1.
FIA World Endurance Championship
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For the FIA World Endurance Championship contested from 1981 to 1985, see World Sportscar Championship. The FIA World Endurance Championship is an auto racing championship organized by the Automobile Club de lOuest. The World Endurance Championship name was used by the FIA from 1981 to 1985. World champion titles are awarded to the top scoring manufacturers and drivers over the season, while other cups and trophies will be awarded for drivers and private teams. The calendar includes four races in Europe, two in the Americas, two in Asia and one in the Middle East, with a future expansion. Six titles are awarded each season based on total point tally, the GTE Pro class champion are awarded a World Cup, while the leaders in LMP2 and GTE Am are awarded a Trophy. The final Trophy is awarded to the best privateer team amongst all four classes, the points system is similar to that used in the FIAs other world championships, awarding points to the top ten finishers on a sliding point margin scale from first to tenth. Cars finishing the race but classified eleventh or further are awarded a half point, double points are awarded for the 24 Hours of Le Mans. WeatherTech SportsCar Championship European Le Mans Series FIA GT1 World Championship FIA World Endurance Championship Automobile Club de lOuest Fédération Internationale de lAutomobile
2.
Stirling Moss
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Sir Stirling Moss, OBE is a British former Formula One racing driver. In a seven-year span between 1955 and 1961 Moss finished as championship runner-up four times and third the other three, Moss was born in London, son of Alfred Moss, a dentist of Bray, Berkshire, and Aileen. He was brought up at Long White Cloud house on the bank of the River Thames. His father was a racing driver who had placed 16th at the 1924 Indianapolis 500. Stirling was a horse rider as was his younger sister, Pat Moss. Moss raced from 1948 to 1962, winning 212 of the 529 races he entered, like many drivers of the era, he competed in several formulae, often on the same day. He preferred to race British cars, stating, Better to lose honourably in a British car than win in a foreign one, at Vanwall, he was instrumental in breaking the German/Italian stranglehold on F1 racing. He remained the English driver with the most Formula One victories until 1991 when Nigel Mansell overtook him after competing in more races. Moss was one of the Cooper Car Companys first customers, using winnings from competing in horse-riding events to pay the deposit on a Cooper 500 racing car in 1948. He then persuaded his father, who opposed his racing and wanted him to be a dentist, to let him buy it. His first major race victory came on the eve of his 21st birthday at the wheel of a borrowed Jaguar XK120 in the 1950 RAC Tourist Trophy on the Dundrod circuit in Northern Ireland. He went on to win the six more times, in 1951,1955,1958 and 1959. Also a competent rally driver, he is one of three people to have won a Coupe dOr for three consecutive penalty-free runs on the Alpine Rally. He finished second in the 1952 Monte Carlo Rally driving a Sunbeam-Talbot 90 with Desmond Scannell, in 1954, he became the first non-American to win the 12 Hours of Sebring, sharing the Cunningham teams 1. 5-liter O. S. C. A. In 1953 Mercedes-Benz racing boss Alfred Neubauer had spoken to Mosss manager, Ken Gregory, having seen him do well in a relatively uncompetitive car, and wanting to see how he would perform in a better one, Neubauer suggested Moss buy a Maserati for the 1954 season. In the Italian Grand Prix at Monza he passed both drivers who were regarded as the best in Formula One at the time—Juan Manuel Fangio in a Mercedes, Ascari retired with engine problems, and Moss led until lap 68 when his engine also failed. Fangio took the victory, and Moss pushed his Maserati to the finish line, Neubauer, already impressed when Moss had tested a Mercedes-Benz W196 at Hockenheim, promptly signed him for 1955. Mosss first Formula One victory was in the 1955 British Grand Prix at Aintree, leading a 1–2–3–4 finish for Mercedes, it was the first time he beat Fangio, his teammate and arch rival, who was also his friend and mentor
3.
Scuderia Ferrari
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Scuderia Ferrari S. p. A. competing as Scuderia Ferrari is the official name of the racing division of luxury Italian auto manufacturer, Ferrari, and competes in Formula One racing. It is the oldest surviving and most successful Formula One team, the team was founded by Enzo Ferrari, initially to race cars produced by Alfa Romeo, though by 1947 Ferrari had begun building its own cars. As a constructor, Ferrari has a record 16 Constructors Championships, Alberto Ascari, Juan Manuel Fangio, Mike Hawthorn, Phil Hill, John Surtees, Niki Lauda, Jody Scheckter, Michael Schumacher and Kimi Räikkönen have won a record 15 Drivers Championships for the team. Since Räikkönens title in 2007 the team narrowly lost out on the 2008 drivers title with Felipe Massa, Schumacher is the teams most successful driver. Joining the team in 1996 and departing in 2006 he won five titles and 72 Grands Prix for the team. His titles came consecutively between 2000 and 2004, including the constructors title of 1999 consecutively being won until the end of 2004, this was the teams most successful period. Currently, World Champions Kimi Räikkönen and Sebastian Vettel are the two race drivers. The team is known for its passionate support base known as the tifosi. The Italian Grand Prix at Monza is regarded as the home race. The Scuderia Ferrari team was founded by Enzo Ferrari on 16 November 1929 and became the team of Alfa Romeo. In 1938, Alfa Romeo management made the decision to enter racing under its own name, establishing the Alfa Corse organisation, Enzo Ferrari disagreed with this change in policy and was finally dismissed by Alfa in 1939. The terms of his leaving forbade him from motorsport under his own name, in 1939 Ferrari started work on a racecar of his own, the Tipo 815. The 815s, designed by Alberto Massimino, were thus the first Ferrari cars, World War II put a temporary end to racing, and Ferrari concentrated on an alternative use for his factory during the war years, doing machine tool work. After the war, Ferrari recruited several of his former Alfa colleagues and established a new Scuderia Ferrari, the team owns and operates a test track on the same site, the Fiorano Circuit built in 1972, which is used for testing road and race cars. The team is named after its founder, Enzo Ferrari, Scuderia is Italian for a stable reserved for racing horses and is also commonly applied to Italian motor racing teams. In 1947 Ferrari constructed the 12-cylinder,1.5 L Tipo 125, a Formula One version of the Tipo 125, the Ferrari 125 F1 was developed in 1948 and entered in several Grand Prix, at the time a World Championship had not yet been established. In 1950, the Formula One World Championship was established, and it is the only team to have competed in every season of the World Championship, from its inception to the current day. The company later switched to the large-displacement naturally aspirated formula for the 275,340, after the 1951 Formula One season the Alfa team withdrew from F1, causing the authorities to adopt the Formula Two regulations due to the lack of suitable F1 cars
4.
Porsche
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F. Porsche AG, usually shortened to Porsche AG, is a German automobile manufacturer specializing in high-performance sports cars, SUVs and sedans. Porsche AG is headquartered in Stuttgart, and is owned by Volkswagen AG, Porsches current lineup includes the 718 Boxster/Cayman,911, Panamera, Macan and Cayenne. Ferdinand Porsche founded the company called Dr. Ing. h. c, F. Porsche GmbH in 1931, with main offices at Kronenstraße 24 in the centre of Stuttgart. Initially, the company offered motor vehicle development work and consulting, One of the first assignments the new company received was from the German government to design a car for the people, that is a Volkswagen. This resulted in the Volkswagen Beetle, one of the most successful car designs of all time, the Porsche 64 was developed in 1939 using many components from the Beetle. During World War II, Volkswagen production turned to the version of the Volkswagen Beetle, the Kübelwagen,52,000 produced. Porsche produced several designs for heavy tanks during the war, losing out to Henschel & Son in both contracts that ultimately led to the Tiger I and the Tiger II. However, not all work was wasted, as the chassis Porsche designed for the Tiger I was used as the base for the Elefant tank destroyer. Porsche also developed the Maus super-heavy tank in the stages of the war. At the end of World War II in 1945, the Volkswagen factory at KdF-Stadt fell to the British, Ferdinand lost his position as Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen, and Ivan Hirst, a British Army Major, was put in charge of the factory. On 15 December of that year, Ferdinand was arrested for war crimes, during his 20-month imprisonment, Ferdinand Porsches son, Ferry Porsche, decided to build his own car, because he could not find an existing one that he wanted to buy. He also had to steer the company through some of its most difficult days until his fathers release in August 1947, the first models of what was to become the 356 were built in a small sawmill in Gmünd, Austria. The prototype car was shown to German auto dealers, and when pre-orders reached a set threshold, production was begun by Porsche Konstruktionen GesmbH founded by Ferry, many regard the 356 as the first Porsche simply because it was the first model sold by the fledgling company. After the production of 356 was taken over by the fathers Dr. Ing. h. c. In 1952, Porsche constructed a plant across the street from Reutter Karosserie, the main road in front of Werk 1. The 356 was road certified in 1948, Porsches company logo was based on the coat of arms of the Free Peoples State of Württemberg of former Weimar Germany, which had Stuttgart as its capital. The arms of Stuttgart was placed in the middle as an inescutcheon, on 30 January 1951, not long before the creation of Baden-Württemberg, Ferdinand Porsche died from complications following a stroke. The 356, however, had several stages, A, B, and C, while in production
5.
