The poster for the 2022 24 Hours of Le Mans has been revealed.
The line-up of cars is headed by a Toyota GR010 accompanied on one side by the Ferrari and Porsche GTE Pro cars and on the other by a Glickenhaus 007 and the Alpine A480.
There is, notably, no representation of the Peugeot, though whether this is because we may not see it at the race, or because Peugeot are not yet ready to show off the car in final race spec. we’ll leave to the internet to speculate!
Morgan Plus 8 GTR
Three years ago, the last Morgan Plus 8 rolled off the line at the Pickersleigh Road factory in Malvern, Worcestershire. Or so Morgan thought, until the discovery of nine unused Plus 8 platforms!
Named with the GTR moniker, the first of these Plus 8s has now completed build, and, with a high shoulder line, five-spoke centre-lock wheels, the GTR is a tribute to Morgan’s 1990s Plus 8 race cars.
In particular, the car pays tribute to ‘Big Blue’, a car that served as a testbed for Morgan’s breakthrough model the Aero 8. The car did battle in both the BPR/ FIA GT and British GT Championship with selected races and proved to be a real fan favourite. It races on today in historic racing.
The Plus 8 GTR is the most powerful roadgoing Morgan ever produced with a 375 bhp V8.375bhp.
The remaining eight cars are all in production and are each to a bespoke design, defined by their near-future customers.
Thunderhill 25 Hrs
Last Weekend saw the 2021 Thunderhill 25 Hours, won for the second consecutive year by a team fielding a little Radical SR3 (2019 and 2021 – there was no 2020 race).
the #48 Team One Motorsports 2 car of Jordan Missig, Anthony Bullock, Josh Sarchet and Jeff Shafer traded the lead with the #64 LMP3 Duqueine D08 of Team Crowdstrike/Mosaic Motorsports of Colin Braun, Matt Bell, Naveen Rao, Jon Bennett and George Kurtz, which looked set to win until the car broke a suspension joint in the final 30 minutes of the race, the Radical winning by six laps.
2019 winners Eric Wagner and Antoine Comeau, who this year teamed up with Emanuel (Ema) Talquenca’s TVI Racing outfit and former Indy Lights driver Victor Franzoni, finished a further seven laps back in third place in the #10 Eastern/TVI Racing Radical SR3.
One other notable entry was the #03 Entropy Racing EVSR, thought to be the first full EV to compete in a race (rather than a production-based trial) of this distance, the team’s car featuring quick change battery packs as demonstrated in the basic, but hugely effective, pit routine below. The car would complete the race, many laps down, in 29th place.
The tech on display here is not unlike that proposed by Don Panoz for the later cancelled Green4U Panoz Racing GT-EV from 2017 that bid for a Garage 56 place at the Le Mans 24 Hours.
Farewell Blast For Mille Miglia Mercedes
The 1955 Mercedes 300 SLR that was piloted by the late and very great Sir Stirling Moss and Denis Jenkinson to a famous win at the Mille Miglia has spent much of its recent history being displayed at major events around the world.
The decision though has now been taken that this astonishingly valuable part of the brand’s history will become a permanent exhibit in Mercedes Benz’s Stuttgart museum.
Before then though the car was given, one last blast!
