With huge thanks to Toine Hezemans here’s the pictorial and video evidence of the resurrection of the remaining Bitter GT1 to running condition with the car having covered several entirely trouble-free laps at Assen today.
Still owned by the Hezemans family the car has been restored to full FIA GT Championship spec from 1998 by Hendricks Motorsport and was shaken down at Assen today, with no problems, by 2019 Euro-NASCAR Champion Loris Hezemans, son of the car’s creator Toine, and brother of Spa 24 Hours winner Mike Hezemans.
Mike drove the sister #9 car at its only two racing appearances at Silverstone and Hockenheim alongside Jan Lammers.
The #10 car was entered at the same two race meetings for Rainer Bonnetsmüller and Manfred Jurasz at the same two races, the pair joined by Stefan Hackl at Silverstone, where the car lasted 20 laps until a gearbox issue ended their day, and by Michael Fielder in Germany where the car suffered a fire in practice and did not start.
The story behind the creation of the Bitter GT1 is a lengthy one, Toine Hezemans had been obtained the Lotus racing programme in 1997 and had determined that the Lotus turbo engine had been underpowered whilst the alternative Chevy V8 proved problematic.
His chosen alternative was the V0 engine from the Chrysler Viper, a dominant force in what was then GT2 but the project, which included improved aero and substantial investment in a custom-built gearbox.
We hope to have more on the revival of the car shortly but, for now, many thanks to Toine Hezemans for the images above.
