Innehållsförteckning för August 2025 från Racecar Engineering

The Polish Inter Europol team crossed the line first, having led for much of the race, yet it wasn’t a straightforward victory. The no.34 ORECA 07 Gibson led 216 out of 367 laps, but then driver, Nick Yelloly, locked up in the pit road, picked up a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane and re-joined in second place, only to re-take the lead eight laps before the flag. The fact that in what has become a one-make category he was able to win, even with the penalty, speaks volumes. The LMP2 category is open to other manufacturers, but every entry has been an ORECA chassis for the last three editions now. Goodyear tyres are standard throughout the class, and there is only one choice of slick. Differences between…

While 800bhp in a club or national level racecar is impressive, it’s not quite as unusual as it once was. There are a handful of cars with this level of horsepower in Time Attack, for example, as well as drag racing of course. What is more unusual is to have an 800bhp car that still looks like a regular road car, yet that’s the trick Damien Bradley has pulled off with his remarkable Subaru Legacy hillclimb machine. Bradley’s Legacy is, arguably, the quickest car with a roof on it that currently competes on the ferociously competitive British hillclimb scene, even making the Top 12 Runoff against the unlimited, big-downforce single seaters when the tracks are on the damp side. By the time you read this, it will also have competed…

The autonomic nervous system is a silent, vigilant network of communication lines running throughout our bodies. With sensory neurons in every muscle, organ and joint detecting changes in pressure, temperature, chemistry and movement, our bodies sense our current state thousands of times every second as electrical signals are sent through nerve fibres to the spinal cord. There, control decisions are made and responses sent back out to regulate the body’s systems via hormones, action potentials and neurotransmitters. This continuous loop of sensing, interpretation and reaction happens thousands of times every second. It’s completely unconscious, yet critical to life. Our nervous system is distributed, responsive and highly resilient, maintaining balance while constantly adjusting to internal and external demands. It keeps the body breathing, the heart beating and the temperature stable, all…

The 24 Hours of Le Mans could conceivably see its first hydrogen car on the grid in 2028. Three years out from that date, it is hard to visualise what the highly anticipated cars will be like. Some manufacturers have offered glimpses; Toyota, for example, revealed its liquid hydrogen-fuelled GR LH2 concept car at Le Mans this year. Alpine has built a demonstrator with hydrogen internal combustion engine technology and the ACO-backed Mission H24 initiative is developing a faster, longer-lasting version of its prototype using liquid fuel. So far, though, all those official projects have only divulged a minimal level of detail. What performance metrics will hydrogen cars deliver? What structures will they incorporate? How will the storage system affect aerodynamics? Answers to these questions, and more, were recently posited…

Ligier has launched a non- homologated, track day version of its second generation LMP3 car The Ligier JS P3X is powered by a 6.2-litre GM LT1 V8 engine from Katech that produces 625bhp, around 155bhp more than today’s LMP3s. It has also been given a refined aerodynamics package featuring a new splitter, updated wheelarches and an LMP2-inspired nose that takes in additional air to cool the more powerful engine. A new engine cover, including a dorsal fin evocative of current Hypercars, maintains the aero balance. The car retains the six-speed, sequential Xtrac 1152 gearbox and semi-automatic pneumatic paddle shift from Ligier’s homologated LMP3 model. The double wishbone suspension layout with four-way Öhlins TTX40 dampers is also carried over. Sales are limited to 10 units.…

For a while there it looked as though Ferrari would dominate the final standings with a 1-2-3 result, but the 24 Hours of Le Mans rarely works like that. The 499Ps worked their way into the top positions within the first four hours of the race after qualifying poorly, using their exemplary long run form to good effect in the opening portion. They remained at the sharp end for much of the race, too; only one Porsche 963 was able to keep up with them. The other contenders, meanwhile, fell by the wayside, hampered by a lack of performance in at least one area, or three in Alpine’s case, including downforce, traction and straight-line speed. Ferrari wasn’t top of the pile in any of these areas, but was excellent on…

‘Is fuel injection possible by Sebring?’ That was the hopeful enquiry from racing driver, John Fitch, to Ed Cole, Rosey Rosenberger and Zora Arkus-Duntov on 29 February 29 1956 when the 12 Hours of Sebring race was only four weeks away. Fitch, who had enjoyed the benefits of injection at Mercedes-Benz, was eager to have it for Corvette’s first big race. Cole, too, was impatient to enjoy injection’s advantages, but for Sebring in ’56 was overly optimistic. As the General Motors division’s chief engineer, Edward Nicholas Cole was deeply involved in planning for the new 1957 model, fielding press previews, dealer meetings and final conferences on advertising strategy. This would be the first new Chevy that would be all Cole’s own, the car that would kick off his recent appointment…

There are projects and then there are projects. Josh Valman’s AB850 hillclimb car falls into the latter category. Before we go any further, it is worth noting that Valman has never built a racecar before, which makes his first effort all the more astounding. ‘It was 2020 – we all know what that means – and I was keeping myself entertained,’ he muses. ‘It was supposed to just be a car restoration, but then I thought, let’s build a chassis, and then it became let’s design every bolt and go to town. It’s a bit silly really.’ The car in question will ultimately have a silhouette body loosely based on a 1960’s Alfa Romeo GTV and run in the FIA European Hill Climb Championship. Valman says his inspiration was an…

