Yes, that's right, the BMW M3 GTS isn't going to be available to U.S. customers. BMW gave no explanation in its announcement of the stripped-down weekend racer, but it probably has to do with making the thing legal for U.S. roads.
So yes, the M3 GTS can be set up for road use, but its primary purpose is serious track work. With that in mind, BMW's Motorsport division stripped the car of its rear seats, interior trim and pansy stuff like the air conditioner and stereo. They then added a roll cage, mounts for six-point seatbelts and a titanium exhaust system. Total weight is less than 3,300 pounds according to BMW.
Less weight wasn't enough though, so the Motorsport engineers also punched the V8 out to 4.4-liters. They say it makes around 450 horsepower now. Sadly, a double-clutch automatic will be the only transmission available although BMW says it was recalibrated for race use.
The chassis also received a round of race-oriented upgrades like adjustable dampers, fixed subframes and upgraded brakes. The front air dam and rear spoiler are also adjustable for tailoring the car's aero to different tracks.
Categories: BMW,Coupes,Motorsports
A report by the BBC says that top officials at Renault held a meeting on Wednesday to discuss the company's future in Formula One. This comes on the heels of Toyota's official departure announced the same day.
The report said Renault was considering whether to stay in full time, become an engine supplier or pull out altogether.
UPDATE: Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn told reporters today that Renault will make a decision on its participation in Formula One by the end of the year.
BBC Sport: Renault Considers Formula One Exit
FT: Renault stays cagey on F1 future
Categories: Motorsports,Renault
Lace up those Pilotis, friends. Jim Russell Racing School is offering the chance to test in a Williams F1 car. Yes, one of those.
It goes like this. Jim Russell is holding a driver search at Infineon Raceway from December 19-22. You spend four days driving karts, Mitsubishi Evos and Lola-built open-wheel FJR-50s against 39 other racer hopefuls. From this pool of talent, Allan McNish -- yes, that Allan McNish -- will select two drivers whom each win a seat in the 2010 Jim Russell Championship Series (JRCS).
Winning the 16-race JRCS lands you fully-funded season in the 2011 FIA Formula 2 series. And if you conquer the F2 series, you win a test in a Williams Formula 1 car.
Assuming you've got the chops to pull off this hat trick extraordinaire, this is far and away the most affordable and direct way to (possibly) find yourself behind the wheel of an F1 car. You pay the $7,995 entry fee for the driver search, and... that's it. Everything else would be paid for. According to the Russell gang, the school is giving away $990,000 worth of racing to the winners.
Like all things in racing, though, you gotta be quick--the deadline for entering the driver search is at the end of this month.
All the gory details can be found on the Jim Russell USA website.
Jason Kavanagh, Engineering Editor
Continue reading Jim Russell Wants You To Race Formula 1; Putting $990,000 Where Their Mouths Are.
Categories: Mitsubishi,Motorsports,Sports Cars
Last's night "might be leaving" is now definite. Toyota issued a press release today announcing its departure from Formula One, effective with the 2010 season.
"TMC, which had viewed its participation in F1 as contributing to the prosperity of automotive culture, remained dedicated to competing at the pinnacle of motor sports, even in the face of the abrupt economic changes that started last year," the company said in a statement, which Toyota President Akio Toyoda read in a press conference in Tokyo. "However, when considering TMC's motorsports activities next year and beyond from a comprehensive midterm viewpoint reflecting the current severe economic realities, TMC decided to withdraw from F1."
The press release tries to put a positive spin on things, of course, noting that the company will continue to compete in other motorsports and that Toyota (and Toyoda) is committed to trying to inject a little more fun into its lineup: "TMC intends to move forward in developing exciting production vehicles, such as the Lexus LFA supercar and compact rear-wheel-drive sports cars."
This leaves Ferrari and Renault as the only manufacturer works teams in F1, along with the Mercedes-Benz/McLaren partnership.
IL News: Toyota Gives Up on Formula 1 Quest
Press Release: Toyota to Withdraw from F1
Photo Source: Toyota F1 Team
Categories: Motorsports,Toyota
Roush is working on a couple of Mustang drag cars that would stop the beating of Hank Hill's heart.