Endurance racing (motorsport)
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Endurance racing is a form of motorsport racing which is meant to test the durability of equipment and endurance of participants. Teams of multiple drivers attempt to cover a distance in a single event. Endurance races can be run either to cover a set distance in laps as quickly as possible, one of the more common lengths of endurance races has been running for 1,000 kilometres, or roughly six hours. Longer races can run for 1,000 miles,12 hours, teams can consist of anywhere from two to four drivers per event, which is dependent on the drivers endurance abilities, length of the race, or even the rules for each event. Coppa Florio was an Italian car race started in 1900, and renamed in 1905 when Vincenzo Florio offered the initial 50000 Lira, the Brescia race visited the route Brescia-Cremona-Mantova-Brescia. In 1908, the race used the Circuito di Bologna, Bologna-Castelfranco Emilia-SantAgata Bolognese-San Giovanni in Persiceto-Bologna, since 1914 most of the Coppa Florio was co-organized with the Targa Florio near Palermo, Sicilia, running four or five laps,108 km each. The Mille Miglia was an endurance race which took place in Italy 24 times from 1927 to 1957. The worlds first organized 24-hour automobile race event was held on a 1-mile oval track at Driving Park, Columbus, beginning on the afternoon of July 3, four cars from Frayer-Miller, Pope-Toledo, Peerless and White Steamer raced for a $500 silver trophy. The winning Pope-Toledo car covered 828.5 miles, a protest was filed by the Frayer-Miller and Peerless teams, alleging the Pope-Toledo was not owned by the driver, instead sent from the factory with an engine built for racing. The first 24-hour race to place at a dedicated motorsport venue was at Brooklands. This incurred the wrath of local residents and would lead to the Double Twelve race and this format meant the race took place for 12 hours each between 8am to 8pm and between it, the cars were locked up overnight to prevent maintenance work from being performed on them. The 2001 Dakar Rally saw competitors cover a distance of 10,739 kilometres with a time of 70 hours over 20 days with three classes of cars, motorbikes, and trucks. The 1992 Paris–Cape Town Rally covered a distance of 12,427 km, the 1994 edition saw competitors return to Paris, for a distance of 13,379 km. The Expedition Trophy, first held in 2005, runs from Murmansk to Vladivostok, the 1908 New York to Paris Race covered a distance of over 16,000 km, taking 169 days from February 12 to July 30. The various endurance formats were appealing to manufacturers, not only as alternatives to the expense of Grand Prix racing, in automobile endurance racing, three events have come to form a Triple Crown. They are considered three of the most challenging endurance races over the decades, the Rolex 24 at Daytona,12 Hours of Sebring, hans Herrmann was the first in 1970 to win the three races, and Timo Bernhard the most recent. No driver has won the three events in the year, Hurley Haywood and Al Holbert have won the three races at least twice each. Bold on year indicate at which race the driver achieved his Triple Crown, the FIA World Endurance Championship is an international sports car racing series organized by both the Automobile Club de lOuest and the Fédération Internationale de lAutomobile
6.
Sports car racing
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Sports car racing is a form of circuit auto racing with sports cars that have two seats and enclosed wheels. They may be purpose-built or related to road-going models, a type of hybrid between the purism of open-wheelers and the familiarity of touring car racing, this style is often associated with the annual Le Mans 24 Hours endurance race. First run in 1923, Le Mans is one of the oldest motor races still in existence, other classic but now defunct sports car races include the Italian classics, the Targa Florio and Mille Miglia, and the Mexican Carrera Panamericana. Most top class sports car races emphasize endurance, reliability, and strategy, longer races usually involve complex pit strategy and regular driver changes. These makers top road cars have often very similar both in engineering and styling to those raced. This close association with the nature of the cars serves as a useful distinction between sports car racing and touring cars. The 12 Hours of Sebring,24 Hours of Daytona, and 24 Hours of Le Mans were once considered the trifecta of sports car racing. In the 1920s, the used in endurance racing and Grand Prix were still basically identical, with fenders. Cars such as the Bugatti Type 35 were almost equally at home in Grands Prix and endurance events, but specialisation gradually started to differentiate the sports-racer from the Grand Prix car. As mainly Italian cars and races defined the genre, the category was called Gran Turismo, as long distances had to be travelled, reliability and some basic comfort were necessary in order to endure the task. After the Second World War, sports car racing emerged as a form of racing with its own classic races. Top Grand Prix drivers also competed regularly in sports car racing, from 1962 sports cars temporarily took a back seat to GT cars with the FIA replacing the World Championship for Sports Cars with the International Championship for GT Manufacturers. The US scene tended to feature small MG and Porsche cars in the smaller classes, the combination of mostly British chassis and American V8 engines gave rise to the popular and spectacular Can-Am series in the 1960s and 1970s. Clubmans provided much entertainment at club-racing level from the 1960s into the 1990s, after a relative period of decline in the 1980s a British GT Championship emerged in the mid-90s. Road races such as the Mille Miglia included everything from stock touring cars to World Championship contenders, the Mille Miglia was the largest sporting event in Italy until a fatal accident caused its demise in 1957. The Targa Florio, another road race, remained part of the world championship until the 1970s. Between the late 1960s and late 1970s, Matra and Renault made significant, the competition at Le Mans even made it to the movie screens, with Steve McQueens film Le Mans. This era was seen by many as the highpoint of sports car racing, with the technology, a peculiarly American form of sports car racing was the Can-Am series, in which virtually unlimited sports prototypes competed in relatively short races
7.
ADAC
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The ADAC is an automobile club in Germany, founded on May 24,1903 as German Motorbiker Association, and was renamed to its present name in 1911. With more than 18 million members in May 2012, it is the largest automobile club in Europe and it is also the largest motorcyclist association in the world, with 1.5 million members. Both the ADAC, and its older rival AvD, are members of the FIA, the European Grand Prix, the former ADAC Eifelrennen, the 24 Hours Nürburgring and many other races are hosted by ADAC. The ADAC also operates a fleet of mobile mechanics in yellow cars that assist motorists in trouble - the Yellow Angels. The ADAC runs its own modification center whereby ordinary vans are turned into mobile garages in 55 man-hours, in addition to this, the ADAC provides 44 air ambulance helicopters for urgent medical rescues in Germany, strategically placed so that any location can be reached within 15 minutes. The ADAC also offers its membership to non German residents, having signed contracts with automobile clubs worldwide, in the UK, it is possible to have breakdown recovery through the local AA while having an ADAC membership. The ADAC is publisher of the magazine with the largest distribution in Germany, on June 3,2008, the ADAC suspended its involvement with the FIA over the scandal surrounding Max Mosley and his subsequent retention as FIA president. The ADAC break-down assistance service was launched in Germany in 1927, during the Nazi period, starting in 1934, all motorists organizations and clubs were replaced by Der Deutsche Automobil-Club e. V. which was closely associated with the National Socialist Motor Corps. These original ADAC Gelbe Engel used NSU Konsul motorbikes, at the end of 1962 ADAC announced the retirement of their motor-bike-sidecar combinations which would be replaced by 40 appropriately equipped Volkswagen Beetles. Growth rates during the twenty years were greatly boosted by German reunification. ADAC is a member for the European Road Assessment Program in Germany. ADAC regularly publishes maps showing safety characteristics of German roads and these maps based on EuroRAPs Road Protection Score Protocol is a measure of how well a road protects road users in the event of an accident. Data on road characteristics is gathered by driving through road inspections using a specially equipped RPS inspection vehicle, trained assessors then rate the safety features and hazards on the inspected road and use standardised formula to produce a safety rating—star rating—which is comparable across Europe. ADAC also undertakes road inspections on behalf of other EuroRAP members, ADAC is the campaigns partner in Germany. Breakdown Breakdown Cover European Campaign for Safe Road Design EuroRAP The dictionary definition of ADAC at Wiktionary ADAC official website
8.
1953 World Sportscar Championship
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The 1953 World Sportscar Championship was the first FIA World Sportscar Championship. It was a seven race international motor racing series for sports cars contested from 8 March to 23 November 1953, the championship was won by Ferrari. The 1953 World Sports Car Championship was contested over a seven race series, sometimes, even the Drivers World Champion joined in. Classes were split between closed cars and open cars, with further divisions due to engine displacement, scuderia Ferrari were a dominant force in 1953, winning three races, a result of Enzo Ferrari’s determination to bring prestige to his marque. Championship points were awarded for the first six places in race in the order of 8-6-4-3-2-1. Manufacturers were only awarded points for their highest finishing car with no points awarded for positions filled by additional cars, only the best 4 results out of the 7 races could be retained by each manufacturer. Points earned but not counted towards the championship totals are listed within brackets in the above table, the following models contributed to the net championship point scores of their respective manufacturers. classicscars. com 1953 World Sports Car Championship points table at www. classicscars. com
9.
Alberto Ascari
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Alberto Ascari was an Italian racing driver and twice Formula One World Champion. He was a racer who completed in motorcycle racing before switching to cars. Back to back World titles in 1952 and 1953 sandwiched an appearance in the Indianapolis 500 in 1952, Ascari also won the legendary Mille Miglia in 1954. When Alberto was a child, his father, Antonio, who was also a racing driver. Alberto once admitted that he warned his children not to become close to him because of the risk involved in his profession. So this proved when he was killed during a test session for Scuderia Ferrari at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza and he was preparing for the Supercortemaggiore 1000 kilometre race that he was to have run with his protégé Eugenio Castellotti on the weekend that followed the accident. The son of one of Italys great pre-war drivers, Alberto Ascari went on to one of Formula One racings most dominant. His unexplained fatal accident – at the age as his fathers, on the same day of the month. Born in Milan, Ascari was the son of Antonio Ascari, such was his passion to become a racing driver like his father, twice he ran away from school. He raced motorcycles in his earlier years, at the age of just 19, Ascari was signed to ride for the Bianchi team. He also married a girl the same year. When Italy entered World War II, the garage, now run by Alberto, was conscripted to service. It was during this period, he established a transport business. His partner in the enterprise was a racing driver, Luigi Villoresi. The pair did survive being capsized in Tripoli harbour along with a shipment of lorries, as their business supported the Italian war effort, it made them exempt from being called up during the war. Following the end of World War II Alberto Ascari began racing in Grands Prix with Maserati 4CLT and his teammate was Villoresi, who would become a mentor, teammate and friend to Ascari. The pair were successful on the circuits in the North of Italy, soon he was bestowed with the nickname Ciccio, meaning Tubby. Formula One regulations were introduced by the FIA in 1946, with the aim of replacing the pre-war Grand Prix structure
10.
