Car Historian

VITAMIN C

We got lemon, orange and red grapefruit at Fuoriconcorso! The Porsche Group C race cars came adorned in these bright colors to make them stand out (a lot) on track!

First is the Jägermeister-liveried 956-106! This car started its racing career for the Richard Lloyd Racing team (they very serious privateers) wearing a Canon red and white livery, later part of the Historic Classics collection and now mimicking the 956B-116 in which the late Stefan Bellof and Hans-Joachim Stuck won the 1984 Imola 1000km. 116 no longer exists.

At the side of Villa del Grumello the Shell Dunlop 962-010 was displayed, courtesy of Fiskens. This was the last works chassis used by the factory team and was prepared for a final dance at Le Mans in 1988 after Rothmans finished its sponsorship of the team. Hans Stuck, Derek Bell and Klaus Ludwig shared the cockpit for a total of 10 Le Mans wins between all three, so clearly the favorite to win the French classic. It finished second behind the winning Jaguar XJR-8 of Andy Wallace, Johnny Dumfries and Jan Lammers mostly due to Ludwig attempting to squeeze one more lap before pitting which backfired.

The car is for sale, by the way! It's another one of the former Historic Classics cars.

📸: (pic 2), (the rest)

I was talking recently to about something very unexpected I read about his former Lotec C1000 (the news of its selling were not out yet) and he sent me these pictures with the fabled supercar in the background.

At first I had no idea what I was looking at but I thought it may be a Zakspeed C1/4 or C1/8 modified into something else from the way the cockpit doors and windscreen look. At first I thought it's a Lotec C302 (which it is but only in the last pic) but it doesn't look like one. The M1C is different too, in fact the front of this race car resembles the Lotec 681 open-top Group 6 car so maybe that car got reused to make the M1C? I do not know. Hopefully will clear that out soon.

As per the M1C and C302, both were Group C2 race cars, the former raced in Japan for Kiyoshi Fukui's Auto Beaurex team and finished 6th overall at the 1984 Fuji 1000 KM! The C302 was an Interserie race car much like the 681 and also raced aporadically in thr German Group C rounds plus Le Mans 24h in 1985 where it was too slow to start, unfortunately. These cars mark the last years before Lotec would start its partnership with Mercedes-Benz who would supply them engines, one of which making it into the C1000 which was built from a very interesting chassis which none of you will guess its origins. More on that on a later post...

POWERED BY KOENIGSEGG

The jaw-dropping Kimera K39 has just been revealed at Lake Como and a badge on the engine covered shocked everybody. I thought the Pikes Peak race car and customer car would be powered by an Italtecnica engine like the previous models but no, they have a bespoke Koenigsegg turbocharged V8 powerplant! The Swedish hypercar manufacturer now offers purpose-built engines for different needs.

But it wouldn't be the first time a non-Koenigsegg is powered by one of their engines. The Leblanc Mirabeau was a street legal race car built to period Le Mans regulations and that borrowed the CCR's powerplant. Just over 800kg, round 850 HP and only one made. It never raced anywhere as it was not race-ready, that would have required modifications to it (and a serious programme), and neither the CCGT ever compete because the eligibility requirements were changed by the time the car was ready making it impossible for the boutique manufacturer to produce the minimum amount of chassis per year. Third time is a charm with the K39!

The Mirabeau was displayed at British Racing Green in 2024. The Germans from Kraftmwister are coming next week.

A NEW LEASE OF LIFE

Sort of. The Lola T92/10 and Ascari A410 are not like the Jaguar XJR-14 and the TWR Porsche WSC-95 where the latter is the former with a chopped roof but more like the XJR-14 and the Mazda MXR-01 - they use the same monocoque design-wise but Ascari's were new ones.

Klaas Zwart bought Ascari outright in the late 1990s from Lee Noble and started work on an LMP car, so he joined forces with McNeil Engineering and and Wiet Huidekoper to make it. Wiet designed the Lola T92/10 while John McNeil's team fielded the car in Interserie starting in 1995.

The new carbon fiber composite monocoque was based on the one in the T92 but adapted to the new LMP regulations and different enough to not have IP disputed with Huidekoper's design.

In terms of the bodywork the frontal area is almost identical except for the larger headlights on the open-top prototype and the front splitter straightening the front end of the A410. The side profile is different in the way the canal in the lower bodywork is made plus also the air vents behind the front axle on the Ascari.

is offering all three A410s for sale, 001 and 002 have raced in the early 2000s while 003 was a spare chassis that never saw action. All three to be restored and with different price tags depending on their palmarès. One of those three (001 I think?) was at las summer but, unfortunately, I only took a picture of the plaque!

📸: me (the Lola), (the Ascari)

TESTING TESTING

The has opened his new showroom in Brentford last weekend and also debuted his partnership with Bentley (clearly visible on his jacket for the weekend 😂) by bringing an EXP Speed 8 alongside all other magnificient cars on display.

