Sportscars that never raced

[Osella]

Autosport are promising us a feature on this next week - what do you think they'll include?
The ones I can think of are

Porsche LMP1
Callaway C7
Panoz Hybrid
Ferrari F50 GT1
There was a Harrier that failed to qualify for LM, also Lamborghini Jota - tho' i don't know if they ever raced elsewhere...
and perhaps there was a 6 wheel Rondeau thing once??

[allyk]

2 Lambourghini Jotas were originally entered from Le Mans 1995
but one failed to get an automatic entry prior to pre qualifying. The second car got an automatic entry and turned up for the test day but withdrew from the race. The first reserve was another unraced car from Michel Hommel (who ran the Bugatti in 1994) and that was a Aston Martin DB7. However that also withdrew (I think Alain Cudini was one of the drivers) and the entry went to the Lister Storm drivern by Geoff Lees and Rupert Keegan. Neither the Lambos nor the Aston Martin ever raced.

The Harrier qualified and ran at Le Mans in 1994 in open top format in the GT class preceeding the Spyker spyder 10 years later. The Harrier was raced in British GT in the mid to late 1990's winning quite a few races. The Harrier management went their seperate ways in about 1998, with Harrier developing a LMP car which was due to race in 2000 with a customer Porsche engine. I saw the car at the Autosport Show at the NEC in January that year. It ran at the Le Mans test day, but was not selected for the race. The car also appeared on the entry for the ALMS race at Silverstone but never appeared. It may have run the World Sportscar Cup races in 2000, but I can't recall. The other half of Harrier developed the Sinultura GTP car with a Judd engine which ran in the British GT in 1999 and at the end of season ALMS race at Laguna Seca that year driven by Richard Dean and Kurt Luby.

I remember the F50 GT1 which was supposed to run in 1997 entered by Benetton - that was a shame.

Other unraced cars:

Ferrari Group C (circa 1982 - seem to remeber a story in Autosport linking Giles Villeneuve with the drive, but probably like the Ferrari IndyCar used as a political ploy)
Alfa Romeo 3.5L Group C - there is a Chassis in a musuem.
Lambourghini Group C - can't remember if that actually raced
Allard Group C - should have run at Le Mans in 1993
March 3.5l Group C - due to be run by Vern Schuppan
'Eagle' - entered by Paul Canary at Le Mans in 1990 - never run
MIG M100 - entered for Le Mans in 1993 (Bburago did a model of it)

[KA]

Originally Posted by allyk

Other unraced cars:


Lambourghini Group C - can't remember if that actually raced
Allard Group C - should have run at Le Mans in 1993

The Lambo Group C- was that the Tiga-chassised car backed by Unipart from 1986 or so? It raced once, with Tiff Needell at the end-of-season non-championship races that were held at Kyalami in the mid-80s.

The Allard had one outing in IMSA-
http://www.mulsannescorner.com/allar...yphoto-33.html

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by KA

The Lambo Group C- was that the Tiga-chassised car backed by Unipart from 1986 or so? It raced once, with Tiff Needell at the end-of-season non-championship races that were held at Kyalami in the mid-80s.

I think this was the car that CC Motorsport planned to go Grp C with after the end of their BMW BTCC Group A programme?

Gordon Spice ended up running his own show but had been lnked to the project to begin with iirc.

Originally Posted by fausto

The Mussato, introduced during the winter 1991/92, never raced in Gp.C/C2 form, probably seen later in a different "form", under a different name (GMS/Durango WSC/LMP)...

Was that based on an old Lancia LC running gear by any chance?!!

Originally Posted by The359

I'd suggest the BRM P351, but I know it ran at Le Mans for a few laps.

I remember the hullaballoo caused by this car - shame it never really got off the ground.

Originally Posted by Nordic

The MIG's chances where not helped by a switch from a Lamborghini V12 which at least was good enough to propel the car round the track and for it it to show some promise, to a Motori Moderni V12 for the race. This had an awful effect on the car and the chassis flexed so much the drivers where unable to select gears.

I seem to remember seeing something about Ford building a follow up to the C100, has any one else come across that. Zakspeed may have been involved.

The motori engined thing must have been a right shed!.

You might be onto something about the Ford prospect there. I think it was a faor while after the demise of the C100 though, but plans were dashed once again after they got the exposure from the Sierra acorss the world in touring cars and Ford kept changing policy I suspect.

[fausto]

Originally Posted by chunterer

................

Was that based on an old Lancia LC running gear by any chance?!!
...........

No, however the chassis was the one Vern Schuppan had built (in carbonfibre) for his own 962 road/race projects

[andy97]

Originally Posted by KA

The Lambo Group C- was that the Tiga-chassised car backed by Unipart from 1986 or so? It raced once, with Tiff Needell at the end-of-season non-championship races that were held at Kyalami in the mid-80s.

This car used to be exhibited in the Haynes Publishing Motor Museum at Sparkford near Yeovil, UK until a few years ago. Not sure what happened to it but its not there now.

[geeteeone]

Originally Posted by allyk

The Harrier......may have run the World Sportscar Cup races in 2000, but I can't recall.

It qualified for the Sportscar World Cup race at Donington in 2000, but then broke down on the pace lap!!! So technically it never took the start in a race.

[autoavia]

Originally Posted by allyk

2 Lambourghini Jotas were originally entered from Le Mans 1995
but one failed to get an automatic entry prior to pre qualifying. The second car got an automatic entry and turned up for the test day but withdrew from the race. The first reserve was another unraced car from Michel Hommel (who ran the Bugatti in 1994) and that was a Aston Martin DB7. However that also withdrew (I think Alain Cudini was one of the drivers) and the entry went to the Lister Storm drivern by Geoff Lees and Rupert Keegan. Neither the Lambos nor the Aston Martin ever raced.

