The Lamborghini Diablo, a car that adorned the walls in poster form of many 90's kids. A car that still is a show-stopper, 20 years after it ceased production. A car that was so outrageous for it's time (and still is), deserves a centerfold in our digital magazine.
The Consulier is one of those ahead-of-its-time stories. Built between 1985 and 1993, the GTP had the specs, the street cred of a supercar.
ZF Friedrichshafen AG, also known as ZF Group, is an engineering company based in Baden-Württemberg, Germany that was founded 1915. Initially a producer of gears for zeppelins and other airships, ZF now designs and builds parts and components for many auto manufacturers across the industry, including Jaguar, Chrysler, Audi, Porsche and many others. Recently, ZF invited journalists to their TechAcademy media event – a technical showcase of ZF’s newest chassis and driveline technologies, both as seen in use in modern vehicles and explained in detail through classroom instruction. Here we’ve collected a trio of videos shot during our stint on the driveline road course, held on the Donaldson Air Force Base in Greenville, South Carolina.
Rumors circulating around the auto industry indicate that Ford is preparing to storm into next month’s Detroit Motor Show with no less than four high-performance models. Citing insider intel, Road & Track reports that Ford will present a track-ready variant of the 2016 Shelby GT350 that debuted last month in Los Angeles, a new SVT Raptor based on the aluminum-bodied F-150, a 300-horsepower Focus RS and, last but definitely not least, a range-topping supercar billed as a heir to the Le Mans-winning GT40 of the 1960s and the GT that was sold in limited numbers in 2005 and 2006. All of these upcoming sports cars will be grouped under a new performance-focused sub-brand that might be called 999, a name borrowed from Ford’s first-ever race car. We’ll have to wait until the Detroit Motor Show opens its doors to the press on January 12th, 2015, to find out exactly what Ford has in store. Until then, we’re taking a look at ten of the greatest factory-built high-performance cars ever to wear the Blue Oval emblem.
From the technologically unconventional to the downright unexpected, we’ve compiled a list of the ten strangest race cars ever to line up on a starting grid. We’re only looking at cars that were designed to compete in major international race events, meaning that an Alfa GTV6-powered Miata built for Le Mons, although entertaining, is off limits.
Known primarily as a manufacturer of robust cars designed for the masses, Toyota raised eyebrows in 1963 when it captured first place in all three categories of the first-ever Japanese Grand Prix. The company started thinking about developing a sports car after it watched sales skyrocket in the aftermath of its heavily-publicized victories.
In the late 1960s, the FIA created a new category of racers in a bid to draw more competitors to the World Sportscar Championship (WSC). To be eligible to compete in the new category, cars had to weigh at least 1,763 pounds and have an engine with a displacement of under 5.0 liters. Additionally, manufacturers needed to build just 25 examples of each car, significantly less than the 50 examples that were required in the above-5.0 liter class. The looser requirements made competing in the WSC cheaper and accessible to smaller teams.
Our friends at Motorsport Retro bring us this incredible gallery of images from the first annual Sydney Retro Speedfest, a vintage themed racing festival held at Sydney Motorsport Park in Eastern Creek, Australia. The event showcases classic sports cars from the ’60s and ’70s including Porsches, Corvettes, Alfa Romeos, Austin Healeys and MGs, classic sports racing cars from Matich, Elfin, McLaren and Lola, and the open wheel legends from Ferrari, Brabham, Lotus, Elfin, Ralt and Chevron.
The 1990s signaled the arrival of fluid-looking cars that represented a drastic departure from the boxy designs often seen in the 1980s. The car landscape in the United States changed considerably, too. Peugeot and Alfa Romeo packed up and returned to Europe, Ford purchased Volvo and booming SUV sales convinced companies like BMW and Cadillac to enter the off-roader market.
It is no secret that Ford tried to buy Ferrari in 1963. Company founder Enzo Ferrari was initially in favor of the deal but he eventually grew tired of negotiating with Ford and canceled the tie-up altogether. Furious, Henry Ford II vowed to develop a car capable of beating Ferrari at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The terms “station wagon” and “performance” rarely go hand-in-hand. In its heyday, the station wagon was a big, bulky alternative to a traditional sedan that was designed to carry a family and a trunk-full of gear. The idea of a performance-wagon seemed downright ludicrous: buyers needed either performance or cargo capacity, but not both at the same time.
