Gone is the awful twin-tusk arrangement of its 2014 car, which looked at best like a mis-aligned tuning fork, at worst like some deranged deep sea creature.
In contrast, its 2015 is an extremely handsome machine, without even the small thumb-like nose extension seen on the Williams FW37 and Force India VJM08.
Following a strong 2013 season, in which it finished a fighting fifth in the constructors’ championship, Lotus had a torrid 2014, hampered by both poor performance and reliability from its Renault power units, a lack of downforce and inconsistent handling.
Its problems were magnified due to severe financial struggles, which led to staff cutbacks and the loss of key technical personnel.
This year’s straight-line performance should be far more impressive thanks to the adoption of Mercedes power units, while recent hirings have bolstered the design and aerodynamics office.
Lotus CEO Matthew Carter claims the financial situation is now under control and the team is aiming to challenge for third or fourth in the standings this year. Both Romain Grosjean and the ever-entertaining Pastor Maldonado have been retained as drivers.
Testing for the 2015 Formula 1 season kicks off on February 1 at Jerez.
Will this sleek silver steed launch Force India towards the front of the grid?
The midfield outfit has opted for a significant rebrand for the 2015 season, thanks in part to a new number of new Mexican sponsors joining the team.
The influx of Central American money is due to the team retaining Mexican driver Sergio Perez for s second straight season, partnered by German Nico Hulkenberg.
Mexico will also host a grand prix this year for the first time since 1992, to be held at a modified version of the classic Autodromo Hermanos Rodrguez circuit.
With local hero Perez to support, the venue’s 110,000 capacity is expected to be overflowing come race day, currently scheduled for November 1.
Force India continues with Mercedes power units this year, however it expects to be much more competitive thanks to a deal to use Toyota’s 60 per cent scale wind tunnel in Cologne, rather than the outdated 50 per cent wind tunnel it has been using.
The first test of the season takes place on February 1 at the Jerez circuit.
Williams has already won one race this year, being the first to unveil its 2015 car.
It’s given fans and pundits the first look at the all-important aesthetics of this year’s challengers, following the horror show that was last year’s crop.
New rules introduced for 2015 improve the aesthetics by giving designers a more tightly controlled set of dimensions, essentially forcing them into creating an agreeable front end.
As well as disturbing the airflow across the rest of the car, necessitating extensive amounts of aerodynamic work, the new nose design also contributes to a significant loss of front downforce, though Williams’ chief technical officer, Pay Symonds, expects most teams to have clawed that back by the first race.
Williams’ new car, dubbed the FW37 (the 37th car Frank Williams’ team has run), retains the all-important Mercedes power unit, allied to Williams’ own gearbox design.
Both Felipe Massa and Valterri Bottas have been retained, the latter having finished fourth in last year’s drivers’ championship.
Williams finished third in last year’s constructors’ championship, its best result since 2003.
TOYOTA is expected to announce its long-rumoured return to the World Rally Championship after an absence of almost two decades.
Confirmation is expected this week, following an official Toyota press release inviting the media to a motorsport conference that will be webcast live (with English translation) from 3pm this Friday (January 30).
Toyota’s re-entry into the WRC sets up a fierce contest against current champion Volkswagen and the rapidly improving Hyundai.
The company has been discussing a return to the sport with the FIA and has been testing a Toyota Yaris WRC car since March 2014.
Toyota is a three-time WRC winner, with its participation dating back to the 1970s, starting when Swede Ove Andersson drove a rear-wheel drive Toyota Celica in the 1972 RAC Rally in Britain.
Andersson established Toyota Team Europe in 1975, with Hannu Mikkola claiming its first win that year in a Corolla.
It won the gruelling Safari rally three years in a row (1984-86) before TTE was bought by Toyota in 1990 to become Toyota Motorsport GmbH (TMG).
Toyota’s peak period in rallying began in 1990, when legendary Spaniard Carlos Sainz won the drivers’ title driving the Celica GT-Four (ST165 model), before flying Finn Juha Kankkunen took the title and helped Toyota claim its first manufacturers’ crown in 1993. Didier Auriol won the crown in 1994 as Toyota scored back-to-back manufacturers’ championships.