Giuseppe Farina
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Dottore Giuseppe Antonio “Nino” Farina, was an Italian racing driver and was the first official Formula One World Champion, gaining the title in 1950. He was also the Italian Champion in 1937,1938 and 1939, during his thirty-year racing career he suffered a series of accidents. Born in Turin, Farina was the son of Giovanni Carlo Farina who founded the Stabilimenti Farina coachbuilder, Giuseppe began driving a two-cylinder Temperino, at the age of just nine. He became a Doctor of Political Science, he excelled at skiing, football. He cut short a career as an officer with the Italian army to fulfil a different ambition. While still at university Farina purchased his first car, a second-hand Alfa Romeo, while trying to beat his father, he crashed, breaking his shoulder and receiving facial cuts, establishing a trend that continued throughout his crash-prone career. It was Nuvolari who to some extent, guided Farina’s early career, in 1935, he raced for the factory Maserati team, showing enough promise to impress Enzo Ferrari, who recruited him to drive for Scuderia Ferrari, the team that ran the works-supported Alfa Romeos. It was in an Alfa Romeo 8C that he finished second in the Mille Miglia and he made mistakes aplenty, but kept coming back for more and became a Grand Prix winner, when he won the 1937 Grand Prix of Naples. Although he was noted for his style and intelligence, he had a petulant streak. He was involved in two fatal accidents, the first was during the 1936 Grand Prix de Deauville, when he tried to pass Marcel Lehoux for second. Farina’s Alfa Romeo 8C collided with Lehoux’s ERA, causing the ERA to overturn, Lehoux was thrown out, received a fractured skull and died in hospital, while Farina escaped with minor injuries. Two seasons later, during the 1938 Gran Premio di Tripoli, the cars to collided and overturned. Farina survived without injuries, but Hartmann died the following day. In 1938, the official Alfa Romeo team, Alfa Corse, returned to motor sport and Farina was a member. Driving the new Alfa Romeo 158 Voiturette in 1939, he won the Grand Prix d’Anvers, Coppa Ciano, the following year, he won the Tripoli Grand Prix and finished second in the Mille Miglia for the third time. After World War II, Farina returned to Alfa Corse to drive their 158 and he won the 1946 Grand Prix des Nations. However, he left Alfa Corse after a disagreement over team leadership and he came back to the sport in 1948 with a privately entered Maserati and a works Ferrari. During this period, he also got married to Elsa Giaretto, in her opinion motor sport was a silly and dangerous activity, and she tried to persuade Farina to stop
11.
Ferrari
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Ferrari N. V. is an Italian sports car manufacturer based in Maranello. Founded by Enzo Ferrari in 1939 as Auto Avio Costruzioni, the company built its first car in 1940, however the companys inception as an auto manufacturer is usually recognized in 1947, when the first Ferrari-badged car was completed. Ferrari is the worlds most powerful according to Brand Finance. In May 2012 the 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO became the most expensive car in history, Fiat S. p. A. acquired 50 percent of Ferrari in 1969 and expanded its stake to 90 percent in 1988. In October 2014 Fiat Chrysler Automobiles announced its intentions to separate Ferrari S. p. A. from FCA, through the remaining steps of the separation, FCAs interest in Ferraris business was distributed to shareholders of FCA, with 10 percent continuing to be owned by Piero Ferrari. The spin-off was completed on 3 January 2016, Ferrari road cars are generally seen as a symbol of speed, luxury and wealth. Enzo Ferrari was not initially interested in the idea of producing road cars when he formed Scuderia Ferrari in 1929, Scuderia Ferrari literally means Ferrari Stable and is usually used to mean Team Ferrari. Ferrari bought, prepared and fielded Alfa Romeo racing cars for gentlemen drivers, in September 1939 Enzo Ferrari left Alfa Romeo under the provision that he would not use the Ferrari name in association with races or racing cars for at least four years. A few days later he founded Auto Avio Costruzioni, headquartered in the facilities of the old Scuderia Ferrari, the new company ostensibly produced machine tools and aircraft accessories. In 1940 Ferrari did in fact produce a race car – the Tipo 815 and it was the first Ferrari car and debuted at the 1940 Mille Miglia, but due to World War II it saw little competition. In 1943 the Ferrari factory moved to Maranello, where it has remained ever since, the factory was bombed by the Allies and subsequently rebuilt including a works for road car production. The first Ferrari-badged car was the 1947125 S, powered by a 1.5 L V12 engine, Enzo Ferrari reluctantly built, the Scuderia Ferrari name was resurrected to denote the factory racing cars and distinguish them from those fielded by customer teams. In 1960 the company was restructured as a corporation under the name SEFAC S. p. A. Early in 1969, Fiat took a 50 percent stake in Ferrari, new model investment further up in the Ferrari range also received a boost. In 1988, Enzo Ferrari oversaw the launch of the Ferrari F40, the last new Ferrari to be launched before his death later that year, in 1989 the company was renamed as Ferrari S. p. A. From 2002 to 2004, Ferrari produced the Enzo, their fastest model at the time and it was to be called the F60, continuing on from the F40 and F50, but Ferrari was so pleased with it, they called it the Enzo instead. It was initially offered to loyal and reoccurring customers, each of the 399 made had a tag of $650,000 apiece. On 15 September 2012,964 Ferrari cars (worth over $162 million attended the Ferrari Driving Days event at Silverstone Circuit, on 29 October 2014, the FCA group, resulting from the merger between manufacturers Fiat and Chrysler, announced the split of its luxury brand, Ferrari
12.
Formula One
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Formula One is the highest class of single-seat auto racing that is sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de lAutomobile. The FIA Formula One World Championship has been the form of racing since the inaugural season in 1950. The formula, designated in the name, refers to a set of rules, the F1 season consists of a series of races, known as Grands Prix, held worldwide on purpose-built F1 circuits and public roads. The results of each race are evaluated using a system to determine two annual World Championships, one for drivers, one for constructors. The racing drivers are required to be holders of valid Super Licences, the races are required to be held on tracks graded 1, the highest grade a track can receive by the FIA. Most events are held in locations on purpose-built tracks, but there are several events in city centres throughout the world. Formula One cars are the fastest road racing cars in the world. Formula One cars race at speeds of up to approximately 375 km/h with engines currently limited in performance to a maximum of 15,000 RPM, the cars are capable of lateral acceleration in excess of five g in corners. The performance of the cars is very dependent on electronics – although traction control and other driving aids have been banned since 2008 – and on aerodynamics, suspension, the formula has radically evolved and changed through the history of the sport. F1 had a global television audience of 425 million people during the course of the 2014 season. Grand Prix racing began in 1906 and became the most popular internationally in the second half of the twentieth century. The Formula One Group is the holder of the commercial rights. Its high profile and popularity have created a major merchandising environment, since 2000 the sports spiraling expenditures and the distribution of prize money favoring established top teams have forced complaints from smaller teams and led several teams to bankruptcy. On 23 January 2017 it was confirmed that Liberty Media had completed its $8 billion acquisition of Delta Topco, the Formula One series originated with the European Grand Prix Motor Racing of the 1920s and 1930s. The formula is a set of rules that all cars must meet. Formula One was a new formula agreed upon after World War II during 1946, the first world championship race was held at Silverstone, United Kingdom in 1950. A championship for constructors followed in 1958, national championships existed in South Africa and the UK in the 1960s and 1970s. Non-championship Formula One events were held for years, but due to the increasing cost of competition
13.
Jochen Mass
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Jochen Richard Mass is a German former racing driver. Mass was born in Dorfen, Bavaria and he participated in 114 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 14 July 1973 at the British Grand Prix. He won one GP race, secured no pole positions, achieved 8 podiums, Mass is perhaps best known for his blameless part in the death of Gilles Villeneuve. On 8 May 1982, with only 10 minutes left until the end of the session for the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder. As Villeneuve came up behind Mass exiting a super-fast left turn, Villeneuve had already committed to the right hand side and the two cars touched wheels, launching the helpless Canadian skyward. Villeneuves car hit the ground nose-first and was torn apart in a series of violent cartwheels. His seat was dislodged and he was flung from his car, Mass stopped his car, jumped out and ran back to Villeneuve’s wrecked car, but there was nothing he could have done. Villeneuve was flown to hospital and taken off later that evening. In 1972, he teamed up with Hans-Joachim Stuck to drive a Ford Capri RS2600 to victory at the Spa 24 Hours endurance race in Belgium and he went on to win that years World Sportscar Championship. He finished second to Clay Regazzoni and Arturo Merzario in a November 1972 9-hour race at the Kyalami Circuit, in Johannesburg, Mass co-driver in a Chevron B-21 was Gerry Birrell.8 seconds, for an average of 124.3 miles per hour. Mass placed second to Jean-Pierre Jarier in a Formula Two race at Nivelles and he had finished second in the first heat and third in the second. He completed his first Formula One race at the 1973 German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring, Mass came in seventh in a Surtees. He drove a McLaren-Ford to third place in the 1975 Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos, Mass won the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix after leader, Rolf Stommelens car hit a protective barrier, exploded into flames and catapulted into the crowd at the Montjuich circuit. Four spectators were killed and twelve were injured, stommelen suffered multiple fractures and was in a critical condition after the accident. Mass was declared the winner in his Texaco McLaren-Ford, when the race was stopped immediately after the accident, Merzario and Mass led an Alfa Romeo sweep of the first two positions in the 1975 Coppa Florio manufacturers championship automobile race at Pergusa. Mass was third in the 1975 French Grand Prix at Le Castellet, on lap 44 he broke the record set by Denny Hulme, clocking a time of 1,50.60 over the 3. 61-mile circuit. Mass and Jacky Ickx teamed in a Porsche to claim victory in the Dijon Six-Hour Race, Mass won the eighth and final race of the 1976 World Sports Car Championship series. He completed the 4.2 kilometre, Salzburg course in 1 hour,28 minutes,25.24 seconds, Mass and Ickx drove a Porsche 935 in the 197724 Hours of Daytona endurance race
14.