There are countless tuners in Europe and in the United States who specialize in making minor aesthetic modifications to high-end cars. Based in Germany, Ruf stands out from the pack by designing and building a large catalog of parts in-house in order to make Porsches lighter and faster. Ruf’s upgrades are so comprehensive that the company is considered a full-fledged automaker in its home country.
As the most powerful racing car that Morgan has ever sold, the ARV6 takes the already formidable performance prowess of the Morgan 3.7 Roadster to another level. With a power to weight ratio of 370 horsepower per tonne and a number of track-tuned enhancements that are unique to the ARV6, this is quite literally the pinnacle of Morgan racing cars.
Widely considered one of the most successful rally cars of all time, the Lancia Stratos HF traces its roots back to the Stratos Zero concept that Bertone revealed at the 1970 edition of the Turin Motor Show.
Winning an enduro on the international stage was a dream for Mazda from the moment Kenichi Yamamoto eureka’ed the production rotary engine into existence. The Mazda 787B was the pinnacle of its evolution, the first and only car to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans with a non-reciprocating engine in the race’s 90-year history.
Many small companies promise to build ultra-quick supercars designed for the world’s richest customers, but very few of them manage to break into the mainstream and fight head-to-head against the likes of Ferrari and Porsche. McLaren took the automotive industry by surprise when it did just that, seemingly coming out of the Formula 1 pits with what has gone down in history as one of the world’s best sports cars.
Earlier this year we took a look at the Toyota GT86 CS-V3, a race car developed for V3 class in the VLN Endurance Championship that also eligible for any production-based class. But if your racing aspirations also take you off the pavement and into the realm of rally competition, the newest iteration of the GT86 race car will be of particular interest to you.
In the 1980s, automakers started turning towards high-tech electronic equipment like on-board computers and digital instrument clusters. Some companies went as far as designing software that actually talked to the driver if a door wasn’t fully closed or if the oil level was low. A lot of the driving aids that we take for granted today were born in the 1980s, even if they didn’t become widespread until much later.
In the 1970s, the automotive industry arrived at one of the most important turning points since its inception. The decade was overshadowed by the OPEC oil embargo that rocked the world in 1973, sending gas prices through the roof and governments all around the globe scrambling to pass strict emissions regulations.
The A/C-based Shelby Cobra made its racing debut at the 1962 Three Hour Invitational Endurance Race organized by the Los Angeles Times, the same event that Chevrolet chose to introduce the then-new Corvette Z06. The Cobra went on to become a successful race car in the United States but it largely failed to make a name for itself on the other side of the pond.
The Society of Automotive Engineers is an entity comprised of more than 138,000 engineers from the automotive, aerospace and commercial vehicle industries which creates testing standards and practices for certifying performance measurements for vehicles. We recently saw SAE involvement in new Chrysler products in regards to the horsepower ratings in the new supercharged engine in the Dodge Challenger and (potentially) the Dodge Charger. Now, Chrysler’s RAM truck division has decided to adopt the SAE’s newest J2807 towing standard across their entire truck line – the only manufacture to do so thus far. However, the real story here is that the SAE has a standard by which manufactures’ trucks can be rated by a universal measurement, rather than ones designed by the manufacturers to meet target numbers under specific conditions.
For those looking to get into some Bavarian wheel-to-wheel racing action, the Spec E30 race class is a fantastic option. Focusing on spec-built, second generation BMW 3-Series coupes and sedans, the Spec E30 class offers an alternative to Spec Miata and Spec Racer Ford classes for those looking to try something a bit different. With relatively low costs to build and run, along with the spec build requirements, Spec E30 rewards driver skill above all else
With nearly 900 chassis delivered across the country and the relatively low operating costs associated with SRF, it’s little surprise that Spec Racer Ford has been one of the most popular classes in the SCCA for nearly three decades.