it probably has. poor Polski Fiat 126 never stood a chance 
11/10 best race car
That’s clearly not a race car, but this one most definitely is: the Ford Falcon XA GT-HO Phase IV. Of the four that were built, only three survive, including this example, which was supposed to be driven by Allan Moffat.
Originally intended for the 1972 Hardie-Ferodo 500, it was abandoned after the Supercar Scare, but the oil crisis of 1973 would have scuppered it anyway. Most of the performance upgrades meant for it were applied as part of the RPO83 option pack for the standard Falcon GT instead.
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This started as a Lancia A112.
Front from a Volvo C30 bodykit, i think.
To bad i’ll never have the money to make something like this.
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It was announced yesterday that Mazda and Joest are partnering up for the 2018 IMSA season, which is going to be a helluva lot of fun to watch. Previous companies Joest have worked with have been Porsche in the 1980s and 90s (scoring 4 Le Mans victories) and Audi, where they won 8 times.
And this is the car they’ll likely be racing…
…the Mazda RT24-P DPi, a Daytona Prototype that seems to have been styled by someone who previously worked at Hot Wheels. Absolutely stunning looking machine!
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You know what, those 900hp? They’re a lie. A mistake by the game’s developers they haven’t fixed in the past 12 years. The actual ouput is closer to 420hp. Gran Turismo is full of easter eggs like this, such as a 5-speed Fiat Coupe and a Lister Storm GT1 car weighing 1.5 tons.
i
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Super GT has this in the GT300 class. The Toyota Mark X.
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Sorry for the bump but I feel like showing off a pair of F1 cars that remind us of what we’ve lost over the past quarter-century. One of the key features of an F1 car - an exhaust note reminiscent of a wild animal roaring as it hunted down its prey - was lost forever when the current turbo hybrid engines were adopted. So here are a few reminders of what an F1 car should have.
First up is the 2013 Red Bull RB9 - the last normally aspirated F1 car ever to win either the drivers’ or constructors’ title, and the one that brought Sebastian Vettel his fourth world championship. Powered by the ultimate evolution of Renault’s RS27 flat-crank V8, it yielded 13 wins (including 9 in a row at the end of the season) - all in the hands of Sebastian Vettel, with a few podium finishes by the now-retired Mark Webber for good measure. Look at the onboard footage and admire the sound of it! Admittedly it’s not the best-looking F1 car by a long shot, as all F1 cars from 2009-16 are, but the exhaust note more than makes up for it.
At the other end of the scale is the Jordan 191 from 1991 - the first car that Michael Schumacher drove in a long and glorious F1 career. Like the RB9, it was powered by a normally aspirated flat-crank V8 - in this case, one supplied by Cosworth. It never won a race at all, nor did it even reach the podium, but just look at it!
Perfectly proportioned, with its clean lines incorporating such details as a three-tier rear wing, raised nose, and an elegantly curved airbox, it was, still is, and always will be the best-looking F1 car ever made, especially with its striking green and blue livery. And it sounds as awesome as it looks:
A more detailed description of the 191’s origins and competition history can be found here:
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NASCAR Chevy Lumia:
https://13252-presscdn-0-94-pagely.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/DSC0774-1-940x706.jpg
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AMG C-Class/Klasse DTM -Yup…one of my favorite racing series in the universe.-
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Porsche 804
1.5L Flat 8, 180hp, Air Cooled. Porche’s only F1 race win at the 1962 French Gran Prix.
Also sounds 
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Only 1.5l? That sounds meatier! Yum! 
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In my mind, the VF Commodore is the last “real” V8 Supercar, because unlike its successor, it’s based on a proper, rear-drive Aussie muscle car, not a rebadged front-drive Vauxhall or Opel which won’t even have the same drivetrain layout as its roadgoing equivalent when it first hits the track. And so far, it has racked up four drivers’ titles and three Bathurst 1000 wins. Here is the #97 car campaigned by Shane van Gisbergen of the Red Bull Holden Racing Team during the 2017 season.
What of its two remaining rivals? The Falcon Supercar is still being raced well after the road car ceased production, and the Altima Supercar is based on a model that recently went off sale in Australia even though it is still being sold elsewhere. Meanwhile, AMG and Volvo have already left, and aren’t coming back. Where has all the relevance gone from the series???
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Into the back pockets of the Organizers because they actually care about the future of their sport. The Supercharged V8’s in the Supercars are outdated. It’s high time they changed up the formula. I think it’s for the better. Just a shame that Ford Doesn’t care about the Sport. Would’ve loved to see a Mustang Supercar. And they haven’t been called “V8 Supercars” for a good 3 or 4 years now, anyway.
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I’m surprised nobody has mentioned these three classic F1 cars yet:
1992 Williams FW14B - Ended the Grove squad’s title drought in emphatic fashion, with 10 wins out of 16 (9 for Nigel Mansell, then an all-time single-season record, plus one for Riccardo Patrese) in 1992 thanks to its highly advanced combination of an immensely powerful Renault V10, active suspension, anti-lock brakes and traction control. Also marked the start of Adrian Newey’s streak of title winners.
1991 McLaren MP4/6 - the last F1 car ever to win either championship with a V12 engine or a manual transmission; it had both. It brought the late, great Ayrton Senna his third - and last - world title, in a season when there were three previous world champions (Senna, Prost, Piquet) and also three future world champions as well (Mansell, Schumacher and Hakkinen). It would also turn out to be the last championship-winning McLaren for seven years.
