Filed under: Classics , Etc. , Celebrities Steve “King of Cool” McQueen – Click above for a high-res image gallery Odds are, your nickname is not “The King of Cool.” Of course, odds are that you never ran away from the farm to join the circus, worked as a towel boy in a brothel, jumped ship from the merchant marines in the Dominican Republic, were a lumberjack, joined a street gang or bought your first motorcycle with winnings from motorcycle racing. Nor were you busted down to private seven times while a Marine only to redeem yourself by saving the lives of five men in frosty arctic waters and then being assigned to guard Harry Truman’s yacht. Oh, and you’re first film role wasn’t in a Paul Newman movie.
Filed under: Motorsports , Technology , Audi 2010 Audi R15 plus – click above to enlarge Testing for the 24 Hours of Le Mans doesn’t begin until mid-June, but that doesn’t mean that Audi isn’t already hard at work bettering the chances of their diesel-powered R15 TDI racer. Thanks to a belated rule change for the LMP1 class designed to hamper the dominance of diesel-powered vehicles, Le Mans rulemakers have mandated smaller-diameter air restrictors and curbed supercharger pressure in an effort to level the playing field. According to Audi, those alterations have made the German automaker prioritize aerodynamics and downforce even more than normal. The result?
Filed under: Motorsports , Chevrolet , Racing 2010 ALMS Corvette C6.R – Click above for high-res image gallery This year’s Corvette racer, the C6.R headed to the GT class in ALMS and at Le Mans , has had a slow reveal. First its heart was unleashed , the production-derived 5.5-liter V8, then its livery stopped to pose . Now the car has been caught doing what it hopes to do best this year, heating up the tarmac at Sebring International Raceway. There will be two teams competing: Johnny O’Connell, Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia in the No. 3 Compuware Corvette 3; Oliver Gavin, Olivier Beretta, and Emmanuel Collard in the No.
Filed under: Motorsports , Acura Highcroft Acura ARX-01b at 2008 Detroit Sports Car Challenge – Click above for high-res image gallery 2009 American Le Mans Series LMP1 champions Patron Highcroft Racing are heading to France this June. The team’s season championship has earned it an invitation from the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO) to compete at the 24 hours of Le Mans. With the changes to the ALMS class structure this year, the P1 Acura ARX-02a has been shelved in favor of an updated version of the former P2 winning ARX-01c. The Highcroft team will be packing up 01c for the trip to France, the first time any of the Acura prototypes has run in Europe. This will also be Highcroft’s first trip to the round-the-clock classic.