However, it was in 1994 that Toyota was embroiled in controversy when it was found to have made illegal modifications to the 34mm turbo restrictors fitted to its Celicas. It was subsequently banned for a year.
Toyota returned to the sport and won the manufacturers’ crown again in 1999 with the Corolla; its last victory was the 1999 Rally of China, with 1994 champion Auriol at the wheel.
This week’s press conference invitation came less than 24 hours after the Japanese giant – the world’s Number One carmaker by sales volume (not profit) – confirmed the technical specs of the GT86 CS-R3 as a customer-based production rally car for the European market.
Built by TMG, the stripped, caged and FIA-homologated cars feature an extra 30kW over the standard 2.0-litre flat-four road car’s 205kW and come with a six-speed sequential transmission.
Toyota Australia says it’s unlikely any of the rally-prepped GT86s will make it to Australia.
“It’s possible,” a Toyota spokesperson told Wheels. “We’re delighted that TMG has chosen the 86 as a base, [and] looking at the price and distance, we’ll follow their progress in Europe, but there are no plans to bring the car here.”
Watch the Toyota announcement at 3pm on Friday, January 30here.
THIS IS the latest version of the Ferrari 458M that is expected to be shown at the 2015 Geneva motor show this March. A car that looks stunning even when covered in painters’ drop-sheets, this car sports the new headlamp clusters and bumpers, but the visuals of the 458M are bit players – the real news is the new engine that’ll make one of the world’s best supercars even faster.
Following the lead of the Ferrari California that, in 2014, became the California T (meaning turbocharged), the 458 will see its naturally-aspirated 4.5-litre V8 replaced with a more potent version of the 552bhp 3.8-litre twin-turbo engine from the California.
The current 458 makes 425kW, so expect beyond the current car’s power figures to be pushed to around 485kW, ensuring that in typical fashion, Ferrari can be sure that it has “more power than” the McLaren 650S with its 478kW.
The trend to supercar turbocharging follows not only Ferrari’s own California, but also the Porsche 911 that’s been confirmed as an all-turbo line-up (apart from the hero GT3) come its update of the current 991-model later this year.
Mercedes-AMG also released its alternative to the 911 and 458 in the form of the AMG GT in 2014, a smaller SLS-based coupe that uses a 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 instead of its predecessors gurgling 6208cc naturally-aspirated V8.
That leaves the Lamborghini Huracan LP 610-4 as the odd-man out, with its V8 and V10 engines both breathing through their own lungs and not a turbo in sight, and that means that the Audi R8 that shares its platform and mechanicals with the Lamborghini will also be available with ‘atmo’ powerplants in its range.
Of course, you could always pick up Lamborghini’s Aventador, the Ferrari FF or the brilliant F12 Ferrari if you’re turbo-phobic, too, with all three offering time-honoured V12 propulsion.
The Ferrari 458M is expected to be shown at the Geneva motor show in March, before arriving in Australian showrooms in late 2015 from an estimated $550,000.
Full-scale production of the Jaguar XE won’t begin until March, but we’ve driven cars from the very first trial-build batch. The XE shows promise, but there’s plenty left to do before the assembly line starts churning them out…
WHAT IS IT? Britain wants a slice of the premium compact car business currently owned by Germany. The Jaguar XE is designed to take on the Audi A4, BMW 3 Series and Mercedes-Benz C-Class, and beat them for both looks and driving pleasure.
WHY WE’RE TESTING IT The brand’s future is riding on the XE, and other models that also will use its new, aluminium-intensive architecture. Jaguar’s exclusive pre-production prototype preview in Portugal was a must-be-there event.
MAIN RIVALS Rear-drive BMW 3 Series and Mercedes-Benz C-Class, plus the front-drive and all-wheel-drive Audi A4
THE WHEELS VERDICT Withheld until we drive final production versions
PLUS: Brilliant steering; obvious structural integrity; exterior style MINUS: Work needed before it’s fit for production
THE WHEELS REVIEW JAGUAR’S XE, the company’s most important all-new model in decades, is lustrously brilliant in some respects and needs a lot of extra polish in others. Fortunately, there’s still time to make this rear-drive sedan what it needs to be – a genuine challenger to German dominance in the premium compact class.
