One obvious sign of economies returning to full steam is increased involvement by automakers in the incredibly expensive field of motorsports. A valuable R&D experience regardless of the outcome, the marketing aspect depends solely on if you win. With a Charlie Sheen obsession for “winning”, Volkswagen aims to get involved directly with the prestigious World...
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The Mitsubishi Evo might be slated for the history books, but a few folks out there intend to send it off with a bang. The team at GMG is currently prepping an Evo for the SCCA World Challenge Series, where it will compete in the new(ish) GTS class. Just a few years ago World Challenge...
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Trade in your Ariel Atom and sell-off the Lotus 2-Eleven because you’re going to need to put together some serious funny money to pick up the latest track special: the KTM X-Bow. Priced at $88,500 it’s certainly not cheap. And that doesn’t even include the engine, an Audi sourced 2.0T block that KTM estimates will...
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Lotus continues to push ahead with its motorsports programs, unveiling at the Geneva Auto Show the Evora Enduro Concept that will form the basis of the British sports car maker’s GT2 race cars. Very much a test mule for those future cars, Lotus plans to develop this platform for competition by (what else?) using it...
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Cadillac is currently testing its CTS-V Coupe race cars at Sebring International Raceway and has released a full selection of photos from the shakedown, helping to add more to our weekly car-porn collection. Shown for the first time in official livery and driven by pilots Andy Pilgrim (No.8) and Johnny O’Connell (No.3), the cars are...
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Earlier this month a debate raged on whether the American armed forces should sponsor NASCAR teams, one that had the potential to get ugly. But the House voted 241-148 to ditch the proposal, allowing the Army, Air Force, and National Guard to keep on racin’. Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN) introduced the proposal, as an amendment...
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Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN) has been campaigning for the removal of the U.S. Army’s sponsorship of a NASCAR entrant in the Sprint Cup Series, a project that costs the Pentagon about $7 million dollars per year. While McCollum has fielded irate calls from those who are angry about her proposal, the threat, delivered via fax,...
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After announcing the widebody Golf24 race car for competition in this year’s Nurburgring 24 Hour race, Volkswagen has just released video of the car undergoing testing in preparation for its debut. With the wild DTM-style aerodynamics, the Golf24 makes use of a modified version of the turbocharged 5-cylinder powerplant from the Golf R, making 434-hp...
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K-Pax Racing has fielded a team of Volvos in the SCCA’s World Challenge season with considerable success over the past few years and have announced they continue to do so in 2011. With the series set to get underway at St. Petersburg, Fla., in late March, the new cars won’t debut until April at Miller...
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After Ford filed a legal injuction regarding Ferrari’s use of the name “F150” for their new Formula 1 car, the Italian supercar manufacturer has bowed to legal pressure and re-dubbed their entrant the “F150th Italia”. While Ford’s ubiquitous pick-up truck, the F-150, could never be confused with the purpose built race car, evidently someone in...
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Nissan fans will rejoice at the brand’s return to the 24 Hours of Le Mans race this year. The Japanese automaker has just announced a partnership with Signature Racing out of France that will see the team use Nissan Motorsports (NISMO) 4.5-liter V8 engines in high-level LMP2 prototype cars. But before the big race in...
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To help promote the new Veloster to the Gen-Y and under crowd, Hyundai has decided to bolster the coupe’s credentials by taking it racing. And in keeping with the car’s demographic, it’s won’t be racing in the more mainstream World Challenge or Grand Am series, but in an arena where the Red Bull-drinking youth of...
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Having just debuted its new Veloster model in Detroit, Hyundai has now announced it is preparing to take the car racing. Rumored for track-duty, judging from the pics its easy to see that the car will instead head off-road to do a little rally racing. No more details have been released, but Hyundai has promised...
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When you think about Le Mans Prototype racers, Cadillac is probably not the first name that would spring to most people’s minds. In fact, it might be one of the last. Back in 2002, Cadillac campaigned the LM-02 racer. After two years of dismal results, this car, LM-02-002, was a lone bright light for the...
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After teasing us with a hopped-up version at the Paris Auto Show, MINI has now revealed the official race-prepped Countryman WRC machine. Unveiled in Monte Carlo, MINI brought out drivers Dani Sordo and Kris Meeke, as well as the 1967 Monte Carlo Rally winning Mini Cooper and drivers Rauno Aaltonen and Paddy Hopkirk to celebrate....
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The Pikes Peak Hill Climb event attracts racers and car manufacturers from around the world. In the last quarter-century, the Germans, the Japanese and more recently the South Koreans have had a go in conquering this mountain, and now it looks like its Romania’s turn. Yea, Romania. Dacia might not be well know in America,...
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After bringing you pictures of the Cadillac CTS-V Race Car tearing up Sebring Raceway in Florida, we finally have some video to show you. The images are cool, but what you’re really after is the noise from the LSA V8 engine at full blast, sans catalytic converters or mufflers. In case the 60 second video...
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Of all the highly touted films screening at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, the one we want to see most is Senna, a documentary on the life of three time Formula 1 world Champion Ayrton Senna. Assembled entirely from previously unseen archival footage from Senna’s career (spanning from his youth karting days...
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With Mad Men setting off a slew of imitators producing 1960’s period pieces on network television, Ridley and Tony Scott, the two brothers collectively responsible for works like Top Gun and Gladiator, are apparently forging ahead with plans for a movie set in the 1960s, but with a motor racing theme. “I grew up in...
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Less than a week after the Cadillac CTS-V Race Car took a bow at the Detroit Auto Show, it’s already had its first shakedown at Sebring International Raceway in Florida, and the all-black paint job looks even meaner than the Cadillac livery we saw in person. Alas, there is no video, but it won’t be...
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Desperate times call for whoring yourself out for money desperate measures, and with the Royal Bank of Scotland pulling their funding from the Williams Formula 1 team, the outfit had to come up with some money, and fast. One group able to come up with the money was PDVSA, the Venezuelan owned state oil company,...
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In a bid to capitalize on the publicity surrounding this year’s Australia Grand Prix Formula 1 event, Lexus will hold the world’s first hybrid only race. The field will be made up exclusively of CT200h models, just as Lexus introduces the car to the Aussie market. Aiming to change the perception that hybrids are only...
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Over in Japan, the Lexus GS is sold as the Toyota Mark X, meaning that you can get the rear-drive sedan at a more affordable price. While not exactly the most dynamic diver’s car, the folks at Goodyear Racing though it would be perfect for their new race car – if you can consider the...
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Arguably the best part about Japan’s Super GT racing series is that when it comes to running a car, there appear to be about as many rules as a monkey knife fight. Often teams will run mismatched engines and bodies, simply using a certain shell for better brand marketing. That being said, Subaru‘s Legacy racer...
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