Motorsport

MotoCzysz today won its fourth TT ZERO race in a row, demonstrating just how far the electric motorcycle has come in a short time. The first five runnings of the TT ZERO event at the 105 year-old Isle of Man motorcycle racing festival suggest electric bikes will catch up to the fastest gas-powered bikes in about five years. Every practice session has seen lap speeds increase. The inaugural 2009 electric lap record was run at the same speed as the circuit record in 1936 on the first Manx Norton. This week, electric motorcycles have surpassed the laps times of Hailwood's RC181 Honda 500, Duke's Gilera, Agostini's MV Agusta fire engines, and they're about to better the Kawasaki KR750, Suzuki RG500 and Yamaha TZ750 two-strokes of the mid-seventies. Four decades of progress in 48 months. Read on  Read More

When Drayson Racing Technologies and Lola Cars introduced the B12 69/EV last year, the electric race car promised to be one of the fastest of its kind. Six months later, it set a record at the Goodwood Hillclimb, and it's now gunning for an even bigger record. Drayson announced this week that it plans to make an attempt at an FIA electric land speed record within a month. It will try to best the 175 mph (282 km/h) mark that was set back in 1974.  Read More

With his surname already linked with the overall Pikes Peak International Hill Climb record thanks to son Rhys, Rod Millen is focusing his attention on piloting an electric vehicle up the mountain. During his debut in the electric division, he'll look to break the EV record in an updated version of the vehicle that set it: the EV P002 from Toyota Motorsport GmbH (TMG).  Read More

Nissan opened a new global headquarters for its Nismo performance brand in Yokohama, Japan yesterday, at the same time as announcing a considerable promotion of the formerly niche brand to major performance car brand with a presence in every Nissan showroom globally. The name Nismo will be now used in a similar fashion to the way Mercedes Benz uses AMG, or BMW uses the M logo, and joy-o-joy, there will be a high(er) performance Nismo version of Nissan's bargain-basement GT-R supercar.  Read More

With the American Le Mans season drawing near, BMW announced that it will be shifting ALMS duties to a new car. With four years under its belt, the M3 GT is stepping aside to make room for the new Z4 GTE. The car is more svelte than its predecessor, and while BMW expects to have some wrinkle ironing to do during its debut season, it is optimistic about what it can do.  Read More

Lamborghini has announced it is developing a new Gallardo race car with GT3 partner Reiter Engineering that will be finished in time for the 2013 and 2014 racing season. Reiter Engineering has been building race-spec Lamborghinis since 2000, but the GT3 FL2 marks the first time that it is working directly with Lamborghini on developing a GT3 race car.  Read More

Australia’s motorsport mecca is in the midst of its first major facelift in 14 years, with the Island’s hallowed race circuit being treated this week to a $3 million resurface to create the smoothest, fastest race track in the world. The huge undertaking will see 5,000 tonnes of specially blended asphalt mix laid at a temperature of ~160ºF in a process that shows it's not just high-tech bikes that make the world of international motorcycle racing tick.  Read More

To say that 31 year old Australian Moto2 racer Anthony West is resourceful would be a gross understatement. His latest exploit – apart from racing in what he describes as the hardest, most competitive and closest category in which he's ever competed – is to develop a smartphone app aimed at fellow motorcycle enthusiasts entitled AntWest Race Sense.  Read More

The Nissan Altima is one of the last cars that you'd ever think of as a "supercar." Add a V8 engine and a racing body kit, however, and you have the Altima V8 Supercar. Nissan unveiled the car in Melbourne in anticipation of participating in Australia's V8 Supercars Championship next season.  Read More