All Electric Lap Times McLaren P1 vs Porsche 918 vs BMW i8 at Goodwood Festival of Speed 2014
All Electric Lap Times McLaren P1 vs Porsche 918 vs BMW i8 Wich is Fastest?
LaFerrari vs McLaren P1 vs Porsche 918
LaFerrari vs McLaren P1 vs Porsche 918 Which Would You Buy?
1960 24hrs of Le Mans Corvette Documentary
In 1960 GM was not officially affiliated with any of the teams, but for the first time Corvette was on the grid and GM commissioned a short documentary to be filmed. The #3 Corvette persevered and took 1st in class.
Saab Auto Owner Running Out of Road
For those who didn’t know Saab was’t totally dead… but may now be.
The Saab automobile brand may have finally run out of road at least under its current owners.
The Chinese-backed company that bought the Swedish sport-cars maker out of bankruptcy in 2012 said on Wednesday that it will lay off up to 200 employees as ongoing talks to revive production have failed to reach agreement on long-term financing.
National Electric Vehicle Sweden (NEVS), which sought protection from its creditors after it ran out of cash earlier this year, said that the layoffs will be implemented before the end of this month to rapidly reduce the company’s costs as it attempts another reorganization. NEVS currently has 550 employees.
The company said it remains unclear when production, halted in May, will resume.
“We can’t make a decision to start up production without a long term financing plan in place,” said Mikael Östlund, spokesman at NEVS. The company said talks with potential investors are continuing.
NEVS last month sought bankruptcy protection, saying it lacked the funds to keep afloat long enough to conclude talks with parties interested in investing in its Saab project.
This development follows efforts by NEVS to revive Saab that have lasted more than two years. Sold by GM to Spyker in 2010, Saab has been in and out of bankruptcy protection and produced very few vehicles in recent years.
NEVS restarted production of the Saab 9-3 sedan on Sweden’s west coast late last year and had plans to build an electric car in China starting this year. The company hoped to produce a line of cars built off the so-called Phoenix platform, a vehicle architecture developed by GM that was never fully deployed.
In the latest twist in the long-running struggle to keep the Swedish auto maker on the road, NEVS said earlier this year it had run out of cash to pay its suppliers, and stopped production, which had stood at half a dozen vehicles a day. The company is scheduled to present its court-supervised reorganization plan to creditors early next month.
CORVETTE RACING AT COTA: Action Express Racing, Chevrolet Maintain Points Lead
Third-place finish for Fittipaldi, Barbosa; Corvette Racing comes up short in COTA repeat attempt
Action Express Racing’s Joao Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi led the Corvette Daytona Prototype effort Saturday with a 3rd-place finish in the Lone Star Le Mans event at Circuit of the Americas (COTA). The No. 5 Corvette DP finished on the podium for the third consecutive event as Chevrolet maintained its lead in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship’s Engine Manufacturer standings for Prototypes.
Fittipaldi and Barbosa lead three times for 23 laps in the 2-hour, 45-minute race at COTA. The pair lead the class Driver’s championship standings by 22 points heading into the 1,000-mile/10-hour Petit Le Mans (the final race of the year in two weeks at Road Atlanta).
Michael Valiante and Richard Westbrook were the second-best Corvette DP pairing with a 6th-place finish in the No. 90.
Following contact and a flat tire on the opening race lap – which resulted in a flat left-rear tire – Ricky Taylor and Jordan Taylor placed 7th in their No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP. Eric Curran and Boris Said were eighth in class for Marsh Racing in the No. 31 Corvette DP.
Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas were the overall race winners in their Ford-Riley.
Corvette Racing: A Difficult Day
Returning to the site of a victory in last year’s American Le Mans Series race, Corvette Racing aimed for a return to the GT Le Mans (GTLM) podium in the TUDOR Championship. An early charge by Antonio Garcia in the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R at the start of the race raised hopes as the Spaniard moved from seventh to 5th in the opening laps.
The momentum couldn’t continue, however, for the team’s two Corvette C7.Rs. Garcia and Jan Magnussen finished 9th in GTLM, followed by the No. 4 Corvette C7.R of Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner in 10th place.
Garcia drove a double-stint to open the race and handed off to Magnussen with 52 minutes left. Magnussen rejoined the race 7th but experienced braking issues that hindered his run.
In the No. 4 Corvette, Milner drove a single stint to open and was part of a 5-car battle in the early stages. He handed off to Gavin, who drove with elevated tire pressure as the sun came out and the track warmed.