Jacky Ickx
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Jacky Ickx was introduced to the sport when he was taken by his father, motoring journalist Jacques Ickx, to races which he covered. Despite this family background, Jacky had limited interest in the sport until his father bought him a 50 cc Zündapp motorcycle, soon afterwards, Ickx won 8 of 13 races at the first season and the European 50 cc trials title. He also competed in car races where he had already significant experience from taking part in the 1000 km races at the Nürburgring. Ickx entered his first Grand Prix at the Nürburgring in 1966, driving a Matra MS5-Cosworth one-litre Formula Two car, however, a first lap collision with John Taylor caused both cars to retire and Taylor later died as a result of burns received in the accident. In 1967, Ickx again drove at the Nurburgring, with an F2 Matra MS7-Cosworth 1. 6-litre, despite the greater power of the Formula One cars, only two F1 drivers qualified with a faster time than Ickx, Denny Hulme and Jim Clark. As Ickx was racing in the separate F2 class, he started the race all of the F1 cars. He was forced to retire after 12 laps with broken front suspension, at Monza in 1967, he made his F1 debut in a Cooper T81B-Maserati, finishing sixth, despite suffering a puncture on the last lap. He also drove for Cooper in the United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen, in 1968 Ickx drove in Formula 1 for Ferrari. He retired from his first two races, but at his race at Spa-Francorchamps he started from the front row. At the French Grand Prix at Rouen he took his first win, in heavy rain, Ickx also finished third at Brands Hatch and fourth at the Nürburgring after driving almost the entire race in heavy rain without his helmet visor. At Monza he finished the race in third position, in Canada he crashed and broke his left leg during practice, thus did not start and also missed the subsequent United States Grand Prix. He returned in time for the race of the season in Mexico. Ickx scored 27 points in the 1968 Formula One season finishing in place behind Graham Hill, Jackie Stewart. In 1969, Ickx moved to Brabham, partly at the instigation of the John Wyer team for whom hed had considerable success in sports cars. Wyers main sponsor, Gulf Oil were keen to ensure that they retained his services rather than lose him to Ferraris sports car team. In the 1969 Mexican Grand Prix Ickx finished second and ended the year as runner-up in the world championship. He returned to the Ferrari team for the 1970 season, a move he had been considering since the Italian Grand Prix, as in 1969, Ickx had a disappointing start to the 1970 season. On the first lap of the Spanish Grand Prix he collided with the BRM of Jackie Oliver and it took at least 20 seconds for him to leave the burning car and he was hospitalized with severe burns
15.
Porsche 956
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The Porsche 956 was a Group C sports-prototype racing car designed by Norbert Singer and built by Porsche in 1982 for the FIA World Sportscar Championship. It was later upgraded to the 956B in 1984, the project began in June 1981, and the first prototype chassis was completed on March 27,1982, in time for the beginning of the World Championship season. Jürgen Barth tested the first chassis at Porsches private test track, the 956 features a chassis made of an aluminium monocoque, a first for the company, helping to allow the car to meet the 800 kg weight minimum in Group C. The engine is the same as the one used in the Porsche 936/81, the very first dual clutch gearbox was also designed for the 956, mated to a traditional 5-speed manual. An improved chassis with better fuel efficiency from a Bosch Motronic electric system was developed for 1984, in total, twenty-eight 956s would be built by Porsche from 1982 to 1984, with an unofficial 29th chassis built from spare parts by Richard Lloyd Racing. The 956 was also the first Porsche to have ground effect aerodynamics, as a comparison, the ground effects Porsche 956 produced over three times as much downforce as the older model Porsche 917 that raced over a decade earlier. In 1983,956 chassis #107 was used by Porsche as a testbed for their P01 Formula One engine, later badged as TAG, the car was able to test some of the characteristics of a Formula One car in order to develop the engine. As of the 2012 German Grand Prix, the TAG-Porsche engine sits in 7th place on the list of F1 race winning engines, Porsche tested its Porsche Doppelkupplungsgetriebe dual-clutch transmission in the 956 in the early 1980s. PDK would be used in the Porsche 962, and would make its way into production Porsches with the 2009997 Carrera and Carrera S. The Porsche 956 also appeared with two different rear wing designs, the cars were fitted with a larger, high downforce rear wing for most events. Notably, the factory backed Rothmans Porsche team did not make use of the front wings. The 956 would be replaced by the Porsche 962 in 1985. The 956 made its debut at the Silverstone 6 Hour race, after missing the following round at the 1000 km Nürburgring for developmental reasons, the Ickx/Bell unit reappeared at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. They led the race for the entire 24 hours, eventually taking the overall win - their third win together, as they had already won in 1981 with a Porsche 936 that had used an early version of the 956 engine, their car had started number 1. The two other factory 956 followed them, so the three factory Porsches finished 1-2-3 in the order of their starting numbers.13 seconds, at an speed of 202 km/h. The race lap record is held by the same Bellof, during the 19831000 km Nürburgring, at the 19851000 km of Spa, Bellof died after colliding with Jacky Ickxs newer 962. Safety concerns over the 956 led to its end as teams upgraded to the safer 962. The 956s last win would come courtesy of Joest Racing in the last race of the 1986 WEC season, Porsche USA -1982 Porsche 956 C Coupé Porsche USA -1983 Porsche 956 C Coupé
16.
Stefan Bellof
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Stefan Bellof was a German racing driver, best known for setting the fastest lap ever on the Nordschleife configuration at the Nürburgring in 1983, driving a Porsche 956. He was the winner of the Drivers Championship in the 1984 World Sportscar Championship and he also competed with the Tyrrell Formula One team during 1984 and 1985. He was killed in an accident during the 19851000 km of Spa World Sportscar Championship race, several other top-five championship placings occurred during the next few years before Bellof claimed his first karting title, by winning the International Karting Championship of Luxembourg in 1976. In the same season, Bellof also finished thirteenth in the Karting World Championship in Hagen, a full season in the 1600cc class beckoned in 1980, and Bellof became champion taking eight victories and nine podium placings from twelve races. Bellof also contested three VW Castrol Europa Pokal races, of which he won one, as well as those outings, Bellof moved into the German Formula Three Championship, making his début for Bertram Schäfers team at Wunstorf. Luck eluded Bellof however, as he finished the race in thirteenth position, while title rivals Frank Jelinski and Franz Konrad finished in first, eleven points separated Bellof from Jelinski, who claimed his second successive German Formula Three championship. At the conclusion of the season, Bellof contested the Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch, but was excluded from the meeting after finishing sixth in his quarter-final heat, for excessive contact. Bellof made a promise to the clerk of the course, saying that the official had better watch my career, because Ill be back here next year. Bellof joined Mike Thackwell and Alain Ferté at a test session with Maurer Motorsport at Circuit Paul Ricard in France at the end of the 1981 season. After acquiring an amount of BMW backing, Bellof assumed a place in the team, with Maurer eventually becoming his manager. The first race of the season was the BRDC International Trophy at Silverstone and he followed this win up with a second successive triumph at the Jim Clark Gedächtnisrennen at Hockenheim, having started from pole position and achieved the fastest lap during the race. Two points from the six races ruled him out of the championship hunt, as he fell to an eventual fourth place classification. By comparison to his 1982 season, Bellofs 1983 season was less successful. Bellofs only other points-scoring finish was fourth at Silverstone, as he finished the season in position on nine points. While competing in Formula Two in 1982, Bellof made a appearance in the World Endurance Championship at the 1000 km of Spa. The pairing retired from the race on lap 51, due to a problem with the starter motor, the previous weekend, Bellof had joined Kremer to compete in the Hessen Cup at Hockenheim as part of the Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft, but retired with transmission failure. In 1983 Bellof joined the Rothmans-backed Porsche factory team for the World Endurance Championship driving a Porsche 956 alongside Derek Bell.274 kilometres per hour. Bellofs pole time for the race –1 minute,13.15 seconds – would have put him twelfth on the grid for the British Grand Prix later in the year
17.
World Sportscar Championship
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The World Sportscar Championship was the world series run for sports car racing by the FIA from 1953 to 1992. The official name of the series changed throughout the years, however it has generally been known as the World Sportscar Championship from its inception in 1953. The World Sportscar Championship was, with the Formula One World Championship, in 2012 the World Sportscar Championship was revived and renamed as the World Endurance Championship. Cars were split into Sports Car and GT categories and were divided into engine displacement classes. The Ferrari and Maserati works teams were fierce competitors throughout much of the decade, notably absent from the overall results were the Jaguar works team, who did not enter any events other than Le Mans, despite the potential of the C- and D-Types. In 1962, the calendar was expanded to include smaller races, the World Sportscar Championship title was discontinued, being replaced by the International Championship for GT Manufacturers. They group cars into three categories with specific sizes, less than one litre, less than two litres, and over two litres. Hillclimbs, sprint races and smaller races expanded the championship, which now had about 15 races per season, for 1963 the three engine capacity classes remained but a prototype category was added. For 1965 the engine classes became for cars under 1300 cc, under 2000 cc, in 1972 the Group 6 Prototype and Group 5 Sports Car classes were both replaced by a new Group 5 Sports Car class. These cars were limited to 3.0 L engines by the FIA, the new Group 5 Sports Cars, together with Group 4 Grand Touring Cars, would contest the FIAs newly renamed World Championship for Makes from 1972 to 1975. Prototypes returned in 1976 as Group 6 cars with their own series, the World Championship for Sports Cars, in 1981, the FIA instituted a drivers championship. While this change was unwelcome amongst some of the private teams, several of the old guard manufacturers returned to the WSC within the next two years, with each marque adding to the diversity of the series. Under the new rules, it was possible for normally aspirated engines to compete with the forced induction engines that had dominated the series in the 70s. In addition, most races ran for either 500 or 1000 km, Group B cars, which was a GT class, were also allowed to race, but entries in this class were sparse, and Group B cars disappeared from the series, with sports-prototypes dominating the championship. Porsche was the first constructor to join the series, with the 956, as costs increased, a C2 class was created for privateer teams and small manufacturers, with greater limits to fuel consumption. In this lower class, most cars used either the BMW M1 engine or the new Cosworth DFL, but, like in the main class, alba, Tiga, Spice and Ecurie Ecosse were among the most competitive in this class. While the Group C formula had brought back to the sport. For 1986, the World Endurance Championship became the World Sports-Prototype Championship, the new classification, known as Group C Category 1, was designed to mandate Formula One engines
18.