The Harrier qualified and ran at Le Mans in 1994 in open top format in the GT class preceeding the Spyker spyder 10 years later. The Harrier was raced in British GT in the mid to late 1990's winning quite a few races. The Harrier management went their seperate ways in about 1998, with Harrier developing a LMP car which was due to race in 2000 with a customer Porsche engine. I saw the car at the Autosport Show at the NEC in January that year. It ran at the Le Mans test day, but was not selected for the race. The car also appeared on the entry for the ALMS race at Silverstone but never appeared. It may have run the World Sportscar Cup races in 2000, but I can't recall. The other half of Harrier developed the Sinultura GTP car with a Judd engine which ran in the British GT in 1999 and at the end of season ALMS race at Laguna Seca that year driven by Richard Dean and Kurt Luby.

I remember the F50 GT1 which was supposed to run in 1997 entered by Benetton - that was a shame.

Other unraced cars:

Ferrari Group C (circa 1982 - seem to remeber a story in Autosport linking Giles Villeneuve with the drive, but probably like the Ferrari IndyCar used as a political ploy)
Alfa Romeo 3.5L Group C - there is a Chassis in a musuem.
Lambourghini Group C - can't remember if that actually raced
Allard Group C - should have run at Le Mans in 1993
March 3.5l Group C - due to be run by Vern Schuppan
'Eagle' - entered by Paul Canary at Le Mans in 1990 - never run
MIG M100 - entered for Le Mans in 1993 (Bburago did a model of it)

The Paul Canary Eagle seemed to be one of those Le mans entries that was doomed from the day it arrived at the circuit. If I remember rightly it failed spectacularly at scrutineering as the underside of the car didn't meet the rules so the team set about it with cutters and welding gear. The car did make the circuit for Thursday evening practice but I don't think it got much further than the Dunlop chicane due to engine problems. If anyone is interested I have got a pretty rough photo taken at the Dunlop chicane which I can probably dig out.

[Graham Goodwin]

Originally Posted by Osella

Autosport are promising us a feature on this next week - what do you think they'll include?
The ones I can think of are

Porsche LMP1
Callaway C7
Panoz Hybrid
Ferrari F50 GT1
There was a Harrier that failed to qualify for LM, also Lamborghini Jota - tho' i don't know if they ever raced elsewhere...
and perhaps there was a 6 wheel Rondeau thing once??

The Callaway and Panoz both raced

[AU N EGL]

Originally Posted by Graham Goodwin

The Callaway and Panoz both raced

The GT3 Corvettes are all Callaways

[zac510]

Does the Mazda RX-792 count?

[MulsanneMike]

Originally Posted by zac510

Does the Mazda RX-792 count?

Why would it? Raced the 1992 season of IMSA GTP.

[Fogelhund]

What about the Shaw LMP? I think the paint is still drying.

[skycafe]

callaway c7 ran Daytona 24 hour in 1997

robert

[The359]

Sauber-Mercedes C292?

[allyk]

I forgot about the Peugeot 905 Evo - the one with the semi open wheel front bodywork which practicsed at Magny Cours at the end of 1992.

[ss_collins]

theres a Toyota on Mulsanne Mikes site...

they can't miss out the Porsche LMP - but to date Porsche have not really opened up much about it - I've has some details from Porsche engineers but nothing that exciting, apart from the fact that Audi engineers inspected the LMP in detail before the R8 (or R10 depending on who you listen to). I've not had much chance to inspect the RS Spyder in detail but the suspension on that is apparently derived from the unraced car as is that on the R10 (or R8).

Could all be smoke and mirrors though - some of it was picked up from a still born book project. By the by have a look on Amazon for - Unraced... not sportscars but still very interesting I hope!

[The359]

Aston Martin AMR2 is another one that never raced, but I don't believe they actually got around to building a car.

[old man]

Is that the Toyota sports car that was developed by the old BTCC engineers (forget the name) and was tested extensively at Snetterton by Tom Kristenson and Tim Sugden before the project was moved to Germany? Fabulous car, great favourite of Hindy I remember him saying on his radio programme once

What is Mulsanne Mike's site?

[Bentley03]

Originally Posted by old man

What is Mulsanne Mike's site?

Mulsannescorner.com

Fabulous site, and Mike's a great contributor/guru for us here on 10-10ths. Enjoy!

[zac510]

Originally Posted by old man

Is that the Toyota sports car that was developed by the old BTCC engineers (forget the name) and was tested extensively at Snetterton by Tom Kristenson and Tim Sugden before the project was moved to Germany? Fabulous car, great favourite of Hindy I remember him saying on his radio programme once

What is Mulsanne Mike's site?

The TOM'S one, that's on Mike's site too.
I guess original poster didn't specify 'never raced at LM' so this can be any sportscars!

[old man]

Originally Posted by zac510

The TOM'S one, that's on Mike's site too.
I guess original poster didn't specify 'never raced at LM' so this can be any sportscars!

Yes, that's the one, engineer was Alastair somebody

[ensign14]

They might go back a bit in time and include the Phoenix from around 1956, just cos it was the only car in Egyptian Racing Mauve. Entered at Reims but DNS'd, IIRC.

The Mirage M12 will surely be an obvious one? Don't think it ever raced.

Then there was a Norma W12, which was entered au Mans and spent the entire time sat in a garage. There was a rumour that the engine actually got fired up once, but I don't believe it.

I'm hoping they have a pic of the GKW from around 1987...

[fausto]

Originally Posted by ensign14

............
The Mirage M12 will surely be an obvious one? Don't think it ever raced.

........

The Mirage M12 was raced in some IMSA rounds in 1983, possibly entered by Conte Racing

[ss_collins]

Did the Mig ever race?