Video - Super GT Round 2 Okayama review

After Hondas less than perfect debut for the HSV-010 in GT500, how will they get on in Round 2? Also will GT300 ever be a dull race? Watch the video and find out, preferably in full screen/HD mode

Video: Super GT Round 1 Suzuka review

Round 1 from Suzuka, best viewed in fullscreen/HD mode. Few surprises in store!

If only F1 was exciting as this!

Honda HSV-010 GT

From 1997 until 2009 the Honda NSX was a front runner in the JGTC and later Super GT series, winning 37 races out of 106 and 50 pole positions, but a rule change for the GT500 category for the 2010 season outlawed the car as only front engined, rear wheel drive cars will be allowed to compete. The NSX is no longer in production, so in a special ruling, Honda were allowed to race with the NSX's still born sucessor, - the HSV-010 GT, even though it has yet to make it to production

HSV stands for Honda Sports Velocity and test versions had been spotted on the Nurburgring and elsewhere, before the project was cancelled (for now at least). So onto the racing version..

There is a saying in motorsport that if a car looks right at first glance, then it generally turns out OK. That is the case I think with the HSV-010, combining a carbon-fibre shell with a sleek functional and aggressive design.

A purpose built racer, with very little ground clearance. Underneath the carbon lurks a spaceframed front/rear end

But unlike other GT series, carbon brakes are not permitted so fairly substantial steel discs are in place

Plenty of ducting to help cool both the engine and the brakes

and more carbon

The heart of the beast,the Honda HR10EG a 3.4 litre,32V normally aspirated V8, this is a similar engine to those found in both Formula Nippon and Acura LMP2 cars

So how does it compare to the NSX? Taller with a longer wheelbase, but with the same overhangs. Handling will probably be similar though with the engine mounted low and all of the racecar chassis work making this a pure racecar rather than a roadcar converted to racer

Aguri Suzuki, owner of the ARTA team during the press launch of the car, where most of the photos Ive used on this post came from, indroducing his drivers for the HSV-010 GT in 2010,Takuya Izawa and Irish driver, Ralph Firman

And some fantasy liveries that the car may be seen in during 2010, all based on the NSX liveries on the first photo in this post.

And finally a testing video of the car, probably where most people became aware of this new car


5 weeks to go until its racing debut, should be good and hopefully competitive

Autosport International 2010 - Part 3

Time to round up coverage of Autosport International with another tiny selection of what can be seen, above the Fiat 500 Abarth, which will form a 1 make racing series this year

Surprisingly the only Group C/GTP car at the show, the Nissan NPTI

A treat for the ears in the Le Mans Series in 2010 - the JMW Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage GT2

Not as common here as in America but the new Camaros look great

Standing still rather than trying to pan it at high speed - the 2008/9 Time Attack winning Roger Clark Motorsport Impreza - The Gobstopper

A pair of classic rallying Lancias - 037 and Delta Intergrale

Group B Metro 6R4

Peugeot 205 T16

and former works Imprezas of the much missed Colin McRae and Richard Burns

The Ginetta-Zytek LMP1 car of Beechdean-Mansell Motorsport - to be driven by Nigel Mansell and his sons in 2010

The Drayson Racing Lola-Judd LMP1 car, to be raced in the American Le Mans series in 2010

This wraps up coverage of Autosport International, but there is a lot more to come, even though the season is quiet

Autosport International 2010 - Part 1

Well the new decade of 2010 has arrived, no Tokyo Auto Salon for me (which Ill admit Im not too disappointed over), so instead I went to the big show in the UK which takes place at the same time as TAS - Autosport International. This is Europes biggest motorsport show and there is plenty to see from grassroots stuff to F1 and everything inbetween so plenty of sportscars to see too, along with supercars, and none better or rarer than the new Lexus LFA above...

and below. I like it, very aggressive and underneath it is nothing short of amazing with its 560bhp, 4.8L V10 engine, carbon fibre/aluminium bodywork,6 speed sequential gearbox and multi-link suspension.


Alas the price puts most off - €580,000 in Ireland, with a vetting procedure also (Lexus wont sell this car to just anyone) and a rumoured 2 year compulsory lease on the car too..

Almost makes the £120,000GBP Nissan GTR SpecV look cheap....

Maybe modify the 'normal' R35 by spraying it midnight purple (note the reg)

Probably the biggest news at the show for me though was the annoucement that Sumo Power / JR Motorsport in partnership with Nismo will be running a pair of R35 GT1's in the new FIA GT1 World Championship in 2010

But will it visit Le Mans this year and race with the 2009 winning Peugeot 908 HDi FAP? Ill be there in June so will find out...

Also on display was the Bloodhound SSC - aiming to raise the land speed record to 1000mph....

with help of a hybrid jet/rocket engine from a Eurofighter Typhoon jet, which has an F1 engine onboard the car as the fuel pump.....

The Brawn BGP001 certainly drew the crowds..

as did 2009 Formula 1 World Champion Jenson Button

and I think the BGP001 will go down in history as 1 of the great F1 cars, like this classic Maserati 250F

Part 2 coming soon

Photo of the year - and my inspiration

For my photo of the year of 2009 it was not a tough choice for a change, so its back to July and the start of the 1st Group C race of the Silverstone Classic. I had this shot well planned out, had my space reserved for an hour beforehand and shot 45 frames as the cars approached, but its the 1 below that came out best


And the image I had in my head that I wanted to recreate, somewhere I have this on VHS, bit grainy now but still magic. It was filmed from the first corner at Fuji Speedway in Japan, but the cars appearing from the heat haze is amazing



And onto a new decade, and more events!

Red Mist.........

Keep watching until the end, for once the American commentary is welcomed and necessary!

Motorsport can be dangerous

A big crash from the FIA GT3 Championship held at Circuit Paul Ricard in France - its a testament to the safety standards that nobody was seriously hurt.

The accident was caused by a bit of rain on small 1 part of the circuit which meant little grip, as the cars were running on dry slick tyres and not intermediates or wet tyres:


And the aftermath with a replay from a different angle which shows how violent the crash was.Look at the damaged armco barrier at the start of this video, after both the Corvette and Audi R8 had hit it very hard, takes a lot of force to cause this amount of damage, to both the cars and the barrier.



The race was abandoned due to the damaged barriers which were replaced for the following days racing

The final of the FIA GT and GT3 championship is on October 25/26 at Zolder in Belgium and whats more you can watch all the qualifying and racing LIVE on the series websites - FIA GT / FIA GT3