The new Solihull assembly line isn’t scheduled to start full-scale XE production until March. Jaguar Land Rover no doubt understands it is a risky strategy to expose a new car in unfinished form, but the company also understands inviting a select list of international media to drive some of the first XE pre-production prototypes has powerful potential. It’s an opportunity to build the buzz surrounding this crucial new car.
At least a dozen XEs have been freighted to Portugal for this exclusive preview. Half are 2.0d models powered by the first of JLR’s new Ingenium modular engine family, a 2.0-litre turbocharged diesel four. The remainder have the company’s familiar 3.0-litre supercharged V6 petrol-burner. All are equipped with ZF eight-speed automatic transmissions.
Both engines will be included in the XE line-up scheduled for August launch here. The Ingenium turbo-diesel is to be produced in two versions, but Australia will ignore the 120kW and 99g/km European-market low-tax special and take only the 132kW version. This is what Jaguar has brought to Portugal.
The supercharged V6 will deliver the same 250kW power maximum as it does in the XF, XJ and base-model F-Type in the S version of the XE, which, at least initially, will be the top model. The launch line-up will also include 147kW and 177kW 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol fours. These are Ford-made engines, destined to be phased out after JLR’s own Ingenium 2.0-litre spark-ignition turbo four goes into production.
Although the 12 XEs in Portugal look perfect from a distance, once inside it’s obvious they’re not. Some plastic parts lack production finishes and some of the trimmings aren’t what customers will see. There’s more that’s not right…
Starting the Ingenium turbo-diesel from cold is a rude shock. It sounds coarse and clattery, and there’s way too much vibration coming through the steering wheel and floor. It’s quieter and smoother when warm, but never brilliant. The car is R-Sport spec, fitted with Jaguar’s stiffer suspension. It’s brusque and busy on the rubbish roads east of Lisbon, and there’s too much road noise and vibration infiltrating the cabin.
But the turbo-diesel XE steers beautifully. The electric-assist system feels frictionless, precise, quick and consistently weighted. Just lovely. And the integrity of Jaguar’s three-quarters aluminium body is unmistakable.
Turns out Jaguar’s engineers know which areas need attention; drivetrain man John Pepperell admits “there’s a bit to do on refinement” of the Ingenium diesel. The car we’ve driven doesn’t have final production engine mounts or engine control software, he says.
Vehicle integrity engineer Graham Moss adds that these pre-production XEs aren’t fitted with some key sound-deadening material and lack correct boot linings. Production cars will be much quieter. They’ll ride better, too, says XE engineering manager Jon Darlington. The Sport suspension we’ve driven has springs 30 to 40 percent stiffer than the standard set-up, he says.
For the drive back to Lisbon, we swap into an XE S. The supercharged 3.0-litre V6 is less raucous than in an F-Type, but it has the refined authority of a well-developed performance engine. The car is equipped with Bilstein adaptive dampers, and rides well in both default Normal and firmer Dynamic modes.
With both the grace and pace of Jaguar’s famed slogan, this pre-production XE S shows how near Jaguar is to achieving its aim of being the driver’s car in its German-dominated category. The Ingenium turbo-diesel, on the other hand, is a reminder of how far is left to go before the XE is properly prepared to wage premium compact class warfare.
SPECS Model: Jaguar XE 2.0 diesel Engine: 1999cc 4cyl, dohc, 16v, turbocharged diesel Max power: 132kW @ 4000rpm Max torque: 430Nm @ 1750-2500rpm Transmission: 8-speed automatic Weight: 1565kg (auto) 0-100km/h: 7.8sec (claimed) Economy: 4.2L/100km (EU) Price: $60,000 (estimated) On sale: August approx.
TIME to daydream: Imagine you’re in Monte Carlo, your bum firmly perched in a grandstand overlooking the iconic Formula One circuit, but something’s different. Instead of modern cars, there’s a stream of classic F1 machinery below.
Bugattis, Alfa Romeos, Maseratis, Ferraris; cars once raced by the greats of motor sport, not collecting dust in museums, but being driven hard, centimetres from the narrow circuit’s imposing metal barriers.
It’s the ultimate F1 fantasy and, thanks to Wheels Magazine and Shannons, you could make it a reality.
Shannons is giving you and a friend the chance to attend the 2016 Monaco Historic Grand Prix as part of an 11-day trip of a lifetime.
