Last Tuesday saw Phil Haworth take to the dreich, wind-swept expanses of the Silverstone GP circuit for a test in the new Chevron GR-8 GT race car.

Chevron is a legendary name in racing, having made some of the most iconic sportscar racers throughout the 1970s. The GR-8 is an all-new car for 2010, designed by Chevron Racecars. Being a car designed for racing from the ground up, it is unsurprising that it weighs in at a positively anorexic 650kg. Compare that to regular roadcar-derived visitors to a GT grid, such as the Ferrari F430 and Porsche 911, which weigh in at 1,200kg minimum! With emissions featuring more heavily on the agenda, the Chevron’s light weight, therefore, undoubtably points the way to the future of racing. It makes do with a turbo charged, 4 cylinder Cosworth unit developing 255bhp, giving a power to weight ratio of around 400bhp/ton. The Ferrari, on the other hand, needs an expensive, heavy, high revving V8 unit with in excess of 500bhp to develop similar performance!

The morning conditions were treacherous – the track was slick with grease and despite a strong wind and milky sunshine, the cold temperatures meant that no dry line emerged. The session was regularly interrupted by red flags as drivers of other vehicles were caught out and parked themselves unceremoniously in the Armco. The cold temperatures also meant that I could not get any heat into the cut slick tyres or massive AP Racing brakes, and consequently I spent the majority of the morning sideways in drifts around the corners… Whilst not particularly useful from a testing point of view, it was tremendous fun and did highlight that Chevron has got the balance just right – as close to a neutral weight distribution as is possible and very progressive with the way it broke traction. As with all mid-engined cars, when it did finally let go it tended to do so very quickly, but even then it was fairly easily collected.

The afternoon session saw a dry line start to emerge and I could lean on the car a lot harder. The pace quickened and the little Chevron demonstrated a terrier-like keenness to turn in and accelerate out of the apexes. The sequential gearbox engages the gears with a satisfying, mechanical BANG and the throaty engine shouts encouragement. Although the turbo needs revs to keep it fizzing, it pulls strongly from 4,000rpm right through to a screaming 8,500rpm. The dash layout does need some tweaking, as the vital displays are not in easy line of sight and reaching across to the wiper button is impossible once strapped in. But those are niggles that are easily customisable and a matter of driver preference.

All in all, the Chevron is a well packaged race car that is fast straight out of the box. It is eligible for many different championships, from the one make Chevron GR-8 Challenge, which has a support slot on the DTM rounds at Brands Hatch next year, to Britcar, British GT and even Euro GT4.

On a slightly sad note, the test was the swansong for the old GP layout, with the exciting “Bridge Corner” complex now being decommissioned to make way for the new layout used at the 2010 British Grand Prix. As a final last hurrah, several historic racecar owners had brought their wonderful and eclectic machinery down to sample the challenge of Bridge one last time; notably an E-Type Lightweight, a DB5 and equisite examples of the Bugatti Type 59 and Maserati Birdcage. With only 8 ever having been built, a Type 59 sole recently at Christie’s for £17 million…!

July saw Scuderia X-Cat, together with one hundred and fifty other Fun Cup teams from across Europe and a staggering seven hundred and twenty one drivers from around the world, gather at the prestigious Spa Francorchamps circuit in Belgium, to compete in the world’s longest race; the 25 hours of Spa.

None of the Scuderia had raced on the legendary Spa circuit before and were understandably nervous.  Not only would they have to learn the track on the fly, but they’d also have to watch out for the much faster diesel engined cars.  Following Q1 the Scuderia were in P96 with a disappointing 3m20s036, although that improved slightly in Q2 to P91 - although the laptimes had tumbled markedly to 3m13s488.  The car would start as the 15th quickest petrol engined entry.

As the temperatures soared into the thirties, at 3pm 150 cars roared down the hill from La Source into the fearsome Eau Rouge for the first time.

The key to successful endurance racing is not qualifying on pole or electrifying pace over 1 lap, but to be consistent, have mechanical sympathy for the car and tyres and to eke out as much MPG as is possible.  This is particularly important with a high revving petrol engined car, as the diesels can travel a much greater distance before needing to refuel.  Short shifting helps add a lap or two to the range of the car - which doesn’t sound much, but can make a huge difference when viewed over the massive 25 hour race distance…

Scuderia X-Cat gradually started picking its way up through the order, as front running cars succumbed to accidents or mechanical failure.  As night fell, the rain started to come down in torrents.  Visibility at night is bad enough in the dry - but the rain only served to reduce visibility to just past the bonnet of the car…  Nevertheless, Rob and Simon did a sterling job of keeping a good pace through the night in very trying conditions.

At about 3am, a lightening strike shorted the electrics for the whole circuit - plunging the pitlane into darkness.  The race was red flagged immediately until power was restored.  The restart turned out to be a blessing for the Scuderia - with the field bunched together, it was easier to pick off cars and the team continued its climb through the order.

With only a couple of hours left, the team moved into P2 in petrol class - and a podium seemed like it was on the cards for the first time.  Fighting off spirited challenges from Allure Team and JMD, Scuderia X-Cat crossed the line in P25 overall, out of the 150 cars that started the race - and took second place in the Petrol class.  Team Tiger took the outright Petrol win.

For a team in its rookie year of endurance racing, this was a massive achievement.

The Scuderia looks forward to going one better next year at the world’s longest race…

ScuderiaTT is dipping its toe (hoof?) into the endurance racing arena, by fielding a car in the 2010 Fun Cup Endurance Series.

Launched in 2002, the Fun Cup is a single make endurance championship with all competitors driving either a petrol or diesel Audi engined single-seat space frame chassis, clad in a winged classic VW Beetle silhouette body.  Other than general appearance, the car has nothing in common with the classic VeeDub though. Races are typically between 3 to 7 hours in duration, with the showcase event being the celebrated Spa 25hr race in Belgium - deliberately 1 hour longer than Le Mans and officially the longest endurance race in the world.  The Fun Cup receives widespread promotion across a whole range of prime media from national press, general interest magazines and extensive, dedicated TV coverage on the Sky Sports network.

Racing in a petrol engined Audi powered VW Beetle under the Scuderia XCat banner, the team consists of three experienced racers who have raced in the highly competitive Caterham race series for several years.  After an extensive pre-season test program, Scuderia XCat is confident that is has both the competitive ability and technical resource to mount a spirited challenge in 2010.

Following the initial shakedown at Snetterton, where the car impressed with its speed out of the box in making short work of a £200,000 Ferrari F430 Scuderia, veteran STT racer Martin Harris said, “It feels great and very well planted on the track, but the short wheelbase means you need big muscles to wrestle it round - so I’ll have to renew my subscription at the gym…”

The Scuderia XCat campaign starts at Snetterton on 24 April with a 4 hour race - a sprint race for the Fun Cup Endurance Series.