Ultimatecarpage.com update (04-08-08)

[Wouter Melissen]

Dear Ultimatecarpage.com visitor,

This weekend Europe's endurance racing season got off to a flying start with the first race of the 2008 Le Mans Series at Barcelona. A colourful mix of familiar and brand new machines lined up for the Catalunya 1000 km race. All eyes were of course at the head of the field where reigning champions Peugeot were challenged by new-comers Audi. It was the second time the rivals faced off this season in preparation for what already promises to be an epic 24 Hours of Le Mans race. While everybody expected the diesels to easily run away with it, they were actually challenged by the brand new petrol engined Lola Aston Martin, which showed both speed and durability.
The LMP2 class saw the European debut of the Porsche RS Spyder and again Lola surprised with their equally new Judd engined coupe. It was quite a start of the season for the British company that celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. In the two GT-classes there were familiar faces heading the charts. In GT2 the brand new Spyker pulled off a great performance even though the two cars had not turned a wheel before the weekend.
Our photographer Wouter Melissen cut his holiday short to fly out to Barcelona in time to capture the race in great detail. His findings have been compressed in a full report and a spectacular 160-shot slideshow.

Catalunya 1000 km report and slideshow
http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/event...a-1000-km.html

Regards,
Wouter Melissen

[NSXType-R]

Don't know where to put this, but I liked the article on the Honda S800.

Just a quick question- Why does the car has Jenson Button's name on the windscreen? Is it owned by him?

[LotusLocost]

What a lovely update.
The whole article and slide-show really triggers my interest in seeing a LMS race live!
Thanks a lot for the great work and two thumbs up!

[Jack_Bauer]

Originally Posted by NSXType-R

Don't know where to put this, but I liked the article on the Honda S800.

Just a quick question- Why does the car has Jenson Button's name on the windscreen? Is it owned by him?

Perhaps you should have put it in the thread that introduced the S800 article - Ultimatecarpage.com update (03-31-08)

I'm not sure what the answer to your question is. One thing that springs to mind is that at races and corporate events, drivers often get introduced to the crowd by being driven on a parade lap in nice open top cars. They then glue on the fake smile and wave to the audience trackside. Perhaps it was a Honda promotional event that Button was attending and he was being paraded in front of the fans?

Just a guess though.

[henk4]

Originally Posted by Jack_Bauer

Perhaps you should have put it in the thread that introduced the S800 article - Ultimatecarpage.com update (03-31-08)

I'm not sure what the answer to your question is. One thing that springs to mind is that at races and corporate events, drivers often get introduced to the crowd by being driven on a parade lap in nice open top cars. They then glue on the fake smile and wave to the audience trackside. Perhaps it was a Honda promotional event that Button was attending and he was being paraded in front of the fans?

Just a guess though.

I shot the Honda at Retromobile this year. and although I did not see him, chances are that Button was there too. I saw him two weeks later at the LMS testing at Paul Ricard. The sign on the Honda window is most likely a joke...(explaining his current position on the grids?)