At next month's Los Angeles Motor Show, Porsche will reveal this Boxster Spyder. Based on the current Boxster S model, the new Spyder is a tribute to Porsche's legendary racing cars from the 1950s like the 550 RS Spyder from 1955 or the 718 RS 60 Spyder built five years later. The most obvious visual change on the 2010 Spyder is the rear deck, which sports two bumps instead of the fold-down roof found on the regular production model. In the spirit of the early racing cars, a very rudimentary cloth roof can be used but it only offers minimal weather protection. The interior is equipped with the bare minimum and includes racing touches like the straps to open the doors. Performance is also up compared to the standard Boxster courtesy of a considerable drop in the weight and an additional 10 bhp from the direct injection flat six. The Boxster Spyder will be available from February 2010.
BMW also revealed the first details of a special, lightweight edition of one of their current models today. Dubbed the M3 GTS, the new BMW is even more extreme than the aforementioned Porsche. The GTS features a completely stripped interior, a larger and more powerful engine and an aggressive body-kit. The most fundamental change is the introduction of a 4.4 litre version of the highly acclaimed M3 V8. It produces 450 bhp, which is transferred to the rear wheels through a seven-speed, dual-clutch gearbox. Weight is down to 1490 kg or 3285 lbs. According to BMW the car is suited for use on the road but can also be campaigned on track, in 'Clubsport' events. The M3 GTS may also serve to homologate new bits for the M3 GTR GT2 racer that is expected to feature more prominently on the world's racing tracks in 2010.

Yesterday the annual aftermarket extravaganza, the Speciality Equipment Manufacturers Association Show (SEMA Show), opened its doors in Las Vegas, Nevada. The major manufacturers traditionally also have a strong presence on the floor to showcase their aftermarket bits on specifically created show cars. Although slightly more modest, the big three were once again well represented in Las Vegas. Today we take a look at three of their best offerings.
General Motors brought out various Camaro based concepts. Our favourite was this Camaro Jay Leno Concept, built for the Late Night Talk Show Host it is named after. It is powered by a twin-turbocharged version of the direct injection V6 found in the base model. The turbos have lifted the power to a commendable 425 bhp but the engine is nevertheless capable of very frugal driving. Needless to say, it also sports a more aggressive body-kit.
Both Ford and Chrysler presented drag-racing inspired machinery. The special Mustang FR500 Cobra Jet on display provides a preview of the upcoming 50-car production run of the Mustang drag-racers. It is less likely that the Dodge Moper Challenger 1320 will make to the quarter-mile or 1320 feet strips.
Every time we go out to visit events we expand our archives with more photography and quite often we get new opportunities to shoot cars that have already been featured on Ultimatecarpage.com. This week we have updated our features on two great cars with some of the new material. The first is the Lancia D24, which one of the great sports racers of its day. It was particularly successful in the great road races, taking the outright victory in the Carrera Panamericana, Targa Florio and Mille Miglia. The pictured example is one of two survivors and the only one in private hands. Where the Lancia was the last of the line, the M19A brought McLaren back to their winning ways in 1972. We first saw Denny Hulme's South African Grand Prix winner at the 2006 Monaco Historic Grand Prix where it was damaged in an accident. Fortunately, it was fully repaired two years later so we had another opportunity to shoot the successful Formula 1 racer.

During the mid-1950s Ferrari experimented with a wide variety of engines in the company's sports racer, including straight fours and sixes. For the Italian manufacturer's assault on the 1956 World Championship, Ferrari settled on using virtually identical four and twelve cylinder engined machines. Both cars shared the exact same chassis and a similarly styled, Scaglietti built aluminium body.
The more successful of the two was the V12-engined 290 MM, which was driven to a debut victory in the Mille Miglia by Eugenio Castellotti. The great Juan Manuel Fangio finished fourth behind two of the four cylinder engined cars in another 290 MM. Later in the year Phil Hill and Maurice Trintignant added a second win to the 290 MM's tally in only its third major race. The final World Championship win for the 3.5 litre sports racer came early in 1957 during the Buenos Aires 1000 km race. Three examples were originally built and one of the four cylinder engined cars was later converted to V12 specification. All three cars that have survived are featured in our detailed article. Among them are the cars driven to victory in the Mille Miglia and the Buenos Aires 1000 km.
The sister 860 Monza had an equally impressive first outing, with a one-two victory in the 1956 Sebring 12 Hours. During the remainder of the season, the big fours supported Ferrari's chase for the championship with valuable podium finishes. With three very convincing wins in the five rounds, Ferrari was deservedly crowned World Champion at the end of the 1956 season. We caught up with the Sebring winning example some years ago at the Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este where we snapped this 12-shot gallery.