Starting in Venice, winners will travel to Bologna, where they’ll take part in the Italian Supercar Tour, and visit the factory and museums of Ferrari, Lamborghini, Ducati and Pagani.
You’ll get to drive, too – the prize includes five days in a Mercedes-Benz C-Class and a You Drive Experience for one in a Lamborghini LP 570-4 Superleggera.
The package ends with five nights in Nice to attend the Monaco Historic, and includes $1000 spending money ($5000 if you’re an eligible Shannons Club member) and a private, escorted shopping trip to St Tropez.
To enter, go to shannons.com.au/monaco or call 13 46 46 and obtain an eligible quote on your car, bike or home insurance by April 10.
It’s been less than a year since its launch, but already Lamborghini’s lightened, stiffened and widened the Huracan.
However much you earn, though, you won’t be able to enjoy the new car on public roads. That’s because this radical Huracan, set to debut in this year’s Blancpain Endurance Series, is Lamborghini’s new GT3 racer.
Launched recently at Raging Bull headquarters in Sant’Agata Bolognese, the Huracan GT3 is the second car created in-house by the recently formed Lamborghini Squadra Corse and co-developed with Italian racecar constructor Dallara.
The Huracan GT3 has been built to FIA GT3 regulations, making it eligible for endurance GT championships and races across the globe including our own Bathurst 12 Hour, and will face competition not only from Ferrari, Nissan, BMW and Mercedes-AMG but also from VW-stablemates Bentley, Audi and Porsche.
Encasing its aluminium-carbon chassis is bodywork developed by Dallara that’s been widened at each corner to fit the front-to-rear staggered 315mm and 325mm tyres under its wings. The 1240kg car also packs bigger brakes, a bigger radiator, a six-speed sequential transmission and the road car’s 5.2-litre V10 powering only the rear wheels. Meanwhile the car’s endurance racing package is rounded out by a pit stop-friendly pneumatic lift system and driver-adjustable ABS.
Audi’s next-gen R8 LMS GT3 due later this year is expected to share the Huracan GT3’s chassis platform and modified drivetrain.
For its debut in this year’s Blancpain Endurance Series the Huracan GT3 will be run by Austrian outfit Grasser Racing and driven by factory drivers Fabio Babini and Adrian Zaugg, along with Italian Mirko Birtolotti.
If you have GT racing ambitions of your own Lamborghini wants 369,000 euro for the Huracan GT3, which translates to AU$523,283… before competition running costs, of course.
But even if you’d rather experience the Huracan GT3 as a spectator you’ll at least need a plane ticket; at the moment Lamborghin new GT3 fighter is only scheduled to compete only in the Blancpain Endurance Series in Europe.
For an in-depth look at the world of GT3 racing, check out MOTOR’s March issue, on-sale February 5.
RALLY: Ogier and VW blitz Monte Carlo
AFTER a stunning early charge by returning nine-time world champion Sebastien Loeb, the Monte Carlo Rally quickly evolved into a scenario seen many times in 2014, with reigning champs Sebastien Ogier and Volkswagen cruising to victory in the 2015 WRC season opener.
Loeb led early until his comeback cameo was interrupted by his Citroen making contact with a wall.
Then Ogier took control ahead of team-mates Jari-Matti Latvala and Andreas Mikkelsen to give VW total ownership of the podium. It was a perfect result for the new Polo WRC.
“What a fantastic start to the new season,” Ogier said. “I’m over the moon.
“Getting a win at the Rally Monte Carlo is special for any driver, but words can’t describe what a win here means to me – this is my home. Friends, family and fans give me so much support and self-confidence here. The atmosphere was magical. I’m grateful that I can give something back with my joy.
“Selecting the tyres was particularly difficult at the start. Then there was the exciting battle with Loeb, who was producing spectacular times on Thursday. Big thanks go to our team and my ice spies.”
Loeb bounced back from his Friday afternoon error to finish eighth, four places behind Citroen team-mate Mads Ostberg.
Robert Kubica’s Monte was typical. He was spectacular and fast – swift enough to take a stage win on Saturday morning – before losing his brakes after the finish of the penultimate stage and slamming his Ford Fiesta into a solid barrier.
