida in January from Europe has largely become a thing of the past for racers. The delights of travelling to and from the USA as a Non-Citizen are not to be discounted either. Customers will vote with their feet.

Container Line

The containers were lined up behind the pits, disgorged of their contents. The mechanics twirled their spanners, the fitters from Dunlop inflated the tyres and we were all ready to go racing.

Three Stooges?

All, except one team. Lotus had been straining to finish their GT4 Evora, so planned to fly it out to the Middle East on the Monday night. They must have booked CrapAir as the precious cargo was unloaded from the aeroplane before take off, leaving the Anglo-Italian driver line up twiddling their thumbs. Here Johnny Mowlem and the Mansell brothers head back to Jumeira Beach.

Flat Out

Then the news from DXB was better, the car was in the UAE and once the Customs formalities had been observed the car arrived at the track.  The bad news was that it was Thursday evening by this time, with the event starting on Friday afternoon. A few laps in the Warm Up for JM and Stefano D’Aste were the sum of the running for this new car. Now for a 24 Hour race.

Lotus Position

The view for Johnny at the start was some 83 other cars between him and the front. He described the scene in a piece on the authoritative sportscar and endurance racing website DailySportsCar

“So for the race itself I was right at the back of the grid – and it was a BIG grid.  The rules say that you can’t overtake before you pass the start line and I reckon I was at least 6 corners from there when I got the call that the race had started – The race leaders must have been at least two thirds of a lap ahead by the time I had actually gone over the start finish line!”

 

Rub of the Green

“That said, the car was excellent and I could make pretty good progress – the rules dictate that you have to pit for a driver change every 2 hours but by an hour and a half I’d managed to get by the Aston Martin of Hancock, Kane, Masaood and Kapadia to take the class lead. We then pitted 20 minutes later from 30th place –  so 55 cars passed in a stint – that’s probably a record for me, but to be honest the car was so good it made my job very easy!”

 

Podium Celebrations

It was a mega-stint by any standards and set the tone for the whole race. Three driveshaft failures caused by an exhaust manifold overheating a CV joint delayed the Evora but getting a podium in the competitive SP3 class was a fantastic result and just reward for all the hard work. It was the best possible advert for the GT4 Lotus.

More from Dubai tomorrow.

John Brooks, January 2011