Hypercars to go racing
'Ultracar Sports Club' to bring together hypercars at Blancpain GT events. Interesting...
That's the premise of the Ultracar Sports Club from SRO Motorsports. It won't be racing as there is no timing or classification so that headline is a little misleading. Apologies. What it aims to do is bring together the various hypercars at track events for owners to enjoy their cars with like-minded individuals while also providing an incredible spectacle for fans.
The planned USC events for 2015 are tagged onto the Blancpain Endurance Series events at Paul Ricard (20-21 June) and Misano (3-4 October). There will be four 30-minute sessions for the cars over the weekend with Pirelli providing tyres if required. If you do arrive in a Veyron (with bespoke Michelins), the USC is confident that another agreement can be reached.
The eligible car list is predictably droolworthy, split into homologated road cars and non-homologated track specials. Models listed so far include the latest hybrid hypercars, Aston One-77, Lamborghini Veneno, Koenigsegg One:1, Veyron, the Ferrari XX models and the Pagani Zonda R.
All well and good (and exciting) but there are of course a few issues with the Ultracar Sport Club idea. The first being that similar events are organised by manufacturers; think of the P1 GTR programme, Ferrari Corse Clienti and so on. This doesn't sound as intense as those programmes so may appeal to those owners who want to use their cars in a more relaxed setting. Furthermore, though it's an obvious point, the eligible cars are exceptionally rare and many are probably stored in collections. Will there be enough owners willing to take part? Let's hope so because, from a fan's perspective, the thought of the world's fastest cars being driven hard (but not competitively, remember) at a couple of great circuits is one to be very happy about. We'll keep you posted.
[Sources: SRO Motorsports Group, SportscarInfo.de, Sportscar365]
I have met one such person who currently owns of the cars mentioned.
He cheerfully admitted to not knowing much about it at all. He didn't really know much about cars at all - outside of attending the F1 the circus and sitting in the back whilst a driver does the actual driving.
He does however have an eye for buying stuff and selling it for more or using it as commercial collateral.
Property, shares, businesses, art, wine, cars, precious metals, currencies etc whatever etc. By his own admission, none of it interested him in such a way that he cared for one more than the other beyond the realms of timings, yields, exposure and margin...
I wonder how many of these cars were sold to similar mindset people?
I would image a proportion of those wealthy enough and disposed to buy Hypercars will welcome the chance to drive them at speed on F1 circuits.
I don't, on the other hand, expect to see the XJR-15 demolition derby repeated!
M.
Regardless of how wealthy I am, a high horsepower Radical or Caterham SP300R is going to be more fun for racing than a hypercar, and will be just as fast around track. The batteries won't go flat after a few laps, and I won't go through 50-100K worth of expendables in a single weekend - if I don't crash it.
I realize this opinion might be controversial on here, but at some point, it really is just thumbing your nose at the rest of the humanity. I don't want to see cars on blocks in a basement, but racing is a whole different animal, and I doubt the vast majority of hypercar owners are even able to drive a 911 at the limit, let alone a P1. Those who can (like Lewis Hamilton), would just make mincemeat of the rest. The whole thing just seems rather sad to me.
For those who will be attending the 24 Hours of Nurburgring next May do come by and say hello.
Should any of you be at the Geneva Auto show same goes. We'll be debuting our race and road version.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgt7dlGEGmM
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