Today Abarth is best known for its modified Fiat models but amidst modifying other manufacturers' cars, the Italian tuning expert also built complete cars. The very first was this 205 Vignale Berlinetta, which was driven to a debut class victory in the 1950 Coppa InterEuropa at Monza. The small coupe combined Fiat mechanicals with a bespoke platform chassis and a Giovanni Michelotti-penned Vignale body. Two cars were raced in the major Italian events in 1950 with mixed success. After a third example was built early in 1950, Abarth withdrew from racing and concentrated on their hugely popular tuning kits. Quite unusual for cars of this era, all three have survived. The first was fully restored in the 1980s and has been a regular at shows ever since. At the Goodwood Festival of Speed the second chassis made its debut after a thorough restoration to rectify numerous modifications made during its long racing career. We expect to see the third car in the very near future in restored condition as well. For now we have a compiled an 18-shot gallery of the first two to illustrate the model's general history and a detailed look at the individual chassis.
Leading NASCAR team Hendrick Motorsports celebrates it 25th anniversary this year. To mark the occasion, Callaway Cars have produced a limited edition Hendrick Motorsports 25th Anniversary Camaro. Based on the stock Camaro SS, it features an Eaton supercharger that boosts the power to a hefty 582 bhp. The modified Camaro can accelerate to 60 mph in 3.9 seconds and is capable of completing the quarter-mile in under 12 seconds. The first of 25 examples will be shown next week during the SEMA Show.

During the 1930s the eight-cylinder engined Alfa Romeos won all major races in Europe multiple times. Especially on home turf, in the grueling Mille Miglia Alfa Romeo was nearly unbeatable. An 8C 2300 scored its first win in the 1000 mile race in 1932 and an 8C 2900B claimed victory as late as 1947. There are two distinct generations of the 8C model, the second of which was the 8C 2900 launched in 1936 with an enlarged engine and independent suspension. For that year's Mille Miglia, the Scuderia Ferrari team entered four examples of the new version. This 8C 2900A Botticella Spider was driven to victory by Antonio Brivio. At the end of the season it was renumbered and sold as a road car. A new racing car with the same chassis number was built for the 1937 edition and won again. So much to the historians' delight two different 8C 2900As with the same number won the 1936 and 1937 Mille Miglias. Simon Moore, the foremost historian of 8C Alfas, revealed the full history of the featured example and accordingly it was restored back to its Mille Miglia winning configuration.
During the 1970s Alfa Romeo's racing record was a little more varied but the Italian manufacturer did manage to win the 1975 World Sportscar Championship in great style with the 33 TT/12 Spider, powered by a three-litre flat-12. A year later that same engine was supplied exclusively by Bernie Ecclestone's Brabham Formula 1 team. The purpose built BT45 did not prove quite as successful. Its similarly engined successor did manage to win two Grands Prix. Only very few Brabhams of the 'Bernie era' have made it into private hands but at least one of the BT45s has. Fully prepared for historic racing, the Alfa engined Brabham was captured by us during the 2008 Monaco Historic Grand Prix.
During this weekend's season finale of the DTM championship Volkswagen launched the all new Scirocco Cup. Replacing the existing Polo Cup, it will be used in a one-make series to support the DTM races from 2010 onwards. Running on compressed natural gas, Volkswagen claim it is one of the cleanest racing cars out there today.

