Race Cars

There’s a reason that race cars go fast on the track, and that street cars (generally) don’t. Cars built for racing are constructed without regard to ride comfort, with the primary focus being on weight savings, handling and driver safety. Cars built for the road are generally focused...

This year is AMG’s 45th and the official tuner to Mercedes-Benz isn't letting it go by without a celebration or two. We’ve already seen the company unveil a 45th anniversary edition SL65 AMG, as well as tease some of its future plans. Today we have a new 45th anniversary edition to...

Caterham is best known for its continuation versions of the iconic Lotus Seven roadster, available in everything from road-going to full-race versions. While all are fast thanks to their light weight (1,133 pounds for a Superlight R300), Caterham has just announced a car it’s calling the...

In the early 1980s, Porsche all but dominated sports car and endurance racing with a pair of Norbert Singer-designed cars. In 1982, Porsche launched the 956, which went on to win Le Mans from 1982 through 1985. In 1983, the 956 also set a Nürburgring Nordschleife lap record of 6:11.13, which...

Although you’d never guess it from Bentley’s current product line, the luxury automaker has a long history of motorsports glory. From 1927 through 1930, Bentley dominated the competition at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, taking first place in four consecutive years (and capturing first...

If you think the days of the gentleman driver / racer in an Italian sports car are dead and gone, Maserati has some news for you. Its GranTurismo MC Trofeo World Series pits drivers of the Maserati coupe against one another in a single marque series, ensuring close competition on circuits around...

The legend of the Silver Arrow grand prix race cars built by Mercedes-Benz and the Auto Union (now Audi) during the 1930s is well documented here at Motor Authority, so regular readers will be keen to know that some of the surviving cars will be on show, and taking to the track, this weekend at the...

Electric race cars may not yet offer the same range as their internal-combustion counterparts, but the differential in lap times continues to get smaller. For a baseline reference, Marco Werner set a Sonoma full-lap record of 1:21.69 behind the wheel of the fearsome Audi R8 Le Mans Prototype in...

Bernd Rosemeyer wasn’t like other racing drivers of the pre-World War II era. After getting his start racing motorcycles, Rosemeyer was hired on by the Auto Union (forerunner to Audi) racing team, despite his lack of experience racing cars. Rosemeyer, whose lucky number was 13, quickly proved...

Just last week we told you about a 1.0-liter EcoBoost-powered Formula Ford that managed to lap Germany’s Nürburgring Nordschleife in just 7:22, making it faster around the ‘Ring than cars like the Ferrari Enzo and the Pagani Zonda. At the time, few took it as more than a Ford...

Developing a world-class supercar like the Lexus LFA from a clean sheet of paper is no easy task, and turning that supercar (or supercar prototype) into a competitive endurance racer is an order of magnitude more difficult. Taking that race car to compete with long-dominant German automakers, in...

Toyota Motorsport GmbH (TMG), the German motorsports company formerly responsible for Toyota’s Formula 1 program and now contracted to developing racing versions of its production cars, has rolled out a new racing version of the Scion FR-S’ cousin sold overseas, the Toyota GT 86 sports...

Nobuhiro "Monster" Tajima remains a legend on Pikes Peak despite Rhys Millen's record run this year--after all, Millen went just five seconds faster than Tajima's 2011 run despite an additional two-plus miles of pavement in place of dirt. But this year, Tajima's run for the record was cut short...

The 2012 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance is about to get underway, and while we'll be bringing you the freshest photos and latest news as it happens, there's a bit of preliminary business to take care of: the previews. The latest is McLaren's 12C Can-Am Edition Racing Concept. A track-only racing...

Under the best of circumstances, rallying is among the most extreme forms of motorsport on the planet. Drivers spend an entire stage running on the very edge of control, piloting cars on surfaces ranging from gravel to snow to sand to mud to pavement (or any combination of these). Mistakes can be...

The beauty of a barn find is this: sometimes you don’t even know what you have until you start the process of disassembly. Take the case of a 1965 Shelby DragonSnake Cobra for example: when purchased by a collector last year, he believed it to be one of six built. As it turns out, the car was...

Well advanced compared to their competition, the Grand Prix cars launched in the early 1930s by Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union, nicknamed the “Silver Arrows” because of their unpainted aluminum bodies, are the stuff of legend. The cars were considerably faster than other Grand Prix racers...

Porsche’s original factory museum, opened in 1976, was modest in both location and scope. Situated on a side street in Stuttgart, the facility was only large enough to display some 20 cars at any given time. In 2009, Porsche opened a new museum in Zuffenhausen, adjacent to its corporate...

In the 1950s, Aston Martin desperately wanted to prove itself in international sports car competition. While its DB2 was successful at Le Mans in-class, an overall victory continued to elude the British manufacturer. In 1952, Aston Martin launched its DB3 racer, with the primary goal of finishing...

The 2013 Chevrolet Camaro NASCAR Nationwide race car will make its race debut in 2013 at Daytona.