Jonathan Bomarito and Kuno Wittmer were GTLM class winners.
CORVETTE RACING AT COTA: Seventh Starting Spot in GTE Pro
The No. 65 Corvette C7.R will start seventh Saturday in the GTE Pro class of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) race at Circuit of The Americas. Tommy Milner and Jordan Taylor posted a combined average laptime of 2:08.674 around the 3.4-mile, 20-turn layout in qualifying ahead of the Six Hours of Circuit of The Americas.
Corvette Racing is running the FIA WEC round in tandem with its two-car entry in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship. Milner and Taylor are joined by Ricky Taylor in the entry sponsored by Konica Minolta and Michelin.
It is the first WEC race for Corvette Racing outside the Le Mans 24 Hours, and Friday was the first time for either driver – and the Corvette Racing team, for that matter – to contest the FIA WEC’s qualifying format. The grid for all four classes is set by averaging the two best laps from each team’s two qualifying drivers.
Jordan Taylor set the car’s fastest lap in qualifying at 2:06.878, and Milner’s best time was a 2:09.558. The latter had to deal with rainy conditions at the start of the session; however the track continued to dry as qualifying went on. The Corvette Racing crew spent Thursday and Friday tweaking and adjusting the No. 65 entry, which served as the team’s test car during the development of the Corvette C7.R prior to the start of the TUDOR Championship season.
The Milner/Taylor/Taylor combination is the only all-American tandem in the FIA WEC race. In the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship race earlier in the day, Milner will drive Corvette Racing’s No. 4 Corvette C7.R alongside Oliver Gavin in the GT Le Mans class. The Taylors in their No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette Daytona Prototype. The two-hour, 45-minute TUDOR Championship race will precede the six-hour WEC round.
Will the Chevy Corvette go mid-engine?
Will the Chevy Corvette go mid-engine? It’s a strong possibility, according to a report from Motor Trend.
Motor Trend says Chevrolet could use the mid-engine layout as soon as the next ZR1, which would mean the supercar could be only several years away. A bit farther out, the next-generation Vette, the C8, could also go mid-engine, according to Motor Trend. The seventh-generation car went on sale in 2013, so the C8 isn’t due until the early 2020s.
The story, which cites anonymous sources and has multiple authors, says General Motors considered using the mid-engine configuration for the C7, but that those plans died when product guru/vice chairman Bob Lutz and former Corvette chief engineer Tom Wallace left GM.
Moving the Corvette to the mid-engine configuration would offer many possible benefits, including a more favorable weight setup and greater performance. It would elevate the Corvette, which is already considered one of the best and most affordable high-performance cars in the world, to elite status. The C7 is a viable Porsche 911-fighter, but the mid-engine chassis would allow the Vette to face off against Ferraris, Lamborghinis and McLarens.
In its online report, Motor Trend argues the Corvette might need to go to a mid-engine setup to separate itself from the next-gen Chevy Camaro, which is expected to cut weight and improve its agility to better compete against the Ford Mustang.
Rumors of a mid-engine Corvette are nearly as old as the car itself. Zora Arkus-Duntov, considered to be the father of the modern, performance-oriented Corvettes, was a vocal advocate. As we’ve reported, GM has moved to trademark the “Zora” name for use on cars. Arkus-Duntov spearheaded development of two mid-engine Chevrolet Experimental Racing Vehicle prototypes in the early 1960s, which fueled rumors the Corvette could move to that setup. The CERV II concept (shown above), specifically was conceived as the answer to Ford’s GT40 program, and the CERV II also had what’s believed to be the first torque-vectoring all-wheel-drive system. Could a Corvette get all-wheel drive? Some people inside Chevy have been thinking about it for more than 50 years.
Still, a move to mid-engine would make the Corvette a completely different animal, and fans of the car are among the most loyal in the industry. A layout change could make the Vette more extreme, and possibly more expensive. Would you welcome this? Let us know in the comments below.
BMW M5 Competition vs 2014 Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG
2014 BMW M5 Competition vrs the 2014 Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG S Model Which would you choose?
FASTEST STREET CAR IN AMERICA – Tom Bailey’s 217 MPH ’69 Camaro!
1000 miles, 4 tracks, 5 days, and 5 six second passes, if that doesn’t prove that this is the fastest street car in America (possibly the world), I don’t know what does! Tom Bailey and Steve Morris not only won Drag Week 2013, but they are also the first to run 5 consecutive six second passes at Drag Week!