The EXP marked the British marque's return to the French classic since 1930 when Bentley did a 1-2 at the 24-hour race. In 2001 one of the Bentleys (not this one) finished third behind two Audi R8s which were on a league of their own.

Chassis 002/2 pictured here was only used in the official 2001 test by and being third fastest overall and first in the GTP class (closed prototypes). After that I think this car was very rarely displayed.

Let's hope a Speed 8 will be displayed next as well!

After retiring from Formula 1, Alfa Romeo decided to focus on sports car and touring car racing in events like Mille Miglia and varied hillclimbs. During the 50s there were a few sports cars built primarily for the class wins on the former but none were produced in significant numbers to be fielded by the factoey or by various customers, and money was not the main issue.

The 750 Competizione is one of those born out of a colleboration between Carlo Abarth and the Milanese manufacturer, although it is not known who contacted the other first. No more than two were made because the chassis rigidity was not sufficient despite reinforcing it.

It was likely powered by a Giulietta-derived engined increased to 1.5L to tackle the up to 1500cc class at Mille Miglia and both roadsters featured vastly different bodywork, courtesy of Carrozzeria Boano. It is unknown whether Alfa Romeo or Abarth engineers tinkered the engine.

Chassis AR 1369*00003* seen here came later than 00001 but, again, documents are missing regarding its exact production date. Unlike the first chassis built, this one had more refined bodywork, round taillights, a passenger door and symmetrical front bodywork (both the driver and passenger windshields are at the same heights). Curiously this 750 Competizione first only had the rear fins containing the taillights with the driver side fin being added later. Again, it never raced anywhere and it was always property of Alfa Romeo. They still have both cars to this day although I don't remember seeing 00001 back when I was at the museum. Maybe I missed it, I don't know.

You can see it here being displayed at .

MADE FOR THE PRINCE'S RACE

I didn't expect to go here yesterday. I passed by the and managed to get in for a few minutes to check what car they have and it's a new one!

The Benz 21/80HP "Prinz Heinrich Wagen" was built for the 1910 Prinz Heinrich Race of almost 2000 km starting from Berlin and traversing France as well. Benz entered 10 cars built specifically for this race, four of them (including this one) powered by a 5.7L four-cylinder engine making 80 HP while the other six had 7.3L engines making at least 100 HP. They also featured cardan drive as opposed to chain drive which was very common among race cars back then.

Carl Neumaier drove this car in the 1910 but only finished 11th overall, with the best recult of a 21/80 being 5th place with Fritz Erle behind the wheel. An Austro-Daimler won the race and the best result for the 7.3-liter cars was 8th overall.

Only two of those cars survive nowadays and this is one of them, last seen at the 2025 and it has been faithfully restored by Mercedes-Benz Classic and displayed at the 2013 . From what I see should have car 36 (this is car 38) but when I was there in 2024 I don't remember seeing it although it's listed on their website.

WOULDN'T YOU LIKE TO WIN LE MANS?

This is the question Adrian Reynard gave to Don Panoz after seeing the Panos Esperante sports car. Reynar was hired as a logical consultant fot Panoz Automotive Development during the time the AIV Roadster was being produced. The lightweight car was already prsised for its low mass (under 2000 pounds) and plenty of power coming from its Ford 4.6L V8 engine.

Don said yes and thus both parted on a journey no one would know where it would lead. By November 1996 they already had a rolling car, the Esperante GTR-1.

The only hard requirements of the pharmaceutical mogul were for the car to be front-engined and powered by a Ford V8 just like the cars they sell to customers.

The GTR-1 would later become the LMP-1 Roadster S, a front engined, open-top Le Mans Prototype, the second to last one in this configuration, which would be made out of an existing GTR-1 chassis but with a lengthened wheelbase and wider track.

TZ2.

LA COCCINELLE

By the mid-50s Citroën was looking to replace the 2CV with a new model which would be just as accessible to the masses and capable so two patch were explored. The first one gave birth to the Ami 6 which would eventually be produced (but won't phase out the 2CV) while the other one gave us a few "ladybirds".

The Citroën Prototype C was not just one car but 10, all following an extremely aerodynamic teardrop design, plenty of room for their size and minimal weight. The C10 was the last of the series built in 1956 and measured 3.84m long, 1.55m width being much narrower in the back and was 1.4m tall yet still fitted four passengers. It would tip the scales at an impossible 384kg!

This is the predecessor of the MPV and came 30 years before the Renault Espace!

This past January prepared a massive stabd at to show many of their concept cars, including the Karin, Activa and even a 2CV prototype besides the C10 and a few others, making it one of the highlights of the event. Another fun fact is that I wrote some paragraphs about this concept car and a few others of the double chevron brand a couple years ago for ! Sadly the Citroën Conservatory where they are stored is now closed to the public but I did get to visit it in 2023 before that would happen the following year. Will they get a proper museum to be shown? I don't know, for now the cars get paraded through France at various events.

BUILT BUT NOT PRODUCED

Not all cars that deserve a production run actually get it and Zagato has a few examples which stayed as one-offs from unfortunate circumstances. Read the whole post.