As a way to keep the Viper name in the spotlight until the next model arrives, Dodge is spending the summer hunting down as many track records as possible with its now-retired halo performance car.

Called the Viper Record Tour ’11, Dodge has already taken its hard-core ACR street-legal track machine to New Jersey Motorsports Park and Sebring International Raceway and reportedly has plans to claim two more lap records at both Texas World Speedway and Daytona. No details have been provided on who the driver is, but Kumo Wittmer, who drives a Viper Cup Car in the SCCA World Challenge series, is tipped to be a pilot for several of the runs. Whitmer, it should be noted, already set the production lap record in the Viper ACR at Miller Motorsports Park.

Perhaps most exciting, however, is word that the ACR may be headed back to to the Nurburgring in search of the lap record there. A Viper ACR did hold the record there in the past, but has since been surpassed by both the Porsche GT2 RS and the the 2012 Corvette ZR1.

[Source: MotorTrend]

Hit the jump to watch the recently released New Jersey and Sebring record runs:

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Cadillac is currently testing its CTS-V Coupe race cars at Sebring International Raceway and has released a full selection of photos from the shakedown, helping to add more to our weekly car-porn collection.

Shown for the first time in official livery and driven by pilots Andy Pilgrim (No.8) and Johnny O’Connell (No.3), the cars are preparing for the starts of the SCCA World Challenge series in St. Petersburg, Fla., on March 25-27

“The driving is going very well,” O’Connell said. “We’re just learning how the car responds to different changes and we’re getting a lot of track data. With two full days of testing (Feb. 22-23), we’ll have a really good idea of how we’ll perform at the first race in St. Petersburg next month.”

We’ll be watching Cadillac’s return to World Challenge closely to see if the new coupes can dominate the series in the way the sedans used to.

GALLERY: Cadillac CTS-V Coupe Race Car

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Corvette Racing has just released the first official photos of its new GT Class (formerly GT2) C6.R team, with new livery for 2010. The teams consist of Corvette Racing drivers Johnny O’Connell, Jan Magnussen, and Antonio Garcia in the No. 3 Compuware Corvette C6.R, while Oliver Gavin, Olivier Beretta, and Emmanuel Collard will pilot the No. 4 car. All drivers have been testing the cars this week at Sebring International Raceway in Florida.

Along with new livery, the car’s have a new 5.5-liter V8 that many expect will be the new base engine in the next generation (C7) Corvette. Last year Corvette Racing only ran a partial season in the new GT (then GT2 Class) cars, using a downsized 6.0-liter version of the old GT1 Class 7.0-liter V8.

The 2010 ALMS Season begins with the 12 Hours of Sebring, March 17-20.

GALLERY: 2010 Corvette Racing C6.R

Official release after the jump:

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Corvette Racing boss Doug Fehan has confirmed that when the team of GT2-spec Vettes debut for their first full season at Sebring in March, they will be equipped with an all-new, smaller V8 engine. Gone is the 6.0-liter V8 from last year, which Fehan said was just an temporary engine. That motor, essentially a donwsized version of the GT1-spec 7.0-liter V8, had very little in common with the street-going Corvette’s V8.

This new 5.5-liter V8, however, is expected to be in many ways similar to a production V8 that will find its way into the next generation C7 Corvette. In fact, it will be built alongside engines for the ZR1 and Z06 at GM’s Performance Build Center.

We’ll be watching the new GT2 Corvettes closely during the 2010 American Le Mans Series (ALMS) season, in articular during their race debut at the 12 Hours of Sebring running from March 17-20.

GALLERY: Corvette Racing ALMS GT2 Cars

Official release after the jump:

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