Yesterday the 13th FIA GT Championship came to a close at the Belgian Zolder track. In a weekend with ever changing weather the GT1 and GT2 drivers' titles were decided. It was a very close battle between Maserati and Corvette in the top class and the umpteenth encounter between Ferrari and Porsche in GT2. The exciting showdown was not only the final race of the season but also the last FIA GT race held in this form. Next year a new generation of GT1 cars will race in a new World Championship, while GT2 machinery will fight in a European Championship. Two cars built to the 2010 regulations already took part in several of this year's races in preparation for the World Championship. At Zolder both the Nissan Nismo GT-R and the Matech-Ford GT1 took to the track.
As a warm-up the spectators were also treated to two rounds of the European GT3 championship, which incorporated the Belgian GT championship. After a huge pile-up at the previous race, the entry was down but there were still plenty of spectacular GT races to enjoy. Among them were the latest additions to the grid like the Alpina B6 GT3, Audi R8 LMS and Morgan Aero SuperSports. Fortunately there were no repeats of the Paul Ricard accidents despite the ever changing weather conditions.
Although we have only rarely reported on the FIA GT Championship, we could not bare to miss the 132nd and final race in the great GT racing series. We braved the weather to capture all the excitement and intrigue in a full report and a 100-shot gallery.

For many years years Roger Penske's team successfully campaigned Indycar racers of their own design while almost the entire field used customer chassis. It very often gave Team Penske an edge but in the second half of the 1990s, the package of the Penske chassis, Mercedes-Benz engine and Goodyear tyres gradually lost its edge. There was a brief return to form in 1997 when Canadian Paul Tracy scored three consecutive victories in the Penske PC26. His third win was Team Penske's 99th but it would take several seasons and a switch to a Reynard chassis for Penske to score his 100th win in Indycar racing. In recent years the chassis used by Tracy to score that 99th win, at St. Louis, was fully restored by Paul Morgan's Dawn Treader Performance. Last year Tracy was reunited with 'his' PC26 during the Goodwood Festival of Speed. This gave us the opportunity to take a closer look at the last victorious Penske.
At this year's Festival of Speed our attention was grabbed by this Beatrice-Lola THL1 Hart. Funded by the Beatrice food company and headed by Carl Haas, the project combined an all-star team of designers and drivers but yielded little results. Various former McLaren employees were involved and also a young Ross Brawn, while 1980 World Champion Alan Jones was signed to drive the red, white and blue cars. The THL1 debuted in 1985 and used a Hart engine in anticipation of an all new Ford V6. Before the project could flourish, Beatrice ended its support and the cars were not raced after 1986. The Beatrice-Lola we saw has been fully restored and has since been raced several times in historic events.
Early next month, the SEMA show will spice up Las Vegas once again. One of the stars on the Chrysler booth will no doubt be this Mopar Challenger. Powered by the legendary 426 HEMI engine, it is dubbed the '1320' in reference to the number of feet that make up the quarter-mile.

Earlier today the Tokyo Motor Show opened its doors to the international media. Not surprisingly, all eyes were on the long anticipated Lexus LFA.
The V10 engined supercar was first shown in Concept form at the 2005 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Since then the car has been subjected to a very public developed program, which included several outings in the grueling Nürburgring 24 Hours event. This very thorough process has resulted in the LFA launched this morning in the Japanese capital.
While most concept cars are toned down ahead of entering production, the Lexus designers have taken the styling one step further by including many striking cues like the air-intakes on the c-pillar. The boldly styled machine is constructed completely from lightweight and very strong carbon fibre composite plastics. Power comes from a 4.8 litre, naturally aspirated V10 engine that was jointly developed with Yamaha and produces just over 550 bhp and 480 Nm of torque. This is transferred to the road through a paddle-operated six speed gearbox. To give the LFA a near perfect weight-balance, the radiators have been mounted in the very tail of the car.
Production of the Lexus LFA is limited to just 500 examples. A Roadster version of the concept was shown last year but it is not known whether that will be produced as well.
The Tokyo Show is dominated by Japanese manufacturers but there are some notable exceptions; this year Lotus is one. The British manufacturer has just revealed the very dark Exige Scura. Production of this model is limited to just 35 examples world-wide. It is based on the Exige S but has been further lightened and comes with the most powerful version of the Toyota sourced engine.