One of them, a 2005 Roush Stage 3 Mustang to be driven by drag racer Donnie Bowles, will be unveiled this week at SEMA. The other, a 2010 Roush Stage 3, will be raced by Susan Roush-McClenaghan (Jack Roush's daughter) and is slated for a February 2010 debut. Both are fueled by liquid propane.
This is a green play, of course, but Roush has the resources to do it, as the company already sells propane conversion kits for Ford F-Series trucks and Econoline vans.
Each of these Mustang drag cars has a normally aspirated version of the 5.4-liter V8 from the Ford GT. Compression is higher at 12.5:1, though, and the fuel system is modified to cope with propane. The V8 also gets CNC-ported cylinder heads with different camshafts and valves. Also, these Mustangs will use a wet-sump oiling system, so it's a loose connection to the GT at best. Claimed horsepower is "in excess of 600."
Bowles and Roush-McClenaghan will race these propane-fueled Roush Mustangs in the NMRA Modular Muscle and NMCA Open Comp classes.
Categories: Ford,Motorsports,SEMA Show
Photo source: Toyota F1 team
Reuters has picked up a report from the Japanese newspaper Mainichi that indicates Toyota will announce tomorrow that it's leaving Formula One ahead of the 2010 season. Fielding an F1 team is expensive, of course, and perhaps not the sort of luxury Akio Toyoda can indulge given the world's largest automaker's current state of affairs. And Toyota has been at it since 2002 and has nary a win to show for it.
Toyota's departure would presumably open up a spot on the 2010 grid for the reconstituted BMW Sauber team (now owned by the Swiss-based Qadbak Investments), which had been bumped by the new Lotus F1 team.
But of course this is all speculation until the official announcement comes in a few hours.
Reuters
James Allen on F1
Categories: Motorsports,Toyota
Kia Motors announced today that it will enter the 2010 Grand Am KONI Sports Car Challenge Series in the Street Tuner class with two race-prepped Forte Koups. The company hooked up with the Kinetic Group of Atlanta to build and run the two-car team in the series which features vehicles from the U.S., Europe and Asia.
Categories: Coupes,Kia,Motorsports,SEMA Show
If you've ever faced the prospect of driving through snow in a Subaru WRX STI with stock summer tires, you will really appreciate the TRAX STI. And you will also realize that Ken Block's chutzpah is bottomless. He'll try anything once. Now he's gone and put snowcat tracks on his STI rally car.
This is the preview video of a test run near his Utah mountain home. A longer, more death-defying video is undoubtedly in the works. 
In addition to the special (and specially awesome at that) tracks, the TRAX has a reworked suspension (shocker) with Group N-type dampers made by the UK-based company EXE-TC, along with a version of the 2.5-liter turbo boxer four good for 400 hp -- and, no doubt, a great deal of torque. The transmission is a 5-speed dog 'box.
Not shown here is the optional sleigh that hitches to the back of the TRAX STI and transports up to four snowboarders and their boards. Snowboarding, you'll be unsurprised to learn, is another of Block's passions.
Categories: Celebrities,Motorsports,Subaru
Inside Line has learned that the 2010 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG will go on sale in the U.S. in April 2010 as a late 2010 model.
Mercedes officials have also let us know the gullwing Benz will take over for the SL63 AMG as the safety car for the 2010 Formula One season.
And we have an unofficial non-denial that there one day will be a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Black Series.
First Drive: 2010 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG
Categories: Mercedes-Benz,Motorsports,Sports Cars
Cobra Jet is just one of those names that's so manly it would be use it for our fighter-pilot radio handle. Or maybe it could be our on-screen name if we worked on-camera for a local network TV affiliate: "...reporting from the Hackensack city council chambers, this is Cobra Jet."
Ford Motor Company has chosen, instead, to use the name for its factory-built drag racer -- a moniker it's used since 1968. Most recently, the company used the name for a series of 2008 drag-dedicated Mustangs. The company has brought to the SEMA show in Las Vegas a 2010 version in "one-of-a-kind 'SEMA Special' silver Cobra Jet with charcoal...graphics package.