2001 European Le Mans Series
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The 2001 European Le Mans Series season was the only season for the IMSA European Le Mans Series. It is a series for Le Mans Prototypes and Grand Touring race cars divided into 4 classes, LMP900, LMP675, GTS and it began 17 March 2001 and ended 6 October 2001 after 7 races. The series came about following the expansion of Don Panozs American Le Mans Series to include European rounds in 2000. The ELMS become a series for 2001, although following the same IMSA and ACO rules that the ALMS followed. Like the Petit Le Mans for the ALMS, the 1000 km of Estoril was meant to be an event that would earn automatic entries to the 24 Hours of Le Mans for its winners. A lack of interest from the European racing community and competition from the FIAs series, another planned series, known as Asian-Pacific Le Mans Series was planned to begin in late 2001, but never occurred. The Le Mans Endurance Series was eventually renamed the European Le Mans Series in 2012, following the demise of the European Le Mans Series, the ACO would attempt to create another European-based sportscar series in 2003 with the more successful Le Mans Endurance Series. The aged IMSA sportscar series was taken over and became the new American Le Mans Series, following this success, Panoz attempting to bring sportscar racing back to Europe, which had lacked a major sportscar series since the demise of the World Sportscar Championship in 1992. This led to the 2000 American Le Mans Series season, which included two races in Europe as the Nürburgring and Silverstone Circuit, as well as a round in Australia and these races would serve as a precursor to what would become the separate European Le Mans Series in 2001. To aid in the development of the ELMS, the 2001 season shared some races between both ALMS and ELMS, the 12 Hours of Sebring and Petit Le Mans, normally ALMS races, were considered optional races for ELMS teams. At the same time, the ELMS races at Donington Park and this allowed for the possibility of boosting the draw from international teams to either series. This means that the car count for the 2001 season was small, for the ELMS events that included ALMS teams, very few teams actually bothered to make the trip across the Atlantic to participate in races that appeared to have very few serious competitors. Of the ALMS teams that did race, nearly all were factory backed squads that had the money to spend on transporting their equipment to Europe. Thus the entry lists for each race fell from 25 at the beginning of the season to a mere 14 at seasons end, with some classes only having one or two competitors. With a lack of involvement from teams, and less interest from the due to the lack of teams. The demise of the European Le Mans Series would not be the end of racing in Europe. This series would be far more successful, with a number of participants from the very beginning. At the same time in the development of the European Le Mans Series, originally named the Asian Le Mans Series, it was later known as the Asian-Pacific Le Mans Series
19.
American Le Mans Series
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The American Le Mans Series was a sports car racing series based in the United States and Canada. It consisted of a series of endurance and sprint races, and was created in the spirit of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the American Le Mans headquarters was in Braselton, Georgia, adjacent to Road Atlanta. In 2014, the merged with the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series to form the United SportsCar Championship. The series was created by Braselton, Georgia-based businessman Don Panoz, Panoz created a partnership with the Automobile Club de LOuest, the organizers of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, to begin a 10-hour race in the spirit of Le Mans, dubbed the Petit Le Mans. The inaugural Petit Le Mans took place in 1998 as a part of the Professional SportsCar Racing series, for 1999, the series changed its name to the American Le Mans Series, and adopted the ACOs rulebook. The partnership with the ACO allowed ALMS teams to earn automatic entries in the Le Mans 24 Hours. This was a practice that began with the inaugural Petit Le Mans, a practice that continues today, the ALMS race at Adelaide in 2000 also received automatic entries. Invitations were extended to the series beginning in 2003, for the 2004 race. The ACO has always given high consideration to teams competing in ALMS races, the series began with eight races in 1999, beginning with the 12 Hours of Sebring, and ending at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The schedule expanded to 12 races in 2000, including two races in Europe, and one in Australia, in subsequent years, the European races disappeared, with the creation of the short-lived European Le Mans Series, and later the Le Mans Series. The series also began to move away from the rovals, road courses in the infield of large superspeedways, at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Las Vegas, and Texas Motor Speedway. Lately, the series has visited more temporary street courses, many in conjunction with the Indy Racing League, at such as St. Petersburg, Florida and Long Beach. The series has raced at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Mosport, Road Atlanta, from 2011 until the series folded, ALMS competed on a street circuit through the Inner Harbor coinciding with the Grand Prix of Baltimore, Maryland over the US Labor Day weekend. In 2010 the American Le Mans Series signed its first title sponsorship agreement, the American Le Mans Series used essentially the same rules as the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Like the 24 Hours of Le Mans, there were 3 primary classes, the former GT1 category was abandoned after 2009 season. In 2012, the Le Mans was dropped from the names of the prototype categories, each car is driven by multiple drivers, and all cars compete together simultaneously. P1 generally contains factory teams while P2 contains privateer teams, in ACO-sanctioned racing all of the drivers are professional in GTE-PRO, while in GTE-Am,1 or 2 amateurs are allowed to race with a professional driver in support. However, since ALMS uses only one GTE category and combines the PRO/AM classes, the two Challenge classes were formula-based, and were designed for privateers or rookies to have an easier time entering the series
20.
Panoz, LLC
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Panoz, LLC is an American manufacturer of high performance sports automobiles. The company has also extensively involved in professional racing, and designs, engineers and builds its own race cars, i. e. chassis. Founded in 1989 as Panoz Auto Development by Dan Panoz, son of pharmaceutical, the company is located in Braselton, Georgia. Panoz products have included the Panoz Roadster and AIV Roadster, all Panoz road cars are tested at Panoz-owned Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia and built at the Braselton workshop. Since 1997, Panoz cars have competed in racing series around the world, Panoz has shifted its American Le Mans and European racing programs toward production-based classes that allow Esperante variants to be raced in modified form. In addition to Le Mans series wins, an Esperante GTLM won the GT2 class at the 200624 Hours of Le Mans and it was made up of the motorsports-related holdings of Don Panoz. Headquartered in Braselton, Georgia, the group includes several racing series, a racetrack, the group also owns a racing school operating at multiple locations. The American Le Mans Series was created by Don Panoz in 1999 and it held its inaugural event, the 1998 Petit Le Mans as part of the Professional Sportscar Racing series. The ALMS has a partnership with the Automobile Club de lOuest, the series now holds 12 rounds across North America. In 2014, the merged with the Rolex Sports Car Series to form United SportsCar Racing. Panoz also owns the International Motor Sports Association, the organization that sanctions the ALMS, the Panoz group owns Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia, and holds a long-term lease to operate Sebring International Raceway in Sebring, Florida. It previously owned Mosport International Raceway in Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada but was sold in 2011, the tracks host the American Le Mans Series, in addition to other top-level auto and motorcycle racing series. Élan Motorsport Technologies is an umbrella company containing the car manufacturing companies owned by Panoz. Élan-built cars now race in the Indy Racing League, Champ Car World Series, American Le Mans Series, Le Mans Series, the Panoz Racing School is a driver training school operated at Road Atlanta and Sebring International Raceway. Students learn racing techniques in purpose-built Panoz GT-RA cars, following completion of the course, students are eligible for an SCCA regional racing license. The school also includes programs where customers can receive instruction in their own road cars, the Panoz Racing Series is a one-make series made up of the Panoz school cars, as well as the more powerful Panoz GTS model. The series is designed for amateurs to learn racing in a low-cost environment. Panoz also owns and operates Château Élan Resort & Winery in Braselton, Georgia, the Diablo Grande Winery & Resort in Patterson, California, and the St. Andrews Bay hotel in St Andrews, Scotland
21.
Jan Magnussen
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Jan Ellegaard Magnussen is a Danish professional racing driver and a factory driver for General Motors. He has competed in several of the most prestigious events in motor sport including CART, NASCAR, the FIA Formula One World Championship and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Born in Roskilde, Magnussen dominated the 1994 British Formula 3 championship with Paul Stewart Racing, winning 14 of the 18 events, Magnussen scored his first British F3 win that April at Donington Park, also taking pole for the race. He also won at Brands Hatch, twice at Silverstone, and he won six of the first eight races. He then won again at Donington Park, and both season-ending rounds at Silverstone and he made his Formula One debut at the 1995 Pacific Grand Prix in Aida, sitting in for Mika Häkkinen, who was unwell. In 1996 Magnussen drove in the CART series and International Touring Car Championship, for 1997–1998 he had a seat in Formula One with the newly founded Stewart Grand Prix team, owned in part by his old F3 boss Paul Stewart. Team founder Jackie Stewart once described him as, the most talented young driver to emerge since Ayrton Senna and he scored his only championship point in his last race in F1, the 1998 Canadian Grand Prix, for the rest of the season he was replaced by Jos Verstappen. Magnussen started 24 GPs, one less than he entered, because his car was damaged in an accident during the start of the 1997 Brazilian Grand Prix causing him to retire before the restart, in 1999 he participated in 7 CART races. In 1999 and 2000 he raced in the American Le Mans Series with Panoz,2001 he drove a Peugeot in Danish Touring Car series and raced in 8 ALMS races. 2002 he also raced for Peugeot in DTC and in 10 ALMS races, Jan Magnussen won the 2008 GT1 and 2013 GT Drivers championships, both with Corvette Racing. Magnussen has participated in classes in the 24 hours of Le Mans every year since 1999. Also, Magnussen has participated in the 12 Hours of Sebring every year since 1999, winning the GT1 class in 2006,2008, in 2005, Magnussen drove a Toyota Corolla in the Danish Touring Car Championship. In the Danish Touring Car series he drives a Chevrolet Lacetti for Perfection Racing and he has won the DTC on two occasions in 2003 and 2008. On 11 June 2010, it was announced that Magnussen would make his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series debut driving the No.09 HendrickCars. com Chevrolet for Phoenix Racing at Infineon Raceway, after starting 32nd on the grid, he finished in 12th position. Magnussen drove the No.57 Stevenson Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro with Robin Liddell and Andrew Davis in the 2010 GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series season opener, the Rolex 24 at Daytona. Following the Rolex 24, he moved to the teams No.97 car, Magnussen finished 24th in GT points and his best finish was second with four top-10s. Magnussens eldest son, Kevin Magnussen is also a racing driver, Kevin mentioned that his father was his first hero when he was a child. † Driver did not finish the Grand Prix, but was classified as he had completed over 90% of the race distance, † – Did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance
22.
