Bsimracing Sim Racing Resources and News for the racing enthousiast.
Motorsport Games and developer Studio 397 will release the Early Access version of the Le Mans Ultimate endurance racing game/simulator on Tuesday the 20th of February.
To get the release hype going, Studio 397 shared a big batch of new game previews showcasing the Sebring International Raceway, The Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GTE, the Cadillac V-Series.R, the Glickenhaus SCG 007 LMH Hypercar, and the Aston Martin Vantage GTE.
Sebring International Raceway is a road course auto racing facility in the southeastern United States, located near Sebring, Florida.
Laid out on the runways of a World War II air base and the adjacent roadways, Sebring International Raceway is the oldest permanent road-racing circuit in the United States. It hosted its first race on New Year’s Eve, 1950, a six-hour handicap event won by a diminutive Crosley Hotshot two-seat roadster.
The first “12-Hour Grand Prix of Endurance” was held two years later, and for several years Sebring was the site of America’s only real international races. In 1959 Sebring was the site of the first United States Grand Prix before the event found a permanent home at Watkins Glen. For nearly 60 years the world’s top racers have competed for victory at this storied track nestled in central Florida’s orange groves.
Sebring International Raceway consists of three tracks: the Full Circuit, the Short Circuit, and the Club Circuit. The course of the track itself is 3.74 miles (6.02 km) long. It is a seventeen-turn road course with long straights, several high-speed corners, and very technical slower corners. Many of the turns and points along the track are named for the early teams and drivers. Due to Florida’s flat nature, there is very little elevation change around the track and little camber on the surface, providing a challenging track for drivers, especially when it rains.
The Chevrolet Corvette C8.R is an IMSA GTLM class endurance racer built by Pratt & Miller and Chevrolet. The C8.R replaced the successful C7.R making its track debut during the Rolex 24 at Daytona which was the opening round of the 2020 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
The C8.R is powered by a mid-mounted, flat-plane crank 5.5-liter naturally aspirated V8 engine that is restricted to 500 horsepower to comply with the IMSA GTLM class rulebook. All that power is transferred to the rear wheels via an Xtrac six-speed sequential gearbox.
This July, Corvette Racing earned the first victory with the new C8.R at the 2020 IMSA WeatherTech 240 at Daytona with Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor at the wheel.
Later this month, the Corvette C8.R was supposed to make its European debut at the (postponed) 2020 24 Hours of Le Mans. However, Corvette Racing has withdrawn from the world-famous endurance race due to the global coronavirus pandemic situation.
The Cadillac V-Series.R succeeds the Cadillac DPi-V.R, which scored five consecutive 24 Hours of Daytona wins from 2017 to 2021. Powered by a 5.5-liter V8, the V-Series.R has the largest engine of any car to compete in the GTP class.
It was able to score its first IMSA win in the 2023 12 Hours of Sebring with Alexander Sims, Pipo Derani, and Jack Aitken behind the wheel, recovering from an early incident and surviving a race of attrition in IMSA’s hotly contested GTP class.
The Glickenhaus SCG 007 LMH is a sports prototype racing car built by Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus for the Le Mans Hypercar category in the FIA World Endurance Championship. In 2018, the FIA and ACO approved the new Le Mans Hypercar regulation as a replacement for the LMP1 regulation in the World Endurance Championship that would come into effect from the 2021 season. On July 27, 2018, Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus was the first manufacturer to join the new category, as well as officially presenting the car they would race with, the Glickenhaus SCG 007 LMH.
The car is developed by Podium Advanced Technologies. The car uses a 3.5L twin-turbocharged V8 developed by Pipo Moteurs; the engine is based on Pipo’s existing inline-4s used in the World Rally Championship.
Le Mans Ultimate will feature (some or all) official cars and circuits of the 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship WEC season, with the 24 Hours of Le Mans as its headline event. The cars list will consist of Hypercars from Ferrari, Peugeot, Porsche, and Toyota, alongside all the 2023 full-season WEC championship cars. You can expect high-fidelity models of iconic tracks such as Spa-Francorchamps, Monza, Fuji, and of course the Circuit de la Sarthe.
Initially scheduled to become available on PC somewhere in December 2023, the release date, was pushed back to 20 February 2024. Motorsport Games will later on evaluate a possible console release in 2024.
Official Webpages – www.studio-397.com – www.lemansultimate.com