With factory efforts from Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan and Toyota, the 24 Hours of Le Mans had one of its strongest fields in 1999. Mercedes-Benz and Toyota brought closed cars, BMW and Nissan open prototypes and at the company's first attempt Audi sampled both options. At the end of the race BMW and Mercedes-Benz had to share the headlines but for two very different reasons. In the tenth anniversary year we take a look at both cars and find out why.
The V12 LMR BMW brought to Le Mans was developed jointly with their future Formula 1 partner Williams. It featured an evolution of the V12 engine that had already won Le Mans outright in the back of the McLaren F1 GTR a few years earlier. The team arrived in France fresh off a win in the grueling Sebring 12 Hours, so they were well prepared. The car was not the absolute quickest in the field but managed to stay in the wake of the leaders despite being able to run as much as two laps longer between stops. The #17 example piloted by the likes of Lehto and Kristensen look set to clinch the win until a stuck throttle caused a big crash in the Porsche Curves. Fortunately the second car was also in contention and scored BMW's first outright win at Le Mans. The winning car was at Goodwood earlier this year to mark the 10th anniversary of the win.
The real story of the 1999 Le Mans, however, was the Mercedes-Benz CLR. The low-drag coupe had some serious aero-problems that cause the car to flip on the long straights once in qualifying and again in the warm-up. Despite the obvious design flaws the Mercedes-Benz team risked its driver, the marshals, the spectators and public humiliation by allowing the two surviving cars to start. The inevitable happened and on live television Peter Dumbreck's CLR took off and flew into the trees. It's a miracle nobody got hurt in any of the accidents. The other car was withdrawn and that was the end of Mercedes-Benz at Le Mans. The video of Dumbreck's aerobatics is still very popular on Youtube. It was long believed that the only CLR left was quietly crushed in attempt to wipe the 1999 Le Mans from memory in Stuttgart. So we were very surprised to see it earlier in year and actually running on a track during the Modena Trackdays. Even more baffling is the fact that the car was actually sold to a customer. We captured every detail of CLR chassis 003 during this very rare and welcome opportunity.

Originally launched as a concept car almost a decade ago, the reborn Veritas was destined to become yet another one-off. That changed last year when the rights were bought by Michael Trick's Vermot AG. He picked up the development work and recently the production Veritas RS III was launched to much acclaim. Like its original namesakes, it uses a BMW sourced drive-train. To be more specific, the V10 engine and SMG 7-Speed gearbox that are also found in the BMW M5 and M6. A six-speed manual will be an option. The 507 bhp V10 is installed in a lightweight space-frame chassis, which is clothed in a '1+1' body. There is a room for a passenger but just like on many 1950s sports racers, the passenger area can also be covered to improve the airflow. Thanks to its light weight, the aggressively styled Veritas can accelerate to 60 mph or 100 km/h in just over 3 seconds. The top speed is an equally impressive 216 mph or 347 km/h. The hand-built sports car takes 8 weeks to complete and the company expects to deliver the first cars in January of 2010.
In the early 1990s some of the fastest racing cars ever competed in the IMSA GTP Championship. Thanks to highly sophisticated ground-effects aerodynamics and immensely powerful turbocharged engines, they set a pace that has not been matched since on some of the tracks. Amidst the American built Japanese power-houses Nissan and Toyota, the TWR Jaguar team managed to score quite a few victories with adapted Group C designs in 1989 and 1990. For 1991 TWR developed the XJR-16, which was the company's first and as it would turn out to be only purpose-built GTP racer. Compared to the earlier twin-turbo, V6 engined Jaguars, it featured a revised rear-end and an innovative twin-tier rear wing. In the hands of Davy Jones, the XJR-16 had a perfect debut with a pole position and a victory. It would win another three times but sadly the program was abandoned before the XJR-16 could be fully developed.
The car scored one of its four wins at Laguna Seca in July of 1991. To complement the XJR-16 feature, our friend and GTP nut Marshall Pruett has just uploaded videos of four other GTP races at Laguna Seca on his fabulous website GrandTouringPrototype.com.