David Brabham
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David Brabham is an Australian professional racing driver and one of the most successful and experienced specialists in sports car racing. He has won three international Sports Car series and is one of four Australians to have won the Le Mans 24 Hour sports car race, Brabham won the American Le Mans Series in 2009 and 2010. He also competed in Formula One, racing for the Brabham, Brabham is the youngest son of three-time Formula One world champion Sir Jack Brabham. Brabham, who was born in Wimbledon, London, spent his childhood in Australia, despite his fathers motor racing fame he took little interest in motor racing until after he left school. As a child he played the more accessible sport of football up until the age of twelve, Brabhams professional racing career began in Australia in 1983, racing karts for two years, after which he moved into the Ford Laser one make series for 1985. In 1986 he switched to Formula Ford 1600 and subsequently to Australian Formula 2, winning the 1987 Australian Drivers Championship in that category. The 1987 ADC was, unlike previous years, only held as a race rather than a series of rounds and was run as a support category to the 1987 Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide.7 second victory. He also competed in the New Zealand Formula Atlantic series, the American Formula Atlantic series, a move from Australia to Europe under sponsorship from Camel in 1989 saw him joining the Bowman team and winning the British Formula Three Championship. Brabhams break into Formula One in 1990 with the Brabham team met with little success and he had raised a considerable amount of sponsorship to join the team bearing his family name but financial constraints hindered the team all season. While David had been hired to drive ahead of the season he requested to skip the first two races to prepare himself, Gregor Foitek taking the seat instead and his first outing with the team was the 1990 San Marino Grand Prix where he failed to qualify. His first Formula One start came at the race in Monaco where his father Jack had won in 1959. In 14 races he only managed to qualify the uncompetitive Judd-engined car six times and this, and David being unable to raise the reported $3m needed to keep his place in the team, led to him being replaced at the end of the season. Brabham joined the Tom Walkinshaw Racing Jaguar team in 1991 and also in that year won the Spa 24 Hours driving a Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R alongside Naoki Hattori, Brabham returned to Formula One in 1994 with the under-funded Simtek team after his father brought shares in the team. The second seat was to be filled by paying drivers, with Roland Ratzenberger taking the first five races before Jean-Marc Gounon took over. The S941 chassis was overweight, used a manual gearbox as opposed to the semi-automatic types used by most teams. Despite this Brabham qualified for round of the series. The team suffered the blow of the death of Roland Ratzenberger during qualifying for the San Marino Grand Prix. Traditionally the other team driver would withdraw in such a situation, in Ratzenbergers memory the team made a collective decision to see out the season, with Brabhams strong leadership often cited as a key factor
23.
BMW V12 LMR
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The BMW V12 LMR was a Le Mans Prototype built for sports car racing from 1999 to 2000. The car was built through an alliance between BMW Motorsport and WilliamsF1, and was the successor to the failed BMW V12 LM of 1998 and it is famous for earning BMW its only overall victory to date at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The V12 LMR would retain only the structures of the V12 LM. The cooling ducts, a problem on the V12 LM, were moved to the top of the car instead of from the bottom where it had suffered from ambient track heat. Among the more radical design features was the use of a small rollhoop located only behind the drivers seat and this was done through using a loophole in the ACOs Le Mans prototype regulations. This allowed for less drag as well as less obstruction for the air to the rear wing, a total of four new chassis were built by WilliamsF1 in the United Kingdom. Internally, the V12 LMR retained the same BMW S70/35990 cc V12 as the V12 LM. Responsibility for running the cars was handed over to Schnitzer Motorsport, who would run the team not only at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, debuting at the 12 Hours of Sebring, BMW Motorsport and Schnitzer Motorsport entered a two car team. The cars were immediately fast, taking the position in qualifying. During the race, both cars ran towards the front for the first six hours, unfortunately, V12 LMR chassis #001 suffered a large accident, damaging the car to the point that it would never race again. However, the second V12 LMR was successful in taking the overall win, from Sebring, the team went back to Europe in order to prepare for the 199924 Hours of Le Mans. In early May, at the initial test session for Le Mans, in the tradition of the famous BMW Art Cars, one of the two undamaged cars featured a paint job created by artist Jenny Holzer. Unlike at Sebring, the V12 LMRs would be facing closed cockpit prototypes which were theoretically faster over a lap yet not as fuel efficient. Even with this apparent setback, a V12 LMR was able to take the 4th fastest lap time over the practice session, for the race itself, only two cars appeared with the Art Car being dropped from the line-up. In qualifying the two LMRs again showed their speed, taking 3rd and 6th places, again only by the Toyota GT-Ones. During the race the V12 LMRs ran strong, outlasting a large number of closed cockpit competitors who suffered woes, including Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Toyota, and Audi. In the second half of the race, BMWs main competitors were a pair of open-cockpit Audi R8Rs and the lone remaining Toyota GT-One. Unfortunately, in the hours of the race the #17 BMW V12 LMR driven by JJ Lehto crashed heavily in the Porsche Curves section of the track
24.
Audi R8 (LMP)
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The Audi R8 is a Le Mans Prototype sports-prototype race car introduced in 2000 for sports car racing as a redevelopment of their Audi R8R and Audi R8C used in 1999. In its class it is one of the most successful racing sports cars having won the 24 Hours of Le Mans race in 2000,2001,2002,2004 and its streak of Le Mans victories between 2000 and 2005 was broken only in 2003 by the Bentley Speed 8. In 1997, sports car racing and especially the Le Mans 24 Hours was popular among factories like BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Toyota, at that time, Audi Sport boss Wolfgang Ullrich started to evaluate the options of joining. With the upcoming American Le Mans Series also providing a stage for the US-market, Audi announced plans in 1998 to compete in 1999, with the R8R and powered by a 550 hp V8 turbo. As it was considered the choice for a whole race due to less weight and wider tires, Audi ordered an open top roadster from Dallara, to be developed. The ACO rules for closed-top prototypes allowed cars to run with larger air restrictors, resulting in more power, to compensate this advantage over the duration of a race, the LMGTPs were limited to smaller tyres and smaller fuel tanks. Following a period of testing, two R8Rs debut at the 199912 Hours of Sebring, the BMW V12 LMR won, which was a strong sign towards the race in France. The already tested open-top Audi R8R, entered by Joest Racing was not fast enough to challenge for a win, after further tests and modifications, the Audis returned for Le Mans. The new debuting R8Cs lacked pace and unfortunately suffered mechanical gearbox woes, lap times were 10 seconds down from the leading LMP and LMGTP competitors. Joests R8Rs ran steady, yet still was too slow to run for pole position, based on the experiences, Audi decided to regroup for 2000, and built a new R8 spyder together with Joest and Dallara. After the 1999 Le Mans shame, Mercedes retired from GTs to focus on the return of the DTM touring cars in 2000, despite the BMW V12 LMR not receiving further development, the German team Schnitzer Motorsport was almost as effective as Joest. Still the BMW V12 LMR could not match the Audi R8s might in the championship, BMW returned to race the BMW M3 in the GT class since, dominating in the ALMS and in WTCC as well as at the 24 Hours Nürburgring. This left only Porsche as a possible challenger for 2000 — however the Porsche LMP project was scrapped before it had a chance to race. The Porsche V10 racer was turned into the Porsche Carrera GT instead, the Audi R8 is a sports-racing car prepared for the LMP900 class at Le Mans and in the American Le Mans Series. The car was developed by Audi Motorsport and Joest Racing and debuted in 2000, the R8 won Le Mans five times and the overall season championship in the American Le Mans Series six times in a row. The R8 won a hat trick at Le Mans in 2000-2002, campaigned by Audi Sport Infineon Team Joest and driven by Tom Kristensen, Emanuele Pirro, first time out in 2000, the team won a 1-2-3 finish. Since then, the Audi R8 has won championships and races. The R8 is powered by a 3.6 L Audi FSI V8, FSI stands for Fuel-Stratified Injection, which is a variation on the concept of gasoline direct injection developed by VW which maximizes both power and fuel economy at the same time
25.
European Le Mans Series
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The European Le Mans Series is a European sports car racing endurance series inspired by the 24 Hours of Le Mans race and run by the Automobile Club de lOuest. The European Le Mans Series is similar to the American Le Mans Series based in the United States and Canada that was running with ACO, ELMS team champions and runners-up receive an automatic entry to the following years 24 Hours of Le Mans. Originally titled the Le Mans Endurance Series before becoming simply the Le Mans Series in 2006, the aged IMSA GT Championship was taken over and became the new American Le Mans Series, and met with much success in 1999. Europe had lacked a major sports prototype series since the demise of the World Sportscar Championship in 1992, following the success of the ALMS, Panoz attempting to bring sports prototype racing back to Europe. This led to the 2000 American Le Mans Series season, which included two races in Europe as the Nürburgring and Silverstone Circuit, as well as a round in Australia and these races would serve as a precursor to what would become the separate European Le Mans Series in 2001. To aid in the development of the ELMS, the 2001 season shared some races between both ALMS and ELMS, the 12 Hours of Sebring and Petit Le Mans, normally ALMS races, were considered optional races for ELMS teams. At the same time, the ELMS races at Donington Park and this allowed for the possibility of boosting the draw from international teams to either series. For the ELMS events that included ALMS teams, very few teams actually bothered to make the trip across the Atlantic to participate in races that appeared to have very few serious competitors. Thus the entry lists for each race fell from 25 at the beginning of the season to a mere 14 at seasons end, with some classes only having one or two competitors. With a lack of involvement from teams, and less interest from the due to the lack of teams. Seeing the success of the American Le Mans Series, the ACO decided that a run by themselves would be a better alternative for Europe. The ACO would instead attempt to attract factory backed teams with longer endurance races than ALMS, the series would also be European based instead of international, thus it could be closer to the factories of a large number of sportscar teams to help attract them to the series. Winners of the LMES championship would go on to earn automatic entries in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, similar to the American Le Mans Series. The series was previewed in an open race run under the LMES banner in 2003 at the 1000km of Le Mans. For the 2004 Le Mans Series, the participated in four events, including resurrecting classic races like the 1000km Monza, 1000km Nürburgring,1000 km Silverstone. A large number of turned out, making the racing very exciting. 2005 saw the series expand to a five race format with the addition of the Istanbul Racing Circuit, in 2007, the LMS held its first and single overseas race with Mil Milhas Brasil as the sixth round. For 2013 a twenty-nine car field has been announced including eleven LMP2 cars, in 2016 the GTC class featuring GT3-spec cars was dropped from the series
26.
