Loy LeMans

There are racing liveries which have become iconic in the general automotive world. Rothmans on both Le Mans Porsches and Williams F1 machines of the late 1980s, Gulf and the Ford GT40, 555’s blue and yellow on the Subaru Impreza. There’s also the signature black and red of Yokohama and Advan, made famous by Team Taisan in their homeland, Japan. Some significant vehicles formerly belonging to Team Taisan are now going on sale with BH Auction at Suzuka tomorrow, November 17, led first and foremost by a Le Mans class-winning racer. More Japanese cult classics Classic Nissan racers hit the track for 60th anniversary The American car dealer with 700 Japanese classics Classic Japanese cars in our classifieds Team Taisan secured LMGT class victory at the 2000 Le Mans 24 Hours with a Porsche 911 GT3-R, despite it being their first ever appearance at the famous French endurance race. Previous experience with Le Mans machinery might have helped; they also scored the final ever race vi...

The entry list for next year's Le Mans 24 Hours will be revealed in two stages. The first 50 cars on the 60-strong entry for the 87th running of the French enduro on June 16/17 will be unveiled on February 11, with an additional 10 cars and a further 10 reserves announced on March 1. The format of the 2018/19 World Endurance Championship superseason, which includes two editions of the 24 Hours, has been cited by race organiser the Automobile Club de l'Ouest as the reason for the two-stage unveiling. The first 50 cars will include the full-season WEC participants as well as those teams that have gained guaranteed entries for Le Mans next year courtesy of their success in ACO-affiliated series in 2018 and '19. There will again be four automatic entries from each of the the European and Asian Le Mans Series, one from the Michelin Le Mans Cup ELMS support series and two from the IMSA SportsCar Championship. The overall winner of Le Mans also receives a guaranteed ...

The FIA World Endurance Championship is pressing on with plans for a new 'hypercar' class to replace the failed LMP1 category. But Jamie Klein believes a simpler solution already exists on the championship's grid. In a little under two years from now, the 2020/21 FIA World Endurance Championship season should be getting started, marking the start of the series’ new hypercar era. The early signs for the new ruleset, which will replace the current-generation of LMP1s, are encouraging, with as many as six prospective entrants. If even only half of those end up taking part, that provides a solid platform to take the championship out of its current funk.

The G-Drive Racing and TDS Racing LMP2 teams have confirmed their intention to appeal their disqualification from the Le Mans 24 Hours. G-Drive dominated the secondary class of the French enduro, with the #26 Oreca shared by Roman Rusinov, Jean-Eric Vergne and Andrea Pizzitola storming to victory by a margin of two laps. However, on Monday evening it was announced that both G-Drive and TDS Racing, whose #28 car finished fourth in the LMP2 class, were excluded from the results for use of an illegal device to speed up its refuelling times. The disqualification provisionally promotes the Signatech Alpine squad to LMP2 victory, pending the outcome of the G-Drive/TDS appeal. A statement issued by TDS on Thursday read: "G-Drive Racing and TDS Racing have decided to appeal the decisions of the stewards pronounced last Monday after the 24 Hours of Le Mans in front of the FIA International Court of Appeal. "Both teams consider having at all times respected the appli...

The G-Drive Racing squad has lost its appeal against disqualification from LMP2 victory in the Le Mans 24 Hours in June. The exclusions of the class-winning G-Drive Oreca-Gibson 07 run by TDS Racing and the French team's entry under its own banner, which finished fourth in P2, have been confirmed by the FIA International Court of Appeal. The verdict, which follows a hearing in Paris on September 18, means the Signatech Alpine Oreca is confirmed as the class winner in the second round of the 2018/19 World Endurance Championship superseason. The Graff-SO24 Oreca is classified second in class and the #32 United Autosports Ligier-Gibson JSP217 third. The court upheld the decision of the stewards deeming the TDS-run entries to have illegally modified fuel rigs, enabling the two cars to refuel "significantly faster" than their class rivals.  The G-Drive Oreca shared by Jean-Eric Vergne, Roman Rusinov and Andrea Pizzitola dominated LMP2 at Le Mans on the way to a two-...