A spec tyre will be introduced to Formula Regional series when they adopt the second generation cars, which are set to debut in 2026. The FIA has chosen Pirelli as official supplier. The Italian company, which also holds sway in Formulas 1, 2 and 3, will develop new 15in tyres. In the first generation of Formula Regional, series have been able to choose their own supplier, and four different tyre companies are currently active across five FIA-approved championships. Hankook is used in North America; cars in Japan and the Middle East run on Dunlops and Gitis respectively, while Pirelli supplies the grids in Europe and New Zealand. Pirelli will also provide tyres to the Formula Regional and Formula 4 races at the Macau Grand Prix. ‘This next phase for Formula…

IndyCar has pushed back the introduction of its new chassis to 2028, due to a delay in finalising the new engine regulations. Working in tandem with the series’ long-term chassis supplier, Dallara, the new car is set to be 38-45kg (85-100lb) lighter and better suited to racing on all of the track types IndyCar visits, with the aim of enhancing overall raceability. Improved safety, a more ergonomic cockpit with improved driver position and an integrated Aeroscreen and roll hoop are key parts of the design. The development of the new engine, however, is proving to be more challenging. Chevrolet and Honda currently supply the grid and, while the former is set to continue, Honda has yet to commit. IndyCar, meanwhile, has stated the new power unit will be a more…

The Manthey team took victory in the LMGT3 class at Le Mans this year. It was a pretty dominant display by a team that worked hard on driver development in the simulator pre-race to ensure it had no weak link, or stint. Richard Lietz, who is fast becoming one of the most successful drivers at Le Mans, said that he had never been so well prepared, having spent a good deal of time bringing his co-drivers, Riccardo Pera and Ryan Hardwick, up to speed in the Porsche 911 GT3 R. Lietz and Manthey won the first LMGT3 race at Le Mans in 2024, so both knew they would face stiff opposition from their rivals. Naturally, Balance of Performance was a key topic in the lead up to the event. The…

After the ninth round of the 2025 Formula 1 season, Mercedes team principal, Toto Wolff, said: ‘Maybe sometimes we try to believe there is a magic bullet in Formula 1 that’s going to solve everything, but it’s not the case.’ His frank comment referred to the FIA’s introduction of stricter front wing flexibility tests ahead of that weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix. Wolff, and everybody else, had just witnessed McLaren take its third one-two result of the year. It came despite a lot of pre-race attention on whether the tougher tests would erase part of the Woking team’s advantage. Instead, McLaren furthered its World Constructors’ Championship lead and gave the impression that its MCL39 has enough tools in the box to ride out a mid-season regulation tweak. The events of Barcelona…

NASCAR is unique in many ways, not least the fact that it gives all competitors access to a limited set of telemetric data. This feature debuted as part of the NASCAR Team Analytics application that was introduced in in 2019, which featured data collected by SportsMedia Technology (SMT) that teams could subscribe to. This was introduced in response to various teams using external audio and video analysis to try and reverse engineer telemetry information from their competitors. Separately, NASCAR collected timing, scoring and pit stop information, which was available to competitors via various data streams, and a few years ago the organising body decided to improve all of these elements and combine them under a new platform. NASCAR started development of the Event Racing Data Platform (ERDP) in 2023 and…

It has been 10 months since Genesis announced it would be entering the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) in 2026. A lot has happened since then, and the Hyundai-owned luxury car brand has taken several steps towards readiness. It has chosen a chassis supplier for its LMDh car, selected and fired up the engine, partnered with an LMP2 team to train its crew and formed a leadership structure with a high level of experience. By the time you read this, the Genesis GMR-001 might be on the cusp of its first track test, scheduled for early August. The car is due to make its competitive debut at the WEC’s season opener in Qatar in late March 2026, just 18 months after the project was revealed to the world. Of course,…

The FIA World Motor Sport Council has finalised the outline of the WRC27 regulations that will be rolled out in the FIA World Rally Championship. The future top-level cars will feature a common design spaceframe and defined internal volume. All parts of the car must fit within this space, although body design around it is free. That core tenet of the regulations is to open the door to OEMs that produce different types of car, from saloons to hatchbacks and crossover designs, without affecting performance. The rules are due to remain in place for 10 years, but manufacturers have questioned the lack of a hybrid system in the car in the first iteration of the rules. It is known that Hyundai will reconsider its position in the championship if there…

German engineering firm, HWA, has announced plans to enter the 2026 Nürburgring 24 Hours with a racing version of its own road-legal special. The HWA EVO is styled on the Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.5-16 Evo II, a successful touring car of the early 1990s. To help showcase the road-legal model, which is limited to 100 units, HWA will develop and run two modified racing versions in the SP-X class for non-homologated vehicles. Full technical spec have yet to be revealed, though Racecar understands development will begin shortly. Veteran drivers Roland Asch and Klaus Ludwig, a three-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner, will be involved in testing. ‘During our preliminary testing of the prototype road cars, it was instantly apparent that the HWA EVO is everything we built it to be,’…