Cars

The first Formula 1 cars of the 2017 season were revealed earlier this week and gave us our first glimpse of what the racing will look like this year. Aggressive styling, wider tires and a renewed focus on aerodynamics means we will see cars travelling three to five seconds faster than previous years.

The 2017 season of Formula One looks to shake things up in a considerable fashion: wider tires, a more aggressive look for the cars across the starting grid, and the guarantee of a new drivers champion by season’s end. Before the inaugural race kicks off in just over a month’s time, we’re going to recap the chassis reveals competing in this year’s circus.

Last summer, Aston Martin announced a joint effort with Red Bull’s F1 team — led by Adrian Newey of Gran Turismo’s X-car fame — to bring a hypercar to market before the end of the decade. Now, more details have been revealed about the car that could set new records for production vehicles.

Lucas Ordóñez is set to return and race in the Blancpain GT Series, following an announcement on the official GT website. The Spaniard will drive for Team RJN Nissan, getting the chance to reprise his driver’s position to pilot the GT-R NISMO GT3 against harsh competition from the world’s leading supercar manufacturers.

The driver slots for the 2017 Super GT season are steadily filling up. Although the class GT300 remains to be fully completed, drivers for the class GT500 are already known. One of them is Jann Mardenborough, the talented GT Academy alumni who will compete under supervision of the Team Impul Calsonic. With the help of his co-driver Hironobu Yasuda, Jann will be steering the wheels of the Nissan GT-R (#12), painted in highly recognizable blue livery.

Nismo holds annual festivals to celebrate Nissan’s history and presence in the world of motorsports, allowing people to meet famous drivers and get closer to the company’s most famous racing machines. At this year’s festival, Jann Mardenborough was given the opportunity to drive a lap around Fuji Speedway behind the wheel of the monstrous Group C Nissan R92CP.

A fractious Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour was not what many were expecting given the talent on show this year, but the action turned out to be fast and furious. This was an endurance race, but every hour of the twelve on offer had its fair share of action.

The Intercontinental GT Challenge season kicks off this weekend with the 2017 Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour. Qualifying has already taken place, and the race itself starts within the hour.

This month started with news of the Vision Gran Turismo program getting back into gear. Famed Italian design house Pininfarina will be working with F1 and CART champion Emerson Fittipaldi on the EF7 Vision Gran Turismo, the first addition to the project in over a year.

The Geneva International Motor Show is one of the biggest of its kind. All manner of debuts typically happen there, and this year’s brace of new metal will include the latest addition to the “not even halfway done” Vision GT project.

Cadillac, not seen in the Prototype motorsport sector since its disastrous Northstar LMP attempt, came back in an almighty fashion in the 2017 Rolex Daytona 24 Hour, with a largely unchallenged one-two finish after taking up the first two spots on the starting grid.

After an impressive start to this year’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, racers prepare themselves for one of the largest and most anticipated events of the motorsports world: the 24 Hours of Daytona.

The 2017 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season is about to get underway in Florida. With qualifying completed yesterday, this year’s 55 competitors will be duking it out around Daytona for 24 hours, starting tomorrow.

When you hear about Ford’s EcoBoost engine, the first thing that comes to most people’s minds is economy. But one does not purchase a Ford GT for economy, one purchases it for the power. And much like a recent politician, the new Ford GT claims to give the people what they want.

In recent years, Formula 1 has faced the harsh challenge of trying to engage a young audience. Due to the high prices of the events themselves, and the general barrier of interacting with the series, F1 can often feel like it’s in a world of its own. However, Toro Rosso boss Franz Tost believes that there is an answer for developing the relationship between the younger generation and the historic motorsport—and it involves the world of eSports.

A few weeks back, some of the fastest drivers in sim racing descended upon Las Vegas for a chance to win big money in the Visa Vegas eRace. While the race itself was a controversial event in the spotlight, it did afford us the light-hearted entertainment above.

The racing season is continuing to heat up for Nismo. While last weekend’s tough Dubai 24H race saw the GT Academy team finish 8th in the SP3-GT4 class, the next event will up the pace for a once-around-the-clock run around Mount Panorama.

https://www.facebook.com/festivalofspeed/videos/1319306231446695/

Endurance racing is a war of attrition. That was certainly the case for the GT Academy team at last weekend’s Dubai 24H race, as the #123 car was met with numerous setbacks en route to an eighth-place finish in-class.

The race is on for the GT Academy team in Dubai right now. With a little over 14 hours to go, the team has already experienced the highs and lows typical of an endurance event.