Ford's will pit its Le Mans-winning GT against a Falcon Supercar and a GT4-spec Mustang at the Bathurst 1000 this week. Having earlier confirmed that Ryan Briscoe will cut demo laps of the Mount Panorama circuit in the GT, Ford has now announced the GTE car will be part of what it's dubbed the 'Triple Challenge'. That will involve Briscoe and the GT taking on Alex Davison in the 23Red Racing FG-X Falcon Supercar and DJR Team Penske co-driver Tony D'Alberto in the Mustang GT4. The Triple Challenge will therefore celebrate not only Aussie debuts for the GT and the Mustang racers, but the farewell of the Falcon nameplate – a 14-time winner at Mount Panorama – ahead of the introduction of the Mustang Supercar next year. “It’s a great opportunity for our last Bathurst with the FG-X Falcon to put it up against some of the fastest Fords in the world,” said Davison. “I feel really lucky – it’s an absolute privilege to be part of.” D'Alberto, who will race ...

Ford's Le Mans-winning GT will turn laps of the Mount Panorama circuit during this year's Bathurst 1000 weekend. Ahead of Ford's return as a Supercars manufacturer next year with the all-new Mustang, the Ford GT will make its first appearance on Australian soil with a demo run at Mount Panorama. The #67 car will be driven by top Aussie export Ryan Briscoe, who is currently a permanent part of the Ford Chip Ganassi Racing line-up for its Le Mans and IMSA programmes. “The Ford GT is an ultra-high-performance car, so I’m really excited and honoured to turn the Ford GT’s first laps at Bathurst” said Briscoe, who made the last of three Bathurst 1000 starts back in 2013. “For me, Bathurst is one of the best, if not the best, racing circuit in the world. “Bathurst as a circuit demands the highest respect at all times. It has the intensity of a circuit like Indy, where its very high-speed and you just always need to be 100 per cent focused." Supercars CEO Sean ...

Ferrari paid the price for being "honest" in the GTE Pro battle at Le Mans this year and had no chance of beating winning marque Porsche, believes James Calado. The Italian manufacturer endured a disappointing weekend at La Sarthe with its trio of AF Corse-run 488 GTE Evos, as the best of them finished fifth - two laps down on the victorious Porsche 911 RSR. Calado and his teammates, Alessandro Pier Guidi and Daniel Serra, managed to qualify the #51 Ferrari fourth in class, but were ruled out of contention early on by a puncture and then lost more time when a damper broke in the morning hours. They finished eighth on the road, which became seventh after Ford was given a post-race penalty for violating minimum drive-time rules. But even with a clean run, Calado feels Porsche, which took a dominant 1-2 in the GTE Pro division, was in a different league to its opponents and was always out of reach of Ferrari. "We were nowhere near the winners," Calado tol...

It had a difficult life, from conception to race track, but this 1993 Jaguar XJ220C ended up becoming a Le Mans winner, for a short while, and is heading to auction in Bonhams’s Bond Street Sale on December 1, with an estimate of £2,000,000 - £2,800,000 ($2.9m - $3.6m, €2.3 - €3.2m). The unique car, chassis #002 of four, won the GT class in the 1993 Le Mans 24 Hours in the hands of Tom Walkinshaw Racing's driver lineup of David Coulthard, David Brabham and John Nielsen. Having come a long way to victory, it was then taken from them a month later. More on Jaguar... The Jaguar XJ220C's bittersweet Le Mans debut How you can get to drive classic Jaguars – even a D-type! Bangernomics: Across the Baltic in a £900 Jaguar Classic Jaguars in our classifieds It’s well known that the car had originally been conceived with a V12 engine and all-wheel-drive, but when it made it into production it instead had rear-wheel drive and a 4-cam twin-turbocharged 3.5-litre V6. The first XJ...

Sportscar legend and Formula 1 grand prix winner Jacky Ickx's incredible motorsport career was celebrated at the 2018 Autosport Awards with the presentation of a Gregor Grant Award. Sportscar legend and Formula 1 grand prix winner Jacky Ickx's incredible motorsport career was celebrated at the 2018 Autosport Awards with the presentation of a Gregor Grant Award. One of the most versatile drivers in history, Ickx's achievements include six Le Mans 24 Hours victories, eight GP wins, a Can-Am title and even a Paris-Dakar Rally triumph in 1983. His Award was presented by another Le Mans hero - nine-time winner Tom Kristensen. Ickx praised crucial people in his life who steered his early career, and added: "What I admire is the satisfaction to have done the right job and it is clear that without them, even if you have the talent, you need them. "It is easy to drive a good car in the way, it is much easier [with the right people] and timing plays an importa...