#silverstone

You can now get inside the Ford GT racecar and relive a lap at the world-famous Silverstone race track.

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’.

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.

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.