An old nemesis is making a return to Australia’s V8 Supercar series. From 1990 through 1992, the Nissan Skyline GT-R dominated the Australian Touring Car Championship series, running rings around Holden and Ford V8′s. During the 1991 Bathurst 1000, the GT-R even set a top-speed record that could not be matched for nine years. Finally, in 1992, Australia’s racing body charged a weight penalty and a boost pressure reduction in an attempt to level the playing field. However, that failed to slow the GT-R down as it continued to dominate its last season before new rules that required V8 powerplants banned the GT-R’s entry.

After a decade, the Nissan GT-R once again returns to the stage under the the Supercar V8′s Car of the Future program, a new project encouraging a wider variety of automakers to join the series. What’s more, Mark Skaife, the man behind the Car of the Future program, was a former GT-R racer that won many of Nissan’s victories in Australia during the early ’90s.

In order to meet the current V8 Supercar regulations, Nissan’s race car will be forced to use a generic rear-wheel-drive, V8 drivetrain. Despite the fact that it will not be an authentic GT-R racing alongside the fire breathing Aussie V8s, we do look forward to seeing more and more automakers following Nissan’s example to freshen up the Bathurst grid. So far, four GT-R’s under Kelly Racing will be participating in the 2013 season.

Watch video of the announcement below:

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Formula 1 is the epitome of motorsport glamor and fortune and the pinnacle of automotive engineering, technology and innovation. However, if an  F1 car doesn’t have what it takes to win, then apparently it isn’t worth anything at all. Yet amid the unforgiving reality of competition, Kevin Anthony, a 47-year-old resident of Brighton, England realized that a team’s loss could be his gain.

From bits and pieces of obsolete Formula 1 components found on eBay, Anthony is building his very own race car. So far, he has purchased a damaged tub for about $5,000 produced by team BAR for the 2001 season. With a basic structure, Anthony then bought an engine cover from BMW Williams, a nose from Force India, Lucky Strike racing livery and whatever else he could muster to create his Frankencar. To date, he has spent approximately $10,000 on his project.

He enjoyed purchasing memorabilia like spark plugs from grand prix cars before staring his current project, but realized after a while that “in buying parts, I have met quite a few people who raced Formula 1 cars and were selling their old ‘rubbish’ off. That made my realize that if I bought the right ‘rubbish’, I too could have what they had and fulfill a dream that until then was out of reach, namely having my own Formula 1 car.”

Currently, Anthony believes the project is near 65 percent complete and expects to have a rolling chassis by next year. As for an engine, he’s keeping an eye out for the perfect Formula Renault or Formula Ford powerplant.

[Source: New York Times]

It appears as though Honda won’t let Toyota hog the spotlight in the GT300 class of the Super GT racing series.

Joining the Prius Hybrid race car will be a Honda CR-Z developed with M-TEC Co., Ltd. and will be campaigned by Team Mugen. The hybrid racer won’t, however, be competing until Round 4 of the Super GT Series.

Unfortunately not a lot of details have been released by Honda, other than confirmation that the race car will be a reality and will have a hybrid racing system. The development driver for the project will be Hideki Mutoh, who is known for competing in the IndyCar Series and the GT500 class of Super GT. We’re guessing it will be some time before photos of the finished project surface considering Round 4 of the Super GT 2012 schedule isn’t until July 30th, 2012.

GALLERY: Honda CR-Z GT300 Race Car

[Source: Jon Sibal]

Toyota racing announced today that the TS030 hybrid powered race car will compete in the World Endurance Championship races.

Originally Toyota racing had planned on entering selected races on the World Endurance Championship circuit, but citing unexpected changes faced by the championship has now announced they will be a full-time entrant. This means that the debut of the TS030 will be on May 5th at the Six Hours of Spa Francorchamps.

For the 24 hours of Le Mans race, the regular driver line-up of Alex Wurz, Nicolas Lapierre and Kazui Nakajima has been confirmed, but the second set of drivers has yet to be determined.

“The circumstances for the championship changed suddenly in recent weeks and Toyota Racing considers it important to work together with the FIA and ACO to establish a successful future for endurance racing. We have done everything we can to show our support and we look forward to an exciting season, including the opportunity to race two cars at Le Mans,” said Toyota racing team president Yoshiaki Kinoshita.

See video of the Toyota Hybrid race car below:

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The German-based Kodewa team will be campaigning a pair of Lola LMP2 Coupes in this year’s FIA World Endurance Championship which includes the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The Lola LMP2 race cars are designed and built in Huntingdon UK and will be powered by an engine provided by the Lotus Group.

The Lola B12/80 LMP2 Coupes will sport a traditional black and gold livery, which was first made famous back in the 1970′s. The famous color scheme will be a nice contrast to the classic blue and orange Gulf Oil scheme that will be seen on the other Lola LMP2 cars this season.

“We have had a very successful winter at Lola with eight LMP cars having been ordered. We believe that new entries in sports cars are recognising the technical capabilities and iconic brand of Lola. It is pleasing that Kodewa, sponsored by Lotus, has chosen Lola to compete in the FIA World Endurance Championship, including the Le Mans 24 hours, this year,” said Martin Birrane, Executive Chairman of Lola.

Lola has experienced great success recently taking the 2011 Le Mans Series and American Le Mans Series manufacturers titles. Lola was also the first gasoline-powered LMP car to finish last years Le Mans 24 Hours. We’ll see the new race cars in action at the first race of the 2012 season at the Sebring 12 Hours race on March 17th.

Audi is out to steal Toyota‘s thunder in the World Endurance Championship this year.

The German automaker announced today that it will run two hybrid LMP1 cars for the first time in their team of four during the 24 hours of Le Mans.

Details were scarce in the release, but we know that the cars will be officially released at the end of the month. Their first race debut will follow on May 5 at the 6 hours of Spa-Francorchamps.

Despite running the hybrid cars, Audi isn’t relying on them. Instead the R18 TDI that raced last year will remain the staple.

“The first test results are very encouraging and we are intrigued to see just how this technology performs in combination with our ultra lightweight technology on the race track at Le Mans. As before, we still, however, see potential with the conventional drive – just as our colleagues do in production development,” head of Audi Motorsport Wolfgang Ullrich said.

It seems that the engineers at Audi are putting some stock in Toyota’s strategy because developing and running those cars is no small feat.

“To develop the hybrid technology for Le Mans is at least as ambitious and challenging as our diesel project was in its early stages,” Ullrich said.

Audi won 10 of the total Le Mans races since 2000, so the fact that they’re putting money into a hybrid LMP1 means there’s probably something significant to be gained.

Try this little experiment: put a pair of headphones on if you can, or just turn the volume up. Skip to the bottom of the page and watch the video, but do it with your eyes closed. Come back and read the article after that.

It’s the kind of outside-the-box thinking one might hope for with a brand launching into Formula One racing for the first time. Although the Lotus name has been around in F1 since 1958, there’s an important distinction: Team Lotus and Lotus weren’t exactly the same group.

The name disappeared from the sport between 1994 and 2010 when it came back under license to Tony Fernandes, an entrepreneur best known for turning once-failing Air Asia into a successful publicly listed company. For the upcoming year, Lotus will run under their own name, while Fernandes’ team will re-emerge as the Caterham F1 Team.

The Caterham CT01 car made the news last week after its photos leaked a day early onto the internet. We don’t have much information on the Lotus car yet, but we do know that 2007 Formula 1 world champion Kimi Raikkonen will be at the wheel.

Watch the teaser below.

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A grid of 58 vehicles at the 50th anniversary of the Rolex 24 at Daytona made this year’s event one of the most competitive races in the history of the franchise. It was so competitive, in fact, NASCAR star racing driver AJ Allmendinger of the Michael Shank Racing #60 Ford/Riley car only beat Starworks Motorsport’s pole-sitter Ryan Dalziel by 5.198 seconds after 24 hours of heated competition.

After Allmendinger had won the Rolex 24, he described his last stint as, “the most fun three hours of racing I’ve ever done.”

Struggling for a race win at the Rolex 24 ever since 2004, Michael Shank Racing’s remarkable victory got even sweeter when its second Daytona Prototype crossed the line to clinch third and close out the podium. However, the battle between Allmendinger and Dalziel in their last stint was so relentless that the Michael Shank No. 6 sister car driven by Felipe Nasr couldn’t stay with the battle and fell back, finishing the race almost a minute behind. The top-three finishers were all Ford/Riley prototypes.

The #60 Michael Shank Racing Ford Riley was brought to the checkered flag by A.J. Allmendinger and co-drivers Justin Wilson, John Pew and Oswaldo Negri Jr. Starwork’s impressive 2nd place finish was thanks to the valiant driving performed by Ryan Dalziel and co-drivers Enzo Potolicchio, Lucas Luhr, Allan McNish and Alex Popow. Finally, in third place, the sister Michael Shank car was driven by Felipe Nasr, Michael McDowell, Jorge Goncalvez and Gustavo Yacaman.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Rolex 24 at Daytona sports car endurance race, around 50 championship cars past and present paraded their way through the streets of Daytona.

The oldest race car to make the parade was the 1962 winner, while the newest was from last year’s race. The parade went off without a hitch with plenty of spectators lining the streets to snap photos as racing history went by on the same streets they drive on everyday. The vehicles traveled at speeds of more than 20-mph and weather cooperated.

Truly this parade was a once-in-a-lifetime sight, with millions and millions of valued race cars sharing the road with everyday, pedestrian automobiles.

Check out a video of the parade below.

[Source: Daytona Beach News Journal]

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The first glimpse of what will probably be the new face of F1 race cars leaked into the media yesterday after some subscribers to British F1 Racing magazine got their issues in the mail a little early.

The February edition was intended to debut the new Caterham F1 car, dubbed the CT01, but it didn’t take long for the photo to leak after people got their copies.

This is Caterham’s first solo entry into F1 racing. For the past two years they ran under the Lotus name, but that isn’t what all the fuss is about. Instead the internet is abuzz with speculation that the hideously shaped nose prominently displayed in the photo will be a widespread feature in 2012 F1 cars thanks to new regulations concerning the nose area.

The Caterham team quickly realized that their images had been pilled across the web and promptly released a cleaner looking photo which you see below. They tweeted their plans to release more pictures today, which are available in the gallery below.

Along with the new pictures, the team tweeted a link to the full interview which answered our questions about the ugly new nose design. Mike Gascoyne, chief technical officer for Caterham F1, confirmed that the new “stepped” nose exists to comply with new standards limiting nose height.

Otherwise the CT01 retained its former Renault Sport F1 engine and Red Bull Technology gearbox. Gascoyne also said the move to ban blown diffusers helped them catch up to other teams designs.

Tell us what you think of the car in the comments section below.

GALLERY: Caterham F1 CT01

[Source: AutoSport]