F1: Stefan Johansson disses young drivers and modern motor sport
FORMER F1, IndyCar and sports car racer Stefan Johansson has joined one of his contemporaries, world champion Jacques Villeneuve, in speaking out against the trendy fashion of bringing increasingly younger drivers into grand prix racing.
And in so doing he has suggested that modern F1 drivers have it almost ridiculously easy.
Villeneuve previously criticised the signing of 17-year-old Max Verstappen to Toro Rosso for 2015, calling the move an “insult” to F1. Villeneuve said “it is not F1’s role to teach” and called for the F1 minimum age to be lifted to 21.
“You should arrive in Formula One as a winner and with a wealth of experience,” insisted Villeneuve. “F1 is not the place to come and develop as a driver.”
Now, Johansson, who contested more than 100 Grands Prix and won Le Mans, has sided with the French-Canadian.
“I don’t think anyone can disagree with him,” he said on his official website.
“Things are so different today, though. Guys aren’t really even racing any more, truthfully. It’s now about planning your strategy so that you hit the button for DRS or KERS at the right moment and you make the pass. There’s nothing the other driver can do at that point, or is even allowed to do.
“So it’s really a matter of driving the car fast and trying not to make any mistakes. The only mistake you can make in normal circumstances today which punishes you is locking up the brakes. If you screw up and go into a corner too fast and miss the apex you end up in the blue part of the runoff area and it costs you time, but off you go again.
“The race won’t end for you. You may lose three seconds if you really get it wrong, but that’s about the extent of it. So, from that point of view, a 17-year-old could certainly be out there.
“Any of the guys I’ve spoken with who’ve tested the current F1 cars say that they are so easy to drive it’s almost ridiculous. So it really comes down to racecraft at the end of the day.”
But Johansson asks how anyone can tell if a 17-year-old has racecraft, suggesting there’s no doubt about his speed.
Johansson raised the hot topic of Jan Magnussen, who shone initially with McLaren last year but then was found wanting when the championship hotted up.
“He made some very opportunistic moves in the beginning of the season before he realised that he was racing a different calibre of drivers in F1 than what he had been used to. Many of the moves he tried to pull off early on just didn’t stick.”
Johansson says he’s sure Verstappen will be extremely fast, but wonders how he will fare when he’s in a dogfight with somebody who’s been around for a while or in the first few laps with a lot of cars ducking and diving.
The Swede, who these days has moved on from motor racing to create Växjö, a line of luxury limited edition and custom Swiss-made timepieces, agrees with Villeneuve that drivers should come to F1 with a lot of experience and success.
“If you give him three more years in other lower formulas and you see a level of competitive consistency, that makes it clear he’ll be able to handle whatever situations occur.”
SUPERCUP: Power evident in Porsches
ADELAIDE’S Sam Power has cracked a sizzling deal that will see him graduate from Porsche Carrera Cup Australia to racing for leading team Momo Megatron in the 2015 international Porsche Supercup.
On the bill of all the European F1 meetings, Supercup is a proven pathway to international GT racing, including the Le Mans 24 Hour.
A late starter to racing, 26 year-old Power’s ego is well under control judging from his comments in his press release.
“For the 99.56 per cent of readers who don’t know me, I am Sam Power, a curly haired racing driver whose ambition last year was to not only rival Warren Luff for the craziest driver hair award, but to see if I could hang onto the likes of himself, Baird or Richards on the track.
“Did I do well? I had my moments, sure, but as the championship ladder will tell you, five other people did better. However, contrary to the saying that winning is everything, it really isn’t – especially as a junior.
“We won a race, had a few podiums, battled with some of the best in the business, got sent to Europe by Porsche and to top it off we raised heaps of money for The Childhood Cancer Association.
“Shortly after the Australian season ended in December, I risked everything, abandoned all plans to race an Australian championship in 2015 and moved to the UK immediately to pursue a career against the Europeans. It is, and will continue for some time to be, the biggest challenge of my career.”
SPRINTCARS: American Hirst claims Grand Classic
IT WAS a long wait for competitors and fans alike before the 43rd Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic at Warrnambool’s Premier Speedway got underway in the early hours of Australia Day.
But when the action finally began, Californian Kyle Hirst wasted no time in claiming the biggest win of his career, breaking the 40-lap record.