Porsche 911 GT3
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The Porsche 911 GT3 is a high performance version of the Porsche 911 sports car primarily intended for racing. It is a line of models, which began with the 1973911 Carrera RS. The GT3 is named after the Fédération Internationale de lAutomobile Group GT3 class in which it was designed to compete, a number of variations, designed for road and track duty, have been introduced since its launch in 1999. More than 14,000911 GT3 cars have been produced, the GT3 has had a successful racing career in the one-make national Porsche Carrera Cup series, and the international Porsche Supercup. The GT3 nameplate was introduced in 1999 as part of the first generation of the Porsche 996 model range, as with Porsches previous 911 RS models, the 996 GT3 was focused on racing, and so was devoid of items that added unnecessary weight to the car. The engine of the 996 GT3 set it apart from most of the other Porsche 996 models, the engine is naturally aspirated and based on the unit used in the Porsche 962 and Porsche 911 GT1 race cars. That engine was known as the Mezger engine, after its designer Hans Mezger, the engine uses the original air-cooled 911s versatile dry-sump crankcase, with an external oil reservoir. The 996 GT3 has 360 PS, compared to the 300 PS of the regular Porsche 996, thus, the GT3 engine is very similar to the completely water-cooled Porsche 962 racing cars engine, which is based on the same crankcase. The 962 differs, however, by using six individual cylinder heads while the GT1/GT3, like the air and water-cooled Porsche 959, the GT3 engine could thus also be thought of as similar to a 959 engine, but with water-cooled cylinders. Up to early model year 2004996 GT3 production, the casting used for the crankcase of the GT3 was the same as the air-cooled engine. The 964 casting number was visible on the bottom of the crankcase, and on areas normally machined in air-cooled applications, the crankcase casting was changed in mid-2004 to a 996 casting number crankcase to eliminate these external air-cooled remnants, but internally it was the same. Because the 911 air-cooled crankcase uses the Porsche 356 engine to transmission mounting flange configuration and this gearbox has interchangeable gear ratios and is more durable making it more suitable for racing than the standard 911 type 996 gearbox. Porsche offered a no-cost option for the GT3 called the Clubsport package, the Clubsport option was never offered to US customers, ostensibly due to the additional DOT crash testing that would have been required to allow US sales. Porsche made significant updates to the GT3 for 2004, using the 2002996 facelift including headlights that were differentiated from the Porsche Boxster, the 2004 version is commonly known as the 996.2 GT3. Horsepower was raised to 381 PS and torque to 284 lb·ft, the braking setup was upgraded, now featuring 6-piston calipers on the front, and the Porsche Ceramic Composite Brake system was offered as an option. In track testing by American automotive journals, the GT3 managed a 0-60 mph time of 4.5 seconds, during skidpad testing the vehicle posted 1. 03g. Porsches official test-driver Walter Röhrl completed the Nürburgring Nordschleife with the 996 GT3 in 7 minutes 56 seconds, in 2003, Porsche introduced the Porsche 911 GT3 RS, an even more track-focused version of the 996 GT3. RS is short for the German RennSport, literally racing sport in English
27.
Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG
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The car, which has gull-wing doors, was the successor to the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren and was described by Mercedes-Benz as a spiritual successor to the Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing. SLS stands for Sport Leicht Super and it was the first Mercedes-Benz designed and built from scratch entirely by AMG. Upon its introduction the SLS AMGs 571 PS M159 engine was according to AMG the worlds most powerful naturally aspirated production engine ever produced. In fact, the 6.2 liter engine was modified to such an extent that AMG gave it a separate engine code—M159—to signify the more than 120 different parts used in the SLS engine, the SLS AMG was also Mercedes-Benzs last naturally aspirated engine. The vehicle was unveiled at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show, and sales commenced in mid-2010 in Europe, Mercedes presented an electric version of the car, the SLS AMG Electric Drive, at the 2012 Paris Motor Show. Production ended with the SLS AMG GT FINAL EDITION in early 2014, upon its cessation of production, AMG elected not to replace the SLS, at least not for some while. Compared with its predecessor, the SLS is, per Mercedes-AMG head Tobias Moers and this may be attributable in part to the SLSs lightweight aluminum frame—the companys first ever use of an aluminum chassis and body frame. The Mercedes SL65 AMG Black Series, by way of example, with its use of carbon, even the Mercedes-McLaren SLR supercar, with its emphasis on light weight, came in at 3,860 pounds. The SLS, however, has a weight of just 3,573 pounds. The SLS also came with a shaft for its dual clutch transmission. Perhaps for these reasons, the SLS AMG achieves a lateral acceleration of 0.99 and this bests even the Mercedes-McLaren SLR, which achieves a 0.97 figure. The SLS AMG was followed in 2014 by the less expensive. Designed to compete against the Porsche 911, it relies on forced induction for its power and is available as a 462 PS GT and 510 PS GT S. Honestly, theres no program running. Our homework for the years is so much, so we took the decision to not replace directly the SLS because SLS has to stand by its own. If it takes 50 to 60 years to have a Gullwing replacement coming out of the 1950s then we can wait a few more years. Moers was also quoted as follows, Speaking to Autocar at the Geneva Motor Show, according to Moers, Mercedes is not in that league at this moment in time. As summed up by Moers, the SLS AMG has won awards of international significance. The SLS AMG was designed to be a modern 300SL Gullwing revival by Mark Fetherston from October 2006 to April 2007
28.
Oldtimer Festival
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The Oldtimer Festival is a motor-sport event held by the DAMC05 since 1983 on the Nürburgring, Germany. The official name of the event is Internationales Oldtimer Festival um den Jan-Wellem-Pokal auf dem Nürburgring, the Oldtimer Festival is a three-day race meeting for historic automobiles, motorbikes and sidecars. The event is mainly for classic vehicles of the post war era up to cars, many of the vehicles racing there are well known by the spectators from the times of their youth. The public is allowed access to the paddock, which enables direct contact with the competitors. To enable the presenting of the vehicles in the correct setting. The automobiles compete mainly under the regulations of the international FIA sporting code which means real racing, the motorbikes and sidecars however run in regularity trials according to the national rules of the German Motor Sports Association, the DMSB. Regularity trials are not about the fastest race times and therefore preserve the historic material. Up to the 1970s combined meetings with cars and motorbikes were common in Germany, as a result of the increasing discussions about safety and tightening of safety regulations it became more and more difficult and expensive for organisers to arrange combined events. The Oldtimer Festival is the last big event of its kind with permission of the DMSB, until 1982 the DAMC05 organised on the Nürburgring a circuit race called Rundstreckenrennen um den Jan-Wellem-Pokal. This race was held for modern and historical cars, in 1983 during the reconstruction of the Grand-Prix-Circuit, the Oldtimer Festival was held on the Nordschleife of the Nürburgring solely for historic car, bikes and sidecars. In 1984 the Oldtimer Festival was part of the meetings for the new Grand-Prix-Circuit of the Nürburgring. The event was extended to a three day event, in 1995 for the first time the Historic Formula One Championship visited the Oldtimer Festival. In 2008 the Oldtimer Festival took place during the month for the last time. In 2009 the meeting had to be cancelled because of problems with the race calendar. In 2010 the 27th Oldtimer Festival took place from 10 to 12 September 2010 on the Nürburgring, as a part of the Oldtimer Festival in 2010 the tradition and name of the renowned ADAC1000 km of Nürburgring will be continued. In contrast to years, the race is organised for older cars. The Jan-Wellem-Pokal is named after count Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine, the trophy is awarded to the victor achieving the biggest time gap in the car races. As bikes and sidecars compete under the regularity trial regulations, the Jan Wellem Trophy is given to the most consistent driver, official homepage of the Oldtimer Festivals Nürburgring event calendar Formel Easter - Formula 1 of the East
29.
Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup
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It features grand tourer racing cars modified from production road cars complying with the FIAs GT3 regulations. The seriess goal is to be a racing championship for GT3 cars, similar to the European Le Mans Series which uses GTE cars. The series is sponsored by Swiss watchmaker Blancpain, and the companys Lamborghini Super Trofeo series serves as support races. The FIAs ranking system for drivers is utilized in determining what each entry is eligible for. The GT4 category remained its own class, for the 2012 season, the GT4 and Supersport category were dropped and the GT3 Citation class was modified into the Gentlemen class. In 2013, grids have reached 60 cars for regular races, the series uses extensive performance balancing and handicap weights to equalise the cars performance. Blancpain GT Series Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup Official website Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup on Twitter
30.
Italy
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Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino, Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate and Mediterranean climate. Due to its shape, it is referred to in Italy as lo Stivale. With 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth most populous EU member state, the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom, which eventually became a republic that conquered and assimilated other nearby civilisations. The legacy of the Roman Empire is widespread and can be observed in the distribution of civilian law, republican governments, Christianity. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, Italian culture flourished at this time, producing famous scholars, artists and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. The weakened sovereigns soon fell victim to conquest by European powers such as France, Spain and Austria. Despite being one of the victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil. The subsequent participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in defeat, economic destruction. Today, Italy has the third largest economy in the Eurozone and it has a very high level of human development and is ranked sixth in the world for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military, cultural and diplomatic affairs, as a reflection of its cultural wealth, Italy is home to 51 World Heritage Sites, the most in the world, and is the fifth most visited country. The assumptions on the etymology of the name Italia are very numerous, according to one of the more common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin, Italia, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú, meaning land of young cattle. The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides. The name Italia originally applied only to a part of what is now Southern Italy – according to Antiochus of Syracuse, but by his time Oenotria and Italy had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name Italia to a larger region, excavations throughout Italy revealed a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period, some 200,000 years ago, modern Humans arrived about 40,000 years ago. Other ancient Italian peoples of undetermined language families but of possible origins include the Rhaetian people and Cammuni. Also the Phoenicians established colonies on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily, the Roman legacy has deeply influenced the Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world
31.