Make the jump for more information and a full photo gallery
Continue reading Hate Turning? Try The 2010 Cobra Jet Mustang Shown At SEMA.
Categories: Ford,Motorsports,SEMA Show
Little pop quiz for y'all.
The most expensive Ford Motor Company product is?
Wrong. FoMoCo already unloaded Aston Martin. The most expensive factory-built Ford is the FR (Ford Racing) Raptor XT truck that the company is to unveil today Tuesday at the SEMA show in Las Vegas. Well okay, so we exaggerate. The truck doesn't actually cost $100,000. It's only $99,950.
The XT is a turn-key professional pre-runner that Ford says is "nearly" the same truck it raced at the 2008 Tecate SCORE Baja 1000.This means you get a 6.2-liter V8 which at "about 500 hp," makes almost 100 more hp than the production 6.2-liter will make. A 6-speed automatic, electronically selectable 4x4 with 4.56 gear sets and front and rear e-lockers. A revised suspension (compared to even the pretty extreme standard Raptor) brings 15 inches of front wheel travel and 18 inches of rear travel. The XT also comes with a chromoly roll cage, extra skid plates, tubular front and rear bumpers and sweet lighting.
And, although the XT will not be street legal, it comes standard with air conditioning and power windows. Ford Racing will make only 50 XTs. If you want something a little more, you know, less hugely expensive and more useful, try a street legal Raptor with the new 6.2-liter motor.
Please note that the photo above is the race truck from Baja, not a production XT.
Categories: Ford,Motorsports,SEMA Show,Trucks,Tuners and Modifications
BMW is now officially out of Formula One. On the eve of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the company posted this video timeline of everything positive that happened during the BMW-Williams partnership (2000-2005) and the BMW Sauber years (2006-2009).
Categories: BMW,Motorsports
The 2009 Formula One season will conclude this weekend at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi (yes, I too had to look it up.) But with Jensen Button
already wrapping up the Drivers' Championship in Brazil on October 18, and the Constructors Championship already awarded to Brawn GP, this last race of the
season loses at least some of its excitement.
Button and his F1 colleagues rely on many vehicle components to carry them to victory each race weekend. The main performance areas of the car include
engine, aerodynamics, and chassis dynamics. But perhaps the biggest contributor to quick lap times is the tires.
Although each of the ten entrants must build their own chassis and there are only five engine suppliers, there is but a single tire supplier: Bridgestone.
So although tires may be the most important performance component, at least each F1 entrant is on equal footing for this parameter.
2009 saw the return of slick tires in F1 after 10 seasons on grooved tires. Teams have a choice of three types of tires depending on weather conditions:
dry slick, intermediate, and wet. There are two specifications of dry slicks at each event, one intermediate specification, and one wet tire.
Continue reading Bridgestone: Formula One Tire Supplier.
Categories: Motorsports
Here's the ultimate Dodge Challenger drag machine as envisioned by Mopar, or maybe you already guessed that from the name.
2009 SEMA Show
Categories: Classic Cars,Coupes,Dodge,Motorsports,SEMA Show,Tuners and Modifications
The Bob Lutz/Cadillac CTS-V smackdown/stunt planned for this Thursday at the Monticello Motor Club in upstate New York, will follow a simple five-lap format.
Each competitor, chosen by General Motors to take on Bob Lutz and the Cadillac CTS-V, will receive five consecutive laps of the course. So subtracting an out-lap and a cool-down lap, each competitor, of which there will be about 10 total, will receive three flying laps. The quickest single lap at the end of the day will decide the winner. There will apparently be no second-chance round.
The schedule of events looks like this (all times are Eastern):
8:30 am-11:30 am -- Track opens for practice
11:30 am-11:45 am -- Introductions, driver meeting, etc.
11:45 am-1:00 pm -- lunch
1:00 pm-2:30 pm -- timed laps
May the best Cadillac CTS-V, er, car win.
Categories: Cadillac,Consumer Track Events,Luxury Cars,Motorsports,Sedans