Hirst, who hails from Sacramento, started from position two, grabbed the lead into the first corner and was never headed as the race unfolded without a stoppage.
The seven-year race record was shattered by more than a minute as Hirst took his first win in the Classic, leaving three-time winner Brooke Tatnell and Albury’s Grant Anderson to take the minor places.
In local sprintcar racing, Warrnambool’s three-night Australia Day weekend Lucas Oil Classic is as big as it gets. It’s the Bathurst 1000 for the winged monsters, attracting the cream of the fiercest American and Australian talent, one hundred of ’em chasing a prize pool of $200,000.
This year the Classic program stretched into a fourth day, with the final not starting until 1.54am due to a delay when South Australian Brad Keller had to be cut from his wrecked car following a crunching roll, then rain.
When the final got going, 27-year-old Hirst was untouchable.
“I don’t know how we did it, we’ve done it,” he said.
Tatnell, second in the Classic for the fourth time, tried his heart out, but Hirst had him covered.
“There wasn’t a lot you could do,” Tatnell explained; he tried a high line early, but the rain-affected track did not reward the adventurous.
Anderson was delighted to finish third, bettering his best result of fourth.
Pole-sitter Dave Murcott retired early with car problems.
SPORTS CARS: Ganassi team wins Daytona 24 Hours thriller
THE master of endurance racing, Chip Ganassi Racing, has done it again, winning its sixth Daytona 24 Hours in 12 attempts, but only just.
The #02 Ganassi Riley-Ford EcoBoost DP shared by a quartet of speedsters from IndyCars and NASCAR – Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan, Jamie McMurray and Kyle Larson – edged out defending champion team Action Express Racing (Coyote-Chevrolet Corvette DP) by a mere 1.3 seconds after a dramatic five-lap sprint to the finish after the final safety-car period.
McMurray joins AJ Foyt and Mario Andretti as the only drivers to win the Daytona 500 (NASCAR race) and the Daytona 24 Hours.
The Action Express Corvette trio of Joao Barbosa, Christian Fittipaldi and Sebastien Bourdais fought back from a three-lap deficit after fuel pressure problems left the car stranded one-third of the way through. But in the duel to the flag, it didn’t have the punch to tackle Brisbane-born Kiwi Dixon in the lead car.
Winner of the GT Le Mans class was the Chevrolet Corvette C7.R of Aussie Ryan Briscoe, Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen.
Driving an Alex Job Racing Porsche 911 GT America, V8 Supercar and Bathurst 12 Hour star Shane van Gisbergen (with Leh Keen, Andrew Davis and Cooper MacNeil) missed GT Daytona class victory by seven seconds, losing out to the Riley Motorsports Dodge Viper SRT GT3-R of Ben Keating, Kuno Wittmer, Dominik Farnbacher, Al Carter and Cameron Lawrence.
Clutch issues near the end prevented evergreen sports car legend Scott Pruett from challenging for a record-breaking sixth overall Daytona victory aboard the #01 Ganassi entry.
A BMW-developed 6.0-litre V12, central seating position and top speed a smidge under 400km/h made the McLaren F1 a ferocious road car. However such pedigree ensured it was even better as a race car.
With McLaren’s new 650S Le Mans edition and the soon-to-be-unleashed P1 GTR channelling McLaren F1 GTR’s Le Mans winning heritage, we’ve been binging online videos that feature the legendary race car doing what it does best.
Of the many we’ve watched, simply too good not to share is footage of the F1 GTR in a dogfight with its nemesis, the Porsche 911 GT1, during the 1996 Le Mans 24 Hour. It’s aural and visual race car nirvana.
Shrieks from the Team Bigazzi McLaren F1 GTR’s V12 are punctuated by flames spat by the Porsche GT1’s 3.2-litre flat six on upshifts; all the while Steve Soper (McLaren) and Yannick Dalmas (Porsche) swap track position in gladiatorial fashion.
Legendary cars, fantastic racing, awesome cinema; the only thing disappointing about this video is its brevity.
So rather than leave you teased and unsatisfied, we’ve included links to more clips that relive the McLaren F1 GTR. See below.
Raw on-board: Shrieking F1 GTR on track with BMWs
How to lap Le Mans like a pro: Andrew Gilbert-Scott on-board McLaren F1 GTR longtail
