>>Another new prototype was revealed over the Le Mans weekend, the Zulltec CZ-01 LMP2.  Zulltec's facility is located in Seine et Marne, in the town of Nanteuil les Meaux, which is about 30 miles east of Paris, France and is run by Yves Cazard and Mane Vignjevic.  The Zulltec CZ-01 was designed using CFD (Fluent) in conjunction with 15 days with a 33% model in the Aero Concepts Engineering (ACE) wind tunnel at Magny Cours (former Prost wind tunnel).  Already the car is at an advanced state of manufacture with the body work patterns and molds completed.  The CZ-01's carbon tub has also been completed and will be crash tested some time in September with the intent of putting the car on the track by October of this year.  The Zulltec's engine comes courtesy Menard Competition Technologies and in fact is based upon their formerly Infiniti IRL powerplant.

>>Here are the renderings of the new Riley Mk.XIV LMP as promised.  My previous text description (originally posted on 6.2.05) is accurate enough to accompany these images I think:

The front end is striking with cooling inlets either side of the leading edge of the cockpit and a very prominent Bentley-esque nose/crash structure.  Radiators are mounted in the side pods and appear to exhaust out the engine bay.  The front splitter has the mandatory raised section and exhausts out shuttered exits just aft of the front wheels.   The cockpit shape itself is the as expected teardrop conforming to the mandated, template-driven, virtual hardpoints.

The accompanying press release indicates potential customer engine installations will include the above mentioned turbo V8s as well as normally aspirated V8s and V10s.  The price for a roller chassis is set at $675,000.

>>On Tuesday I met with Bill Riley at Riley Technologies as part of continuing research on the Intrepid GTP.  Bill was kind enough to let me have a look at the ongoing development of the new Riley LMP and I've been allowed to give my first hand impressions of what I saw on the CAD screen.  For starters, the version I was allowed to view is closed top.  The front end is striking with cooling inlets either side of the leading edge of the cockpit and a very prominent Bentley-esque nose/crash structure.  Radiators are mounted in the side pods and appear to exhaust out the engine bay.  The front splitter has the mandatory raised section and exhausts out shuttered exits just aft of the front wheels.   The cockpit shape itself is the as expected teardrop conforming to the mandated, template-driven, virtual hardpoints.  The engine exhaust exits out the top of the car through an opening that pokes out the trailing edge of the cockpit teardrop.  All very neat looking.  Although not particularly prominent and perhaps it was just my impression, but the sidepods seem to be slightly offset inboard thus allowing for a small wheel arch bulge at the leading edge of the rear wheel well (as well as a small portion of exposed side splitter area running down the side of the car).  The rear engine deck and bodywork is extraordinarily low and is highlighted by the very large amount of exposed inboard rear fender surface area. The version I was shown still hadn't been detailed and it was admitted that blisters to contain the suspension would be added into the rear bodywork, further highlighting how low the rear deck actually is.  The rear fenders are unique in that they are pontoon shaped in planform.  Engine intakes (in this case the installation was a turbo V8) are located in front of the rear wheel fenders in a similar position (and intake shape) as on the Audi R8.  Overall the new car is visually reminiscent of previous Riley products with certain profiles evoking the MkIIIC in elevation and planform.

For now interest is building and Bill mentions that the car will be LMP2 compliant if being slightly more difficult to meet the LMP2 750 kgs weight.  A image will be released in the next few coming weeks.