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Endurance Racing Legends is a new club for owners of GT and sports prototype racers from the 1990s and 2000s, and among its number it has some the most iconic racing machines of recent decades, from the Le Mans 24 Hours race and beyond. The club started last year by holding demonstrations of its cars, and while they continue this year they’re joined by the machines being used as nature intended, with three race events. The first one is already done—an impressive 21-car grid gathering for the club’s historic inaugural race event, Espíritu de Montjuïc, that took place at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya last month to roaring V8, V10 and V12 sounds, with a line-up ranging from a Bentley Speed 8 to a Dodge Viper!
And fresh from Montjuïc, Endurance Racing Legends is bringing nine cars to the Petrolicious Drivers’ Meeting in Bicester this weekend for attendees to examine up close. These include a Dallara LMP1, a car built initially for Chrysler’s Le Mans overall victory effort and which later became a popular customer car. In the early-to-mid 2000s the machine often showed promising pace taking on the all-conquering Audis, though mechanical woes denied better results. Fourth place in 2001 was its best Le Mans finish. Those in Bicester will also get to see a Le Mans class-winning Aston Martin DBR9. The car took Le Mans GT1 wins in 2007 and ’08, when run by the Aston Martin Racing factory team. A DBR9 also was put on a commanding pole position in the Espíritu de Montjuïc race event as well as finished second in race two.
Eventgoers will also see a true racing beast in the Lister Storm. A Storm took a drivers’ and teams’ championship double, with five race victories, in the then-high profile FIA GT Drivers’ Championship in 2000, Lister Storm Racing’s first full season of FIA GT competition. It’s also a very rare opportunity to witness an example of the car as just four road versions of the homologated racer were built and just three remain today. The car perhaps most notably uses a 7.0-liter Jaguar V12 developed from that of the XJR-9 successful sportscar racer; this was the largest V12 engine fitted to a production road car since World War II. There also will be a strong Porsche and Ferrari representation, with the Porsche 993 GT2 and 996 RSR as well as the Ferrari F430 GTC and the F40.
They will be joined by a Jaguar XJR-15. This car perhaps has a somewhat obscure reputation, but that shouldn’t detract from it, particularly as it was based on the XJR-9 racer and also uses a version of its monstrous V12. A Lotus Elise GTR1 completes the line-up. The cars also are not hanging around as after their Bicester appearance they will hot foot it to Spa-Francorchamps for their second race gathering, taking place the following weekend. The series will also race at Monza Historic in September.
The Endurance Racing Legends display will be one of the star attractions at the Petrolicious Drivers’ Meeting at the renowned Bicester Heritage, in Oxfordshire, UK, on Sunday May 12. For more about the show see this story.
To apply to have your vehicle included in the show, please visit this link: application form to show your car
General attendance tickets are available for purchase here for £12.50, and remaining tickets will be sold at the gate for £15.00. Petrolicious Members and kids under 16 get in free.
Images courtesy of Aston Martin, Shelsley Walsh Hillclimb, Ferrari North Europe, Silverstone Classic and Goodwood