Ferrari America
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Ferrari America is a series of top-end Ferrari models built in the 1950s and 1960s. They were large grand touring cars with the largest V12 engines, all America models used a live axle in the rear, were front-engined, and had worm and sector steering. Two of the series, the 400 and the 410, were called Superamerica, the final member of the America production family was called the 500 Superfast. The series also includes the 365 California, the first America cars were the 340, produced between 1950 and 1952. Using the new Lampredi V12 developed for Formula One racing, the 340 America could produce over 200 PS, only 23 copies were built,11 by Vignale, eight by Touring, and four by Ghia. Giovanni Michelotti designed Coupé and 2+2 Coupé for Ghia and Coupé, the 340 America was replaced by its larger-engined brother, the 375 America. Only 6 made, Vignale Cabriolet,2 Pinin Farina Cabriolets and 3 Pinin Farina Coupes, using same Lampredi-designed engine as in 340 America with different carburettor air filter arrangement. Both 340/342 Americas used even chassis numbering of a race cars, while 375 America, black Pinin Farina Cabriolet was owned by King Leopold III of Belgium. Another Pinin Farina and Vignale bodied Americas, the 375 used the new 4.5 L Lampredi engine with up to 300 PS, the 375 were expensive and exclusive—only about 11 were built from late 1953 through 1954. Three Vignale Coupés were designed by Giovanni Michelotti, Ferrari produced another line of America cars, beginning with the 1955410 Superamerica. The engine was now up to 5.0 L with 340 PS available, a 1957 Superamerica III had triple Weber carburetors for even more power. Each 410 Superamerica had custom bodywork, with a few by Boano and Ghia but most by Ferrari stalwart, just 35 were built when the series ended in 1959. While most 3rd series PF coupés had 3 louvres behind side-windows, series III cars were introduced in 1958. Also known as Superfast I, made on 410 Superamerica chassis with 24-plug racing engine, prominent tailfins and it was unveiled at the 1956 Paris Auto Show. Wheelbase was shorter at 2,600 mm, the 400 Superamerica had a smaller 4.0 L Colombo engine, but produced as much power as its predecessor. It debuted in 1959 as 410 production ended, and was available as a coupe, spider, four-wheel disc brakes were a new addition. 47 Ferrari 400s had been built, along 2 series, when the 400 stepped aside in 1964, series I coupés aerodinamico had open hood air scoop while series II cars had covered scoop and slightly longer wheelbase. Special one-off version of 400 Superamerica built in 1959 for Gianni Agnelli and this car was also the very first of 400 Superamericas
32.
Piero Taruffi
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Piero Taruffi, was a racing driver from Italy, and also the father of lady racer Prisca Taruffi. Taruffi began his career racing motorcycles. He won the 1932 500cc European Championship on a Norton and in 1937 set the land speed record at 279.503 km/h. Taruffi drove a newly introduced 2-litre, 4-cylinder Ferrari, which placed third in the 360 kilometre race Grand Prix de Bari at Bari, Italy and he finished behind Juan Manuel Fangio and Froilán González with a time of 2 hours 58 minutes 40 3/5 seconds. Taruffi and Alberto Ascari participated in the Carrera Panamericana in the mountains of Mexico in November 1951 and they placed first and third respectively over the course from Mexico City to León, Guanajuato, a 267-mile leg. Taruffi led second-placed Troy Ruttman by more than four minutes, Taruffi trimmed 15 minutes on the Mexico City-Leon leg and another 21 minutes between Leon and Durango. In the process he climbed from 12th to third overall, Taruffi won the race on 25 November, with a time of 21,57,52, over mountains and plains of the southeastern tip of Mexico. He had a speed of 87.6 mph. Taruffi set a record for 50 miles in an auto of 22 cubic centimetre displacement in January 1952. He attempted a 100-mile record but his motor burned out after 98 miles, Taruffi was in a two-litre Ferrari for the running of the third Grand Prix de France, in Paris in May 1952. He captured first place with a time of three hours over a distance of 285 miles and his average speed was 95 mph. Taruffi placed second to Fangio in the 1953 Carrera Panamericana, with a time of 18,18,51 in a Lancia and his time was better than the previous year when he was victorious. In March 1954, Taruffi lost the Florida International Grand Prix with an hour to go and he pushed it to the pits and team mechanics began working on it with diligence. Taruffi was still out of the car when the O. S. C. A, shared by Stirling Moss and Bill Lloyd crossed the finish line. Taruffi had averaged 81.1 miles per hour before he retired, Taruffi won the 1, 080-kilometre Tour of Sicily in April 1954. His time of 10 hours 24 minutes 37 seconds established a record for an event which opened Italys sports car racing season and it was 14 years old at the time. He averaged 64.4 miles per hour in a Lancia 3300, Taruffi and Harry Schell placed fifth overall in the 1955 Florida Grand Prix, driving a Ferrari. Taruffi claimed first place in a Ferrari, at the 1955 Tour of Sicily, with an time of 10 hours 11 minutes 19.4 seconds
33.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
34.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
35.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
36.
Maserati
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Maserati is an Italian luxury vehicle manufacturer established on 1 December 1914, in Bologna. The companys headquarters are now in Modena, and its emblem is a trident and it has been owned by the Italian-American car giant Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and FCAs Italian predecessor Fiat S. p. A. since 1993. In May 2014, due to plans and product launches. This caused them to production of the Quattroporte and Ghibli models. Maserati is placing a production output cap at 75,000 vehicles globally, the Maserati brothers, Alfieri, Bindo, Carlo, Ettore, and Ernesto were all involved with automobiles from the beginning of the 20th century. Alfieri, Bindo and Ernesto built 2-litre Grand Prix cars for Diatto, in 1926, Diatto suspended the production of race cars, leading to the creation of the first Maserati and the founding of the Maserati marque. One of the first Maseratis, driven by Alfieri, won the 1926 Targa Florio, Maserati began making race cars with 4,6,8 and 16 cylinders. The trident logo of the Maserati car company is based on the Fountain of Neptune in Bolognas Piazza Maggiore, in 1920, one of the Maserati brothers, artist Mario, used this symbol in the logo at the suggestion of family friend Marquis Diego de Sterlich. Alfieri Maserati died in 1932, but three brothers, Bindo, Ernesto and Ettore, kept the firm going, building cars that won races. The brothers continued in engineering roles with the company, Racing successes continued, even against the giants of German racing, Auto Union and Mercedes. In back-to-back wins in 1939 and 1940, a Maserati 8CTF won the Indianapolis 500, the war then intervened, Maserati abandoned car making to produce components for the Italian war effort. During this time, Maserati worked in fierce competition to construct a V16 town car for Benito Mussolini before Ferry Porsche of Volkswagen built one for Adolf Hitler and this failed, and the plans were scrapped. Once peace was restored, Maserati returned to making cars, the Maserati A6 series did well in the racing scene. Key people joined the Maserati team, alberto Massimino, an old Fiat engineer, with both Alfa Romeo and Ferrari experiences oversaw the design of all racing models for the next ten years. With him joined engineers Giulio Alfieri, Vittorio Bellentani, and Gioacchino Colombo, the focus was on the best engines and chassis to succeed in car racing. These new projects saw the last contributions of the Maserati brothers and this new team at Maserati worked on several projects, the 4CLT, the A6 series, the 8CLT, and, pivotally for the future success of the company, the A6GCS. Other racing projects in the 1950s were the 200S, 300S, 350S, Maserati retired from factory racing participation because of the Guidizzolo tragedy during the 1957 Mille Miglia, though they continued to build cars for privateers. Maserati became more and more focused on building road-going grand tourers, the 1957 Maserati 3500 GT marked a turning point in the marques history, as its first ground-up grand tourer design and first series produced car
37.
Maserati 300S
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The Maserati 300S was a racing car produced by Maserati of Italy between 1955–8, which competed in the FIAs World Sportscar Championship. The compression ratio was reduced from 12,1 to 9.5,1 and it used three Weber carburettors, initially 42DCO3, later 45DCO3. A trellis structure was used instead of the one of the 250F. The brakes were the same as the 250F, precisely machined alloy drums with extensive fining, the suspension was also of the same design as the 250F but with some strengthening to cope with the rougher tracks and road surfaces encountered in WSC racing. New features for the 300S included the incorporation of a De Dion type rear axle, after a poor showing in the first season due mainly to mechanical malfunctions and development problems, it won at the Nürburgring in 1956 and finished second overall. It was second to the Maserati 450S, and was followed by the Maserati 350S, after the Guidizzolo accident, the last few 300S were sold to customers in the USA. Giulio Alfieri gave up an attempt to fit it with fuel injection, one 300S was developed with the new V12 engine, becoming the Maserati 350S. Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits fame is a long term owner of a 300S and has raced the car in historic competitions
38.
Tony Brooks (racing driver)
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Charles Anthony Tony Standish Brooks is a British former racing driver from England also known as the racing dentist. He participated in 39 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 14 July 1956 and he was third in the World Drivers Championship in 1958 and second in 1959. He also scored the first win by a British driver in a British car in a Grand Prix since 1923, Brooks was born on 25 February 1932 in Dukinfield, Cheshire. He is the son of a surgeon, Charles Standish Brooks. He is also a cousin of Norman Standish Brooks, a former British Olympic swimmer and he took up racing in 1952 and drove a Healey and a Frazer Nash at club events until 1955. In that same year, Brooks drove a Formula Two Connaught at Crystal Palace, Brooks claimed the first victory for a British-constructed car in a World Championship race in the 1957 British Grand Prix at Aintree, which he shared with Sir Stirling Moss. In 1959, Brooks, together with Brabham and Moss, had a chance to win the title due to the retirement of Mike Hawthorn and the death, Brooks started well, with a second place at Monaco, behind Brabham. He failed to finish at the Dutch Grand Prix, but dominantly won the French Grand Prix at Reims. Having failed to finish in a Vanwall at the British Grand Prix which he drove due to Ferrari workers in Italy being on strike, the race was split unusually into two heats, and he won both. He had a car in Portugal, qualifying 10th and finishing five laps down. He retired shortly after the start at Monza but was still in contention to win the championship. At the first ever United States Grand Prix for Formula One at Sebring, he was hit by German teammate Wolfgang von Trips and pitted to check for any damage and it proved to be a waste of time, but still finished in third place. He finished second in the championship with 27 points, seven behind Brabham, Brooks won six races for Vanwall and Ferrari, secured four pole positions, achieved ten podiums, and scored a total of 75 championship points. He drove for BRM but retired from the team at the end of 1961 and he ended his career with a third place at the first ever United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen. He was also a sports car driver, winning both the 19571000 km Nürburgring and the 1958 RAC Tourist Trophy, with co-driver, Moss. He was less successful at Le Mans, in 1957 an accident, again racing an Aston Martin DBR1 and it was with these injuries that he went on to race in the 1957 British GP with Moss, and win. In 2008, Brooks was honoured by his home town, the Dukinfield District Assembly, part of Tameside Council, held a dinner in his honour and unveiled a plaque outside his former home on Park Lane. * Tony Brooks won the 1957 British Grand Prix sharing his car with Stirling Moss, both were awarded half points for their victory
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