964 Ferraris made their presence known out at the Silverstone Circuit in England, setting a new Guinness World Record for ‘Largest Parade of Ferrari Cars’.
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A whopping 1,000 Ferrari‘s have registered for the September 15 world-record breaking event planned by Ferrari North Europe.
Earlier this year, we mentioned that a record gathering of Ferrari F40 models was planned for the Silverstone Classic 25th Anniversary. Now that event has come and gone, and over 60 Ferrari F40s showed up, trumping the previous record of 40 seen at the 2007 event.
Aiming to break the Guinness World Record for the largest parade of Ferrari cars, the Italian automaker will attempt to assemble some 600 of its exotic masterpieces to drive together during this year’s Ferrari Racing Days at Silverstone Circuit on September 15.
At this summer’s Silverstone Classic, Ferrari F40 enthusiasts hope to set a world record while celebrating the 25th anniversary of the exotic.
The Ferrari Owners’ Club of Great Britain is organizing the largest collection of F40s ever seen at the world’s biggest classic racing festival. “Our original aim was to get at least 25 of these Ferraris together and, as I have contacted owners, I have been gratified that so many want to be part of the celebration – so much so that we now have more than 50 F40s registered for the event with more still to come!” reported Nigel Chiltern-Hunt, the club’s co-ordinator for this anniversary gathering and an F40 owner himself. “A parade of those F40s present is planned for the Sunday and it undoubtedly will be the largest gathering of F40s ever seen anywhere in the world and will certainly beat the club’s own previous record of 40 F40s (pictured above) seen at the Silverstone Classic in 2007.”
The Ferrari F40 was first introduced in 1987 to celebrate the Italian automaker’s 40th anniversary. It features a twin-turbo V8 engine with 478-hp and was the world’s first 200-mph production road car. The supercar was sold at around $475,000 and only 1,315 F40s were ever produced. Silverstone Classic should be housing no less than 50 at this year’s show in July.
“Silverstone is the perfect place for Ferrari to be celebrating this important milestone in the incredible F40’s history,” said Nick Wigley, Event Organiser. “It was, of course, at Silverstone in 1951 that Ferrari achieved its first grand prix win and, since then, the circuit has witnessed countless more Ferrari victories, most recently when Fernando Alonso won last year’s British Grand Prix. With such a rich sporting history, it’s no surprise that so many fabulous Ferraris star in many of the major races staged at the Silverstone Classic. Now the promise of a record number of Ferrari F40s lining up on the infield is another major attraction. It’s a truly mouth-watering prospect that no supercar enthusiast will want to miss.”
[Source: Silverstone Classic]
What started out as a dominant performance by Aston Martin, crossing the finish line 1-2 during Round 2 of the FIA GT1 World Championship at Silverstone, unraveled after the race and promoted third place finisher Jamie Campbell-Walter and Warren Hughes in the Sumo Power Nissan GT-R to the top spot on the podium.
First came the news that the the #9 Hexis Racing DB9 of Frederic Makowiecki and Thomas Accary had covered more than three laps before serving a drive-through penalty, promoting Sumo Power to 2nd place. Then an hour later came the news that #7 Aston Martin of team Young Driver was being excluded for excessive plank wear. Post-race inspection showed that a few millimeters too much had been shaved off the #7 DB9′s belly plank from running too aggressively over the corner rumble strips. The Young Driver AMR team is appealing this ruling, but for now at least the official race victory belongs to Sumo Power‘s Campbell-Walter and Hughes.
This may not be the way Nissan or Sumo Power GT wanted to win their first race in the FIA GT1 World Championship, but it certainly does not take anything away from the impressive pace the Sumo Power GT-Rs displayed throughout the Silverstone weekend. Meanwhile, the Swiss Racing Team GT-Rs couldn’t quite match the pace of the Sumo Power Nissans, the #4 SRT GT-R finishing 9th and the #3 GT-R finishing 17th.
It will be interesting to see how the Aston Martin appeal unfolds in the days and weeks before Round 3 of the Championship, May 21-23 at Brno in the Czech Republic. For updates on the series and for live video feeds from each race, visit the official FIA GT1 website at http://www.gt1world.com
The complete Nissan press release from Silverstone and a collect of photos are available after the jump.
After reporting yesterday on the possible boycott of Round 2 of the FIA GT1 World Championship by both Nissan GT-R teams due to a controversial weight penalty assessed to them prior to the season opener in Abu Dhabi, we have since learned that the Swiss Racing Team and Sumo Power GT have confirmed their attendance at Silverstone this weekend (Apr. 30th to May 2nd).
This is good news for GT-R and GT1 fans alike, since earlier reports of a possible boycott along with the travel difficulties caused by the volcano eruption in Iceland were both sources of concern. Swiss Racing Team principals had to call in a favor from long-standing friendly motorsports relations with Jetalliance in order to get their crew back to Europe in time to prepare for Silverstone. “Many thanks to the AUA, to Jetalliance CEO Lukas Lichtner-Hoyer and Werner Langer. They supported us enormously. It was an organisational masterpiece,” said SRT managing director Othmar Welti. “We are working at the limit and on Wednesday morning we will travel to Silverstone. The team is still busy assembling the cars and is doing a great job,” team manager Erich Kolb said praisingly.
UK-based Sumo Power GT also faced travel difficulties and they too had to get creative to find their way home prior to Silverstone. According to team manager Allen Orchard, “It’s been a race in itself to get the cars, kit and all the team back from Abu Dhabi in time for this next race. With a few days still to go there’s still a lot to be done and we, like all teams, will be working flat out to ensure we make it to the grid. After all we’ve been through over the past few days, I sincerely hope that the Balance of Performance will be corrected so we can compete on an equal basis and the Championship can put on a great show for the spectators.”
It’s still unclear what, if any, action the FIA will take regarding the penalty weight assessed to the GT-Rs, but at least we now know that both Nissan teams will be in attendance and fighting as best they can for the race win at Silverstone.
For more information on the FIA GT1 World Championship, go to GT1 World. For a video recap of Round 1 at Abu Dhabi, watch the video after the jump.
To celebrate its 50th birthday MINI has released two special edition models, the MINI 50 Mayfair and MINI 50 Camden. The vehicles, which get their names from two London boroughs, were unveiled late last week at the famous Silverstone race track, during a b-day celebration titled the MINI United Festival.
Both special edition models will be available in either Cooper or Cooper S trims with their 120hp and 175hp engines, respectively. A 110hp diesel will also be available in Europe.
The MINI 50 Mayfair will be available in Pepper White, Midnight Black or Hot Chocolate metallic – a color that, until now, was reserved only for the Convertible and Clubman models. Toffy metallic stripes with white outer pinstripes really give the car a unique look, as do the white roof and white-painted 17-inch wheels.
Inside, the similar color accenting gives the cabin as unique a look.
As for the MINI 50 Camden, it will be offered in White Silver ( as shown) or in either Midnight Black or Horizon Blue and a white roof will be standard on all colors – as will 17-inch wheels.
Both cars come with plenty of unique details and badging and share a jubilee emblem that proudly displays a stylized number “50″ on the grille. And as expected the badges color combo (or should be say “colour” combo) is that of the Union Jack – red, white and blue.
MINI’s Mission Control system and a Harmon Kardon audio system will come standard on both cars, which will be available as of September. The MINI 50 Camden and MINI 50 Mayfair will only be produced for one year.
GALLERY: MINI 50 Mayfair
GALLERY: MINI 50 Camden
Official release after the jump: