The BMW X4 is about to metamorphose into its second generation and like its family-focussed X3 brother, there’s an X4 M40i and M40d on the way.
BMW has released the “all-new” X4 which often means a new set of lights and extra equipment. Not this time, it really is substantially new. It’s lighter, has a lower centre of gravity and now has two performance variants.
The new X4 shares much of its front end of the X3 but goes all swoopy out back, mirroring the relationship between the X5 and the mad-looking X6. The new posterior is more attractive than the old one, partly because the number plate has been pushed south into the bumper moulding. Much better and with more than a hint of the lovely new M8.
BMW X4 M40i and M40d
We’re obviously most keen on the M40i and M40d.
In the M40i, BMW’s brilliant 3.0-litre straight-six turbo hides under the high bonnet, spinning out 265kW (355bhp) and 500Nm. Obviously that’s not going to hang around, cracking 0-100km/h (0-62mph) in just 4.8 seconds.
Opt for the diesel, and for a bit of extra weight you’ll lose just 25kW but get way more torque. The 3.0-litre diesel straight-six pumping out 240kW (329bhp) and a very satisfactory 680Nm. It drops just a tenth to the petrol in the benchmark dash, so the decision will come down to how much you like revs.
Both versions have an M-focussed all-wheel drive system with always-brilliant eight-speed ZF automatic, 20-inch wheels (21s are an option), plenty of interior goodies and scope to add an easy fifty percent to the entry priceAnd, of course, if you like the look of the X4 but can’t quite stretch to the M don’t worry. There’s plenty of other lower-powered versions with a little box marked “M Sport Package”. If you can’t have an M40, at least you can make it at least look like one.
Here’s a video with some exciting, desert-bound thrashing of the new cars. Below that there’s a gallery of new X4 images.
In what appears to be an act of automotive parkour, the new Range Rover PHEV has climbed to China’s Dragon’s Road and then on to Heaven’s Gate. All 99 turns and 999 steps including a 45-degree incline to get there. That’s…well, it’s slightly nuts. But you can’t have stunts without nuts and a couple of extra letters.
Stunts also need good drivers, or, failing that a driver with a local connection. Ho-Pin Tung is a good driver and has a local connection – he had the chops to be a Williams development driver and has won his class in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. He’s also Jaguar’s Formula E reserve driver.
Dragon’s Road is on Tianmen Mountain. The 11.3km road is narrow and spectacular, with huge drops over the side. Once you reach the end of the road, you’ll find the stairs to Heaven’s Gate. They’re steep and, er, not really made for cars, not even for a two-tonne 297kW (398bhp) Range Rover hybrid which probably wasn’t on the builders’ minds, if I’m honest.
“This was the hardest Range Rover Sport challenge I’ve ever been involved with because, until we reached the top, we couldn’t categorically say we would succeed. By making it to the summit, we’ve proven the phenomenal capability of the Range Rover Sport plug-in hybrid like never before – with a genuine world first.”
Phil Jones, Land Rover Experience expert
Range Rover PHEV
But wait. Isn’t The Redline all about performance? We certainly are, and I think it’s fair to say that the Rangie is a performance car. Called the Range Rover Sport P400e, that e bit is important – it’s got an electric motor. Now, laudably, you can pootle around town on electrons only for up to 50km/h. Remember, the RR is pretty chunky, so even if you get half that, it’s cheaper, quieter and better for everyone, especially if you’ve charged from renewables.
Under the bonnet is the 221kW (300bhp) version of Jaguar’s 2.0-litre turbo Ingenium engine plugged into a nine-speed automatic transmission. Crammed in there is the 85kW electric motor which, as we’ve already mentioned, you can charge from the mains. When they’re working together, the Rangie moves with indecent speed and, as Tung discovered, will climb up the stairs when in the right Terrain response mode.
The video tells you all the good stuff, so have a watch and have a look at the images in the gallery.
The Lancia Stratos HF is everyone’s idea of a mad rally car. Well, it’s my idea of a mad rally car, anyway. The Lancia dominated the World Rally Championship in the mid-70s, taking out the 1974, 1975 and 1976 titles. The video above proves why it’s so popular with petrolheads. Hell, this car probably made about a million people petrolheads.
Powered by a 2.4-litre Ferrari Dino V6, it was all sound and spectacle, with its wedge-shaped body and mid-engine stance, it looked like it was straight from space.
The HF in the name stood for high fidelity. It’s a vivid-looking and sounding thing and there have been countless knock-offs and relaunches over the last forty years. Not all of them were super-successful.
One such relaunch came in 2010 when a German father-and-son pairing with deep pockets asked Pininfarina to build them a new Stratos. The team, with a chap called Paolo Garella in charge, chopped up a Ferrari F430 (oh, the humanity) and kept the 400kW (532bhp) engine.
Eight years later, Paolo Garello has his own company, Manifattura Automobili Torino. Or MAT.
We’ll call it MAT, it’s much easier to say and type. Garello has excellent form with one-off specials, having worked on around fifty over the past three decades.
Like all good “relaunches” (Jaguar D-Type, Land Rover Defender Works), the 2018 Lancia Stratos (for want of a better title) is restricted to just twenty-five units. Garella’s MAT is an accomplished vehicle builder. If you’ve ever wondered how all those dodgy supercars make it to motor shows, MAT is behind a few of them, such as the Glickenhaus SCG003s, the Apollo Arrow and the frankly idiotic Devel Sixteen.
New Lancia Stratos
The new car, it’s worth pointing out, is quite a bit bigger than the old car, almost as big as a modern Audi TT. Design work for the modern iteration was handed to Pininfarina while the original was Bertone.
The new Stratos is clothed in carbon fibre panels over an aluminium space frame. With a 397kW (540bhp) engine aboard, it weighs 1247kg dry. That’s…pretty light.
The glass is thin, the brakes are carbon and it will scorch to 100km/h in 3.3 seconds.
You’ll also be able to choose from three different versions. A “standard” road car version (have fun getting it road-legal), a Safari-style rallying version or a track-racing GT version. Price? Well, if you have to ask…
Some outlets are suggesting the chassis is based on the KTM X-Bow carbon fibre tub, but a quick look at the spec-sheet says “aluminium profile” and “integrated roll cage.” We can’t work out if that’s a line break or two different things. In 2011 Ferrari banned companies like MAT using Ferrari bits to build cars like the Stratos, so you might have to bring your own F430 to the party. And €550,000 give or take.
Yep, your helmet goes in the door. That’s pretty nifty.
It seems odd that Lancia hasn’t spoken up and told them to stop, but that company seems busy making really ugly cars.
The carefully-worded press release also stated that the Germans who ordered the first Stratos in 2010, the Stoscheks, had to give permission. I can’t imagine why they’d say no, but there you go.
The New Stratos will officially go on sale at the 2018 Geneva International Motor Show.
Here’s a video form 2011 (with some properly naff slap bass) to give you an idea of how it looks on the move.
The release of 2018 McLaren Senna, the British company’s latest Ultimate Series car, edges ever closer. And in the now-traditional way of announcing new cars, we have more info from the drip-feed.
The car, as we already know, will debut at the 2018 Geneva International Motor Show in a few weeks but cars aren’t properly unveiled anymore, we get weeks of photos and information.
Anyway, we already know that the Senna is completely sold out, the last one went to a charity auction and raised a squillion dollars for underprivileged kids and schools in Brazil. Which was nice.
We also knew that the car is based on the superb McLaren 720S, the engine is the M840TR 4.0-litre twin turbo with 800 horses and 800Nm (575kW/590lb ft) and the interior is…sparse. We also know that it’s the lightest McLaren since the lauded F1 at 1198kg.
So What’s New?
Well. At 250km/h, the McLaren Senna generates a whole Formula 1 car of downforce – 800kg. That’s like loading a Lotus Elise with an empty tank on the roof while you’re streaking down the front straight at Circuit of the Americas or Sepang. That’s monstrous. I’ll wager that if you try and lock the brakes at that speed, you can’t.
The Senna will reach 100km (62mph) from a standstill in 2.8 seconds, 200km/h (124mph) in just 6.8 and the quarter mile zaps by in 9.9 seconds. Top speed is a massive 340km/h (211mph).
“The McLaren Senna is a car like no other: the personification of McLaren’s motorsport DNA, legalised for road use but designed and developed from the outset to excel on a circuit. Every element of this new Ultimate Series McLaren has an uncompromised performance focus, honed to ensure the purest possible connection between driver and machine and deliver the ultimate track driving experience in the way that only a McLaren can.”
Mike Flewitt, McLaren Cars CEO
Weighty Matters
Along with aerodynamics, McLaren’s engineers put a lot of energy into reducing weight. The interior is pretty well stripped back, with unnecessary parts ending up on the floor. The media screen looks detachable and a bit lost, with lots of carbon eating light. The cabin looks flat-out menacing, which should keep out a few drivers with a weak constitution.
The Bowers and Wilkins stereo weighs just 7.32kg, specially developed for the Senna. The F1 had a Kenwood, if you’re wondering and was also specially-developed. McLaren made the Japanese company lop half the weight and reduce the number of buttons to five. No such figures are available for the Senna.
The Inconel exhaust saves plenty of weight and will likely sound amazing. The carbon Monocage means the strong, light structure already familiar to McLaren’s fans and owners continues in its third version.
Parking sensors and the reversing camera are no-cost options for those who really want to keep the weight down.
The 2018 McLaren Senna’s release at the Geneva Motor Show ought to be fascinating. It’s an important show and a car like this generates headlines everywhere and, with any luck (as far as McLaren is concerned) will annoy Ferrari no end.
The Audi R8 Spyder, like any topless supercar, comes in for the usual criticism of “being a bit soft.” With a chassis and driveline shared with the Lamborghini Huracan, it’s fairly unlikely you could ever accuse the R8 of being a bit weak. But, being the kind of people we are The Redline, we thought it worth investigating. And instead of going over the top and getting the R8 V10 Plus, we got the heaviest, lowest-powered R8, steel-braked R8.
History
Audi’s motorsport heritage stretches back before World War II. Without putting too fine a point on it, old Adolf was pretty keen on German domination in motorsport, so alongside Mercedes, the Auto Unions conquered races and records. Half a century later, the Audi R8 race car hit the track.
In between, Audi made some achingly pretty concept cars and had got cracking with the beautiful but dynamically uninteresting TT. The Audi Avus was a W12-powered supercar concept released in 1991. The TT owed the Avus much of its look but not the supercar performance. Between the Avus in 1991 and the release of the R8 LMP car in 1999, the Volkswagen Group bought, of all things, Lamborghini.
Within a year of its release, the R8 race car won Le Mans five times in six years from 2000-2005, with only Bentley ruining the party in 2003. Amusingly, Tom Kristensen drove to victory in all six races, including the one appearance for Bentley. Audi poached him back for the 2004 race.
Problem was, for all that motorsport success, all Audi had to offer go-faster fiends was a few S models and, eventually, the RS6. They were good cars, but they weren’t supercars. What Audi needed was a mid-engined supercar to top the range and lure buyers from Porsche. What to do?
Ingolstadt, sensibly, looked to Sant’ Agata Bolognese. That’s where Lamborghini’s wildly successful Gallardo came from, powered by a V10 engine and going out the door faster than any Lamborghini in history. And to keep everyone happy, for the first two years of production, Audi fitted their own 4.2-litre V8.
The R8 road car went into production in 2006 at a dedicated facility in Neckarsulm, Germany. In 2008, to much consternation from Lamborghini fans, the 5.2-litre V10 from the Gallardo went into the back of the Audi. While the V8 produced 309kW/414bhp, the V10 roared with 391kW/525bhp.
The second-generation, V10-only R8 superseded the first-generation in 2015 after almost nine years on sale.
Audi R8 Spyder
Image: Rhys Vandersyde, InSyde Media
The second-generation Audi R8 shares even more with the Huracan than the first did the Gallardo. That’s the reality. They are, however, very different cars. The R8 is more restrained inside and out and is all the better for it. The R8 has Audi’s excellent Virtual Cockpit dashboard, a much more coherent interior and even more comfortable seats, just to get going. It also feels better made and despite sharing a few bits and pieces from other Audis, that’s not different from the Lambo.
The only real let-down for me are the clack-tacky steering-wheel mounted paddles from a A3. I don’t care that they’re from an A3, but the Huracan’s paddle shifts are utterly glorious alloy units that look and feel amazing.
The R8’s lights reference the now-dormant Le Mans program, a victim of Volkswagen’s role in dieselgate. It’s very much sharp rather than sexy, but has some lovely detailing. You can also take it anywhere without attracting too much attention.
V10 Engine
This is how the engine looks…if you could see it…(image: Audi)
The Audi R8 comes in three flavours – V10, V10 Plus and RWS (Rear Wheel Series). The Plus is obviously the more powerful at 443kW (610PS, as in LP610-4) and 397kW (540PS) for the V10. The car we tested was the lower-powered car at 397kW, but not that you’d really notice. It still has a pretty decent 540Nm of torque to keep things interesting.
The power is fed through Audi’s newer – and much-improved – seven-speed twin-clutch transmission with a pretty nasty set of paddle shifters on the back of the steering wheel. At least the console-mounted shifter is seriously cool.
The gearbox ratios are different on the non-Plus version for fourth to seventh. The Spyder’s gears are more evenly-spaced where the Plus as shorter and four and five with longer sixth and seventh.
Chassis
Unlike the Huracan Spider we had, the R8 was all-wheel drive, using Audi’s famed Quattro drivetrain. Obviously it’s rear-biased so things are pretty lively.
Here on the non-Plus car, we missed out on the three extra Performance modes, but again, it’s not a huge loss in this heavier car.
Suspension is by double-wishbones front and rear, with magnetic damping that responds to the usual changes in driving mode. The basic steering is an excellent electric setup but you can step up to dynamic rack and just get annoyed with it.
On this car we had the eight-pot fixed caliper front brakes and four-pot rears gripping the rears. The rotors are those whacky wavy steel discs that Audi likes. Unless you’re planning on hitting the track, the steels are fine. They really are.
Driving
The Coupe is – truly – a masterpiece. It’s like Audi stripped away all the histrionics and (hugely enjoyable) nonsense of the Huracan to deliver a supercar that cuts the crap. You can drive around without too many double-takes, you can park where you like (it has a usable reversing camera) and it has brilliant manners in traffic. It even has stop-start.
It has a much friendlier cabin, too. While it’s basically the same architecture, the Audi’s is calmer and, bizarrely, cooler. The Virtual Cockpit is the RS version without the nutty design in the Lambo, but that means you can actually see the information without having to decode it. Yes, the Lamborghini is like that.
Above all, it’s more comfortable. All the better to wring its neck.
The steering in the R8 is close to perfect. Consistently-weighted, it’s hard to tell it’s electric rather than the purist-favoured hydraulic. It never gets too heavy, even in the highest drive mode. Pointing the R8 down a bendy road proves how good the steering is. Its composure and poise reminds you just how great a mid-engined car is. A V10 is heavy, so having it rammed up against the rear bulkhead means the weight is in the best place it can be.
Putting the weight there (and it’s low, owing to the engine’s dry sump) means the steering is marvellously uncorrupted, despite some of the power going through the front wheels. You won’t get any torque steer and you can trust the car will go where you point it.
Yes, there is understeer, but it’s nowhere near as catastrophic as people would have you believe and it’s the mildest of push – and rather better than oversteer. Oversteer is fun but undesirable on narrow roads with no run-off. Hell, there’s understeer in a Ferrari 488 and you don’t hear any complaints about that. It’s something people say because a car is all-wheel drive.
The way the R8 rides is phenomenal – unless the road is really bumpy, the tyres stay right where they should, hugging the road and channeling power to the road. The power-shuffling is completely unobtrusive and the attitude of the car can be adjusted with the throttle. And the grip – oh, the grip. Seemingly endless, secure on the loose and wet stuff, imperious in the dry.
Roof down it’s a sensory delight. I was burning to a crisp on the day we shot the video so the roof was up, but listening to that V10 sing is worth every single unit of currency you have to spend on this car. It’s utterly glorious and the punch is brutal when you want it and smooth when you need it.
The R8 is the superior car to the Huracan in almost every way. It’s more subtle (which isn’t hard, but maybe skip the yellow), more composed and easier to live with. It’s a GT car in comfort mode and a complete nutter in Dynamic. You don’t miss the extra power in the Spyder because the noise you hear makes you feel like you’re going faster. I’d still have a V10 Plus Coupe, but my goodness, this car is brilliant.
Hot on the heels of the “new” E-Types and Land Rover Defender Works V8, the British company is once again putting an old-stager back into production – the D-Type.
If you missed the oddball Grand Tour episode which pitted the D-Type against, of all things, a Civic Type R, this is news. But there’s more to it than Clarkson and company’s quick summary of the situation.
The planned production run for the D-Type was 100 cars but production came to a halt at 75. This new run will complete the ton, which is a kind of homage to the past, I suppose. Homages usually being to the past, but I’m sure you know what I mean.
What, How…
The D-Types will be built in the same Warwickshire factory as the six “missing” lightweight E-Types and nine XK-SSes, all under the watchful eye of Tim Hannig, director of Jaguar Land Rover Classic.
“The Jaguar D-type is one of the most iconic and beautiful competition cars of all time, with an outstanding record in the world’s toughest motor races. And it’s just as spectacular today. The opportunity to continue the D-type’s success story, by completing its planned production run in Coventry, is one of those once-in-a-lifetime projects that our world-class experts at Jaguar Land Rover Classic are proud to fulfil.”
Seems like third-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but really, who’s counting? It’s absolutely worth noting that the D-Type is a big deal – most of the plans went up in smoke after fire destroyed the original Browns Lane factory in Coventry.
…and Why?
These cars are cool. Jaguar will show a Longnose prototype at the Salon Retromobile (yeah, I’d never heard of it either). This one features the long nose and a set of quick-change brake calipers.
Jaguar says the cars will be “period-correct”, so forget airbags, ABS, catalytic converters or the ability to, you know, road register the car. Seems expensive, and according to the TGT story, will run into the millions of pounds/dollars/euros.
The cars will instantly be worth a packet, too, and the constrained production run will keep current owners happy.
The XK’s lovely straight-six returns, along with the four-speed manual. They won’t all be the same, though – the well-heeled customers will be able to choose from either long or short nose configurations for their D-Type. I have no idea which one will be the favourite, but I’m a fan of the short snout.
Austin Powers?
My favourite bit of the press release was this nugget – Jaguar’s competition manager in the 1950s was called Lofty England. You cannot make that up.
Kev Riches is the Engineering Manager at Jaguar Classic, so we’ll leave the last word to him. “Recreating the nine D-type-derived XKSSs was hugely satisfying, and an even bigger technical challenge than the six missing Lightweight E-types. Lessons learned from the XKSS project have given us a head start on the final 25 D-types. Each one will be absolutely correct, down to the very last detail, just as Jaguar’s Competitions Department intended.”
The 2018 Bathurst 12 Hour was a classic race, which given the event’s ability to serve up surprises, is certainly saying something. The Redline was given access to the Steve Richards Motorsport (SRM) team garage and we watched the race unfold, starting on Saturday afternoon and concluding at the race’s end on Sunday.
Disqualified from Qualifying
We arrived at possibly the most awkward moment you might imagine – in the lull between qualifying and the Top Ten Shootout, the SRM #100 car was excluded. A discrepancy in the boost pressures – the team said they were spikes in the boost on the in-lap – convinced the stewards the team had breached the regulations and tipped them out, condemning them to the back of the grid of over fifty cars.
Adding insult to the initial insult, the Schnitzer BMW team next door put the M6 GT3 on pole.
You might expect a team owner-driver like Steve to start throwing things, team members to be angry and just a general drama. But the awkwardness lasted just a few minutes. The three-week appeal process would be a waste of time, the stewards weren’t interested in hearing the team’s explanation and it was over. The team just got to work on the #100 car and the two M4 GTSes on the other side of the garage. Steve spoke to the media of his disappointment but declared Sunday to be another day and it was a long race.
Courtesy of a mega lap from Steve’s V8 Supercars colleague Chaz Mostert – himself a Bathurst 1000 winner – the Schnitzer BMW grabbed pole. The SRM team whooped and applauded. They didn’t have to, it wasn’t their car, it was just another BMW M6 GT3, but they were pleased for the Schnitzer boys.
2018 Bathurst 12 Hour Race
It’s just after 5:30am. It’s usually too early for anything but not for motorsport.
The race starts at the unearthly – and slightly strange – hour of 5:45am. That gives European and US viewers a good chance to watch the start at relatively sensible hours and also means that Australian viewers can watch the conclusion of the race before the host network urges Australians to turn over to watch the news.
The race start is epic – fifty cars rumble around the track in the dark behind the Safety Car, warming tyres and brakes, scoping the track for overnight changes.
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Down at the grid, it was cool but not cold but, but as we would later discover, it was quite cold at the top of the “mountain”. Soon after the start we headed up to Skyline. The race suffered its first Safety Car on the first lap after a privateer MARC car slapped the wall.
Skyline (corner) at dawn. Look closely and you can see our very own Rhys Vandersyde crouched on the other side of the fence.
An hour or so up there and we returned to the pits. The team was busy, a desk full of computer screens, Richards gliding around making sure everyone was happy, smiling and laughing as the car worked its way through the field, passing the slower Pro-Am, Class C and Class B cars unscathed.
Always a race of attrition, the #100 car’s progress was helped with Safety Car after Safety Car. That would also prove to be the first of two decisive moments for the two M6s.
I was initially a bit hesitant about spending twelve hours in the team “hot tub”, an area at the back of the pits for the team’s guests. While we stepped out for food and phone calls, it was absorbing. Watching a well-drilled team get on with the job of running and servicing a race car.
SRM also ran the new BMW M4 GTS. Sadly, it clouted the wall at Forrest Elbow, tearing off the right front wheel.
The M4 GTS in happier times
After a moment of disappointment, the car returned to the pits on a flat-bed truck and the team set about returning it to racing fitness. While the drama of the GT3 side of the garage unfolded, the GT4 crew worked for several hours – with half an eye on the team’s progress – to repair the damage.
The Race Unravels
The Schnitzer entry scored a drive-through penalty after an infringement on a Safety Car restart, but the worst for that car was yet to come.
The #100 continued to work its way forward, slowly but surely, leading the race on occasions and setting the team up for a possible podium. Both M6s were quick.
Quick until Chaz Mostert got himself in a silly situation. It’s a well-known rule that you don’t tangle with a Bentley at the 12 Hour – they’re built like tanks and have been driven like that – but Mostert did. He later admitted it wasn’t his finest hour but the damage was well and truly done.
Unfortunately for the #100 car, there were other problems. The brake pistons had “cocked” in the caliper. Poor Timo Glock – who had driven impeccably – had to hook his foot underneath the brake pedal to pull it back from the floor. The team pitted the car twice under Safety Car to change the discs and calipers. Without divine intervention, the race was done.
Shoulders sagged but Richards remained upbeat. His time in the car was just as impressive as the younger internationals, pushing the car forward in his customary low-key manner.
As is now well-documented, the race ended after a horror smash involving three cars – a privateer MARC, one of the many Audi R8 GT3s and an AMG GT3.
A notorious section of track, the MARC hammered the wall and the R8 went with it, ending up stranded across the track with Ash Walsh at the wheel. Three cars avoided the stricken Audi but John Martin arrived at full speed. Martin threw the AMG into a slide, hammering the Audi broadside and throwing it into air. It was sickening.
At the risk of being slightly ghoulish about the situation, it was fascinating to watch the reaction in the SRM pit. As the team prepared themselves for an unlikely pit-stop – and activity that had become a reflex over the course of the day – all eyes stuck to the television on the wall. When Walsh climbed from the destroyed Audi the tension broke and polite, relieved applause broke out.
A Team Sport
The day in the pits was hugely instructive. GT3 teams are small. Compared to an F1 team, they’re microscopic. Steve had spend the last three months preparing his car and team for the day, working fifteen hours, being there for everyone and fulfilling all his duties as a team owner, driver and family man. His team are obviously inspired by him and co-drivers Eng and Glock in awe of his experience and professionalism.
The day is a busy one for the team, there was barely a moment where activity stopped. The constant interlopers in the hot tub couldn’t even distract or annoy them. Everybody had their job, they did it. When things were tight or difficult, plan B swung into action with a nod or a word. The only time I heard a raised voice was during an impromptu stop under Safety Car and the tyres were taking a while. And it wasn’t anger, it was encouragement.
The Bathurst 12 Hour is an absorbing race that never failed to entertain and terrify in equal measure. It’s a race of attrition, survival and speed. And a race for teams.
The Redline attended the 2018 Bathurst 12 Hour as a guest of BMW Australia. We drove there in the brilliant BMW M4 CS.
Anytime before 6am is early by anyone’s measure, but the Bathurst 12 Hour start time of 5:45am doesn’t seem to bother too many people. Particularly unbothered was pole-sitter Chaz Mostert, who according to his team was ready to roll almost three hours before race start.
With first light breaking in the east, the cars set off on the rolling start, lights blazing and ehausts flaming and popping madly in the dark. As a sound and light show, a fleet of GT3s and GT4s storming into Hell Corner at Bathurst is a sight worth rising early for.
The start was largely uneventful until the Safety Car boards slowed the field for a stricken car on Mountain Straight. The rest of the hour was fairly quiet unless you were a Schnitzer BMW fan, with the M6 GT3 pulling an easy twenty seconds out of the second-placed Audi.
Hour two started with Crampton’s KTM X-Bow walloping the wall at Forrest Elbow in a crash that looked like it would never end, never mind for the man himself behind the wheel. Mostert again went to work but was foiled by another crash on Mountain Straight, with Bagnall (Audi R8), Cini (R8) and Haber (MARC II V8) coming to grief in an awkward tumble.
The green flag returned on lap 51 and Mostert once again obliterated the pack with a commanding lead on the first lap. Ten laps later a slightly over-zealous race control put out the safety car for a beached Porsche that worked its way free. Perhaps to make the safety car worthwhile, Xavier West in the second of the SRM BMW M4 GT4s came to grief, his front right wheel rolling away down the hill.
This triggered more stops and again ruined Mostert’s lead. Time Slade stayed out in the #11 Objecive McLaren and took the lead.
Further frustration for BMW came when Mostert’s replacement, Marko Wittman, overlapped with a Marco on the restart, copping a drive-through penalty. Wittman stayed in for the next stop, with new tyres going on.
The SRM GT3 had, in the meantime, stormed through the field, taking advantage of all those safety cars. Having started last after being excluded from qualifying, running as high as third before settling into sixth place just with a brave pass on Frijns (Audi R8 #37) before the 5h00 mark.
The #58 Mclaren of Lowndes struck trouble, the 650S coming into the garage on lap 101 from just ouside the top ten.
The Schnitzer BMW of Chas Mostert and Augusto Farfus will start the 2018 Bathurst 12 Hour on pole after an amazing lap from Mostert. The young Australian nailed a huge lap of Mount Panorama at the wheel of an M6 GT3, with a sub 2:02 lap, the only car to go that quickly.
Audi’s challenger, Kelvin van der Linde, settled for a second, nearly a quarter of a second off Mostert’s pace, heading another R8, the 74, which was another quarter second back.
The 100 BMW of Richards, Eng and Glock was disqualified after qualifying for a boost irregularity, leaving Mostert to carry the BMW flag.
The car that inherited the tenth slot vacated by the DQ, the Strakka AMG GT3, came home sixth. Luke Youlden wrestled the ageing Lamborghini Gallardo to fourth, ahead of the McLaren of Scott McLaughlin.
The race starts at 5:30am local time on Sunday 4th March.
Audi’s R8 LMS has topped the timesheets in the 2018 Bathurst 12 Hour Qualifying.
Audi and BMW have battled hard through every sessions, with the M6 GT3s initially placed second and third, with local heroes Chaz Mostert and Steven Richards in the driver mix. After qualifying, the second M6 GT3, that of Richards, Timo Glock and Phillipe Eng, suffered a disqualification for a technical breach.
The DQ will send that car to the back of the grid (pending any appeal) and the Strakka Mercedes AMG GT3 will move into the top ten for the shootout later this afternoon.
Further down the grid, the YNA McLarens found some speed with Scott McLaughlin (4th) Shane van Gisbergen (6th) at the wheel over the weekend.
The sole Porsche 911 GT3 in the top ten belongs to Matt Campbell (5th) and the big-banger Bentley Continental (always hilarious to watch and a crowd favourite) squeaking into tenth. The only Lamborghini to show is a long-in-the-tooth Gallardo with Bathurst 1000 winner Luke Youlden on board came in a very respectable ninth.
The Top Ten Shootout could see the whole thing upended, so keep up to date on Twitter @theredlineau
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