Innehållsförteckning för April 2024 från Racecar Engineering

RACECAR FOCUS – VANTAGE GT3 EVO Aston Martin has been involved in GT3 racing since the start of the category with the DBRS9 model through to the Vantage that shared a platform with a GTE car. Now, for the 2024 season, as the GTE category has finally died off and the GT3 regulations have evolved under the guidance of the FIA, the big prize has shifted from the 24 Hours of Spa to Le Mans, where Aston Martin teams will compete with the Vantage GT3 Evo. Launched alongside Aston’s new Formula 1 car in mid-February, the GT3 update is one of three headline projects for the British manufacturer. The Vantage will compete in the FIA World Endurance Championship this year, and next year will be joined by the Valkyrie Hypercar.…

In the United States, where V8-powered muscle cars were born in the 1960s, and hang on to this day, the bespoke road racing platform created for them has been the Trans Am Series. In the beginning, it was home to stars like Parnelli Jones, Mark Donohue and Peter Revson, while later years featured the likes of David Hobbs, Willy T Ribbs and Tommy Kendall. Iconic racing dynasties with Trans Am teams include Penske, Carroll Shelby, Dan Gurney and Jack Roush. Through decades of highs and lows, it has remained the place for V8, bumper-to-bumper, road racing action. Factory works teams have dominated in various eras, with the longest rivalry being between Ford’s Mustang and Chevrolet’s Camaro. Their greatest duel takes place on the streets of Detroit on a semi-regular basis,…

FORMULA 1 – 2024 SEASON Formula 1 has just passed the midpoint of the current technical regulations cycle. Ground effect cars returned in 2022 and now have two seasons under their belt, but they still have two more to run before the hotly anticipated power unit overhaul arrives in 2026. In planetary terms, F1 recently reached the furthest point of its current technological orbit. However, as more time passes and the 2024 season runs its course, so the perihelion and the start of a new cycle will draw closer. The sense of distance was expressed in a lack of changes to the technical regulations for the new season. The porpoising problems of 2022 were largely alleviated with sweeping changes, including increases in the floor and diffuser throat heights. No such…

ELECTRIC RACING – NXT GEN CUP ‘For the young drivers, it’s a modern, good-looking car that everyone knows. And size-wise, it couldn’t be much smaller and still fit the battery in, but it doesn’t need to be any bigger’ Fredrik Lestrup, founder of Lestrup Racing Formula E last had a support series with the somewhat bizarre Jaguar I-Pace eTrophy. Featuring an arrive-and-drive format, the races had a VIP driver each round and, to be honest, as proficient as the I-Pace is, it was never really cut out for street circuit racing. Those who were hoping for some old school, door banging, touring car-style action were left wanting. It went the way of the dodo in 2020 and, in the intervening years, FE has been the sole billing at…

RACECAR FOCUS – JAGUAR XK120 C On 24 June 1951, Peter Walker and Peter Whitehead scored a historic debut victory with the Jaguar C-Type in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Designed as a competition car from the outset, the C-Type ushered in a new era at Le Mans of purpose-built racecars that continues to this day. The brand new Jaguar had been developed in great secrecy by a talented team of engineers lead by William ‘Bill’ Heynes. After a disastrous outing in 1952, the C-Type would win Le Mans again, and also went on to pioneer the use of hydraulic disc brakes in motor racing. The Le Mans-winning Jaguar was officially known as the XK120 C, with the C being short for Competition. By using this name, the British…

Audi calls time on its rally-raid programme after Dakar win Having finally achieved its goal of an outright win on the Dakar with its RS Q e-tron, Audi has put an end to its rally-raid programme after three years. The German manufacturer had considered entering this year’s FIA World Rally-Raid Championship season but decided not to, following an evaluation of spare parts and production timelines. In a statement, Audi explained that ‘extremely high spare parts consumption’ over the last couple of years had depleted its supply of components. Two Audis crashed out of the 2023 event and the manufacturer embarked on an intensive test programme to validate its upgrades for 2024. It entered this year’s event with three cars and took victory with the one driven by Carlos Sainz, alongside…

FORMULA 1 – HAAS VF-24 After finishing last in the 2021 constructors’ standings with zero points, Haas at least managed to get off the mark in the first season of the current Formula 1 rules cycle in 2022. However, after taking one step forward, its results under the ground effect era went a further two steps back last year as it returned to the foot of the table, the team only scoring 12 points, less than half its 2022 total. The American-owned squad’s lack of momentum was followed by team boss, Gene Haas, enacting a major staffing overhaul, removing Guenther Steiner from his long-held post as team principal and promoting technical director, Ayao Komatsu, in his place. Komatsu came out surprisingly pessimistic about the Haas VF-24’s potential in the early…

INSIGHT – TYRE SUPPLY It’s not unusual for engineers and drivers to talk about tyres. Whether it’s blaming them for a lack of pace, complaining about not having enough of them, or worrying about their condition. But in 2023 there was more tyre chat than ever at British circuits when it became clear that one of the major players in the race rubber industry was going to cease manufacturing its products. That major player was Avon, a company with a very long history of providing tyres to racing, including stints supplying Formula 1 teams in the 1950s and early ’80s. More latterly, it’s become better known for its national motorsport involvement, building up an enviable reputation in the British Hillclimbing Championship and in Formula Ford, amongst many other series. However,…

When the GT3 category was launched, it had a wide variety of competitors. It was a class that featured the likes of Morgan’s Plus 8, resplendent with a wooden dashboard, as well as Corvette’s C5 Z06 and Aston Martin’s DBRS9. The idea was to provide an accessible, cost-effective racing platform for various one-make series cars, including the Porsche Carrera Cup and Ferrari Challenge, that could, for the first time, compete against each other. The basis of the class was that whatever was brought, the cars would have their performance balanced and be good to race, with very little adaptation needed. The original concept was to balance the cars to within 0.75 of a second, the thinking being that the amateur drivers would make a bigger difference than that and would…