1994 Benetton B194 - For all the controversy surrounding it, its significance as the car that gave Michael Schumacher his first of seven Drivers’ Championships will never be overlooked. Moreover, it was the last title-winning car ever to be powered by a Ford/Cosworth engine, and the last championship winner powered by a V8 engine from any supplier until the configuration was mandated in 2006.
All three are so much better to look at and listen to than any of today’s turbo hybrid monstrosities, and mostly simpler to boot, especially the upcoming 2018 models with their awkward, cumbersome Halos, and should make a very convincing case for banning turbos and hybrid tech permanently when the next regulation change comes in 2020. As a matter of fact, they might not even need the Halo by then, which should be reason enough to persuade them to bin it for good as well.
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How dare technology be allowed to change a sport
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Given that Dan Gurney - a renowned racing driver, innovator and team owner for several decades - passed away just a few days ago, it would only be fitting to honor his legacy by listing one of his cars here. Among the better-known ones is the 1967 Ford Mk IV, an evolution of the all-conquering GT40. More than 50 years ago, it became the first, last, and only all-American entry to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans overall, with A.J. Foyt as Gurney’s co-driver.
Although it shared its 7-litre V8 with the GT40, its aluminum honeycomb chassis owed nothing to its predecessor, which effectively made it an all-new car. Just thinking about it makes me want to recreate Dan’s exploits in Gran Turismo 5 or 6, even though buying one in either game requires a whopping 20 million credits. Here’s a brief rundown on its ingame performance:
And here’s some onboard footage of a Mk IV during testing at the 2015 Sebring Historics. Looking at the footage, it’s clear that compared to today’s LMP1 contenders, the Mk IV and its contemporaries were much more physical to drive, and so Dan & co. really had to earn their keep behind the wheel of one of these.
Unfortunately, the immense cost of fielding an LMP1 entry even for just one season means that there will never be another all-American Le Mans winner in that category, at least in my lifetime. Still, the fact that it’s already been done once is something that Americans can be proud of and be inspired by.
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Days* ago.
Having Madly fallen in love with the Ford RS200 (yet again) I happened to stumble across 2 of the Best RS200s I’ve ever seen.
The First is probably a well known RS200, the Doran RS200.
Starting With Pat Doran’s RS200 E2 he Ran in the European Rallycross series in 1991 and 1992.
Then it’s on to Pat’s Son, Liam Doran’s Pikes Peak RS200. This is the First one, Actually a Playable car in Dirt 3 (albeit without the Aero Kit.) I think this is one of the Best RS200s Visually.
It then got a minor update.
Although that Minor update moved power up to 925, added some crazy aero, and was a pretty good Pikes Peak car, too.
This RS200 though, I think will be quite Unknown. The RS200 IMSA GTO. Owned by Jeff Elghanayan Marco Polo Motorsports. Yes, that was the Team Name. Cosworth BDT-E Turbocharged Engine.
It was Owned by the team from 1989 to 1991, in which, out of 38 possible races, it entered 3.
3 entire races.
0 Races in 1989, despite saying it would enter in the last 3 races of 1989. Joe Varde raced the Car in 1990. He raced in 1 race, Medowlands. He drove for 5 laps, and finished 27th out of 30. For 1991, Wayne Cerbo took the reigns. He Competed in 2 races that year. He Competed at Mid-Ohio, Completed 3 laps, and finished 40th… out of 41. And in it’s greatest Achievement, Finished 16th out of 29 at Del Mar… 3 laps down.
This is my Favourite IMSA GTO Car.
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How about this for weird?
1960, and Saab unveils a ‘design exercise’ for ‘purely developmental purposes’ - a formula junior car that would compete in the series in 1961.
Only Saab would make something like this to compete in open wheel racing.
Two stroke engine? Yep, a 950cc 3 cylinder unit that reportedly reached 100 hp ‘on the bench’ at 7000 rpm. It had 3 seperate carburettors, requiring 3 individual chokes, and 2 fuel pumps - the driver was supposed to switch one of them off if fuel starvation or flooding became an issue.
Front wheel drive? This is Saab. Of course! A unique suspension that meant the springs were tensioned up rather than compressed was designed to help this.
Aircraft Knowhow? An aluminium chassis with a plastic nosecone, instead of a spaceframe chassis, was used - like the aircraft of the 1940s.
Weirdness? What, apart from 3 chokes, 2 fuel pumps, and springs that were pulled apart instead of pushed together? Well, to conteract understeer, the rear suspension was meant to make the inside rear wheel lift up. Some cars three wheel under heavy driving - this Saab was designed to. Oh, and the gearbox was upside down compared to ‘normal’ Saabs.
Performance; it was quick - at least in a straight line. 70:30 weight distribution made understeer the norm, but it did manage to challenge for the podium, and won two races, setting a new track record in Stockholm in the only year it ran. It even managed to place ahead of Denis Hulme, the 1967 F1 world champion, at the Danish Fomula Junior GP. An attrition rate over the season of 50%, however, meant retiring was incredibly likely.
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Would you believe that the C4 Corvette ZR-1 was once turned into an endurance racer back in 1995? It may have been doomed from the start, with too little reliability or firepower, but its tall rear wing made it unmistakable even from afar.
If you have played either of the first two Gran Turismo games, you may recognize the bodywork as part of the racing modifications for any C4 Corvette - but with a patriotic livery created specifically for these games.
You can read more about it here:
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