Ascari KZ1R questions

[GTO Racing]

4 years after the last outing of the judd powered A410 prototype, Ascari came back to competition with the KZ1R.
Klaas Zwart first entered the Spanish GT championship before returning, in 2006, to the international GT racing scene through the FIA GT3 european races.

Zwart developed a "club sport" version of its road going KZ1 for gentlemen drivers who want to feel strong sensation on racetrack.

Was the car which ran in Spain in 2005 strictly similar to that "club sport" machine ? Or did Ascari developed a specific machine based on the "club sport" version ? In that case, what's different between them ?

The Damax team ran 3 KZ1R in the successful FIA GT3 championship as in the BGT championship. What's different with the "Spanish" car ?

[ss_collins]

Ascari - I thought they had given up the ghost but I've been invited up there in a couple of weeks.

[GTO Racing]

Please, keep me informed !

[renkadima]

The Ascari website shows the road car that is based on the Spanish racer:

http://www.ascari.net/subsecciones.p...&subseccion=40

An example was on display at the British GT round at Snetterton last year. Vurry vurry nice indeed!

[Coniston]

Hi!
I follow Ascari since visiting the factory with a car club a few years back! The car that raced in Spain was a GT1/GT2 car which the KZ1 A10 road car is based on. This has slightly different bodywork and is powered by a more highly tuned version of the BMW 5.0 V8 M5 engine - to GT2 regs. The GT3 cars are much closer to the KZ1 road car in both body and engine - as per GT3 regs. The factory built some track based KZ1 cars a few years back and these became the basis for the GT3 cars. Damax are running again this year plus 3 cars from Ascari themselves (according to other threads, though no team has been announced). Eurotech are also running a car in British GT. I hope they all do well!

[Leoparky]

Just to clarify....the KZ1R was in fact a track version of the road car, it had a stripped out interior, race harness, stack instrumentation, roll cage and did not have active aerodynamics and was both slighlty lighter and lower on the road. The car had the same BMW M5 derived engine producing 520bhp against the road cars std 500...(this was through exhaust tweeks). The GT3 race car is based on this car but is changed substantially (gearbox options and body styling etc). The A10 again used the V8 engine but was blueprinted to produce close to 600bhp again it was based on the KZ1 road car but had a 6 piece body (the road car and KZ1R has a one piece body, including the GT3 car). This car was supposed to be a GT1/GT2 alternative but as with anything with a carbon chassi it had problems getting homologated. I have heard the factory are running three cars this yr in GT3 also.

[AMICALEMANS]

Who could tell us the truth about the A410 ? this car seems to me to be a kind of Lola T92/10. Was the first Ascari Judd one of the 3 lola T92/10 build ?

[FIRE]

Originally Posted by AMICALEMANS

Who could tell us the truth about the A410 ? this car seems to me to be a kind of Lola T92/10. Was the first Ascari Judd one of the 3 lola T92/10 build ?

Both are designed by Wiet Huidekoper.

[Coniston]

Leoparky - thanks for the information. Do you know what the team at Ascari will be called - will 're-launch' Team Ascari? Any news on drivers yet?

[Coniston]

Hi - I'm not very well up on the LMP cars but I'm sure one of the guys at the factory tour I was at said the LMP car they had in the reception was a Lola that the race team had then gone on to develop themselves as an Ascari. You are probably right with your Lola numbers!

[fausto]

If I remember well John McNeil worked on the both the open-top Interserie version of the Lola T92/10 and the Ascari A410...

[Graham Goodwin]

the new team is Team Berlanga

[Leoparky]

Thats the team name I heard floating around.....and the LMP cars are lola's.

[knighty]

the car was originally designed as a closed top Lola Group-C racer back in the early 1990's........Klaus Zwart wanted to go LMP racing in 2000 ish, and I think John McNeil (ex Lola?) persuaded him to buy the Lola Design and convert it to an open top LMP900......something along those lines....so essentially yes - its a converted Lola....it wasnt a bad car, Ascari had many good people developing it, many body revisouns and updates etc........they won a race at Donnington in 2001 I think......should have won many others too, but had reliability problems - it was a quick car, and they had quick drivers - including Klaus - he was no fool behind the wheel

when I was a designer at Mountune, I worked on the BMW 4.0 twin turbo LMP900 engine - which was a complete failure......also was one of 3 design engineers who did the M5 engine conversion for the ascari KZ1 road car......which was principally a dry sump conversion with all the pumps hidden nice and tidy inside the sump......worked a treat

[grazias]

car was very good..saw it race and well designed.

not sure that klaus did the driving that good for car or other drivers. when I watched him at race he show same driving style with no change to weather or car condition. must like smashing cars or going into gravel and that not good for winning.
when saw werner lupberger drive it, was amazing and he kill car if not right. so much potential but not enough control!

[Leoparky]

The car was also raced at Le Mans where upon it failed to finish through electrical problems.....Klaas then got the arse and canned the project. Seems like he has done the same to the KZ1 road car!!

[knighty]

I think canning the road car project had something to do with a complete lack of orders.......the KZ1 is a cracking car, but at over £200,000+ was too much for a super car.......for that sort of money your into the ultra-car arena......but I doff my cap to Klauss for trying though.......but hes well and truly loaded, so I dare say he gives a flying toss........

I'm told he has about 50 patents for the oil drilling industry, an example is if an oil rig breaks off its cutting drill tip - he invented a widget that could magically re-attach a cutting tip - god knows how.......hence saving the cost of moving the oil rig - time is money kinda thing........he just sits back and watches the money roll in from his patents - best of luck to him I say

I heard that Don Panoz invented the "give up smoking" medication patch.....and hes known as "panoz the patch" in the medical industry.....which explains their finances completley too!.......both top blokes in my book.

[Coniston]

I know this is a racing forum but I'm not sure £235k is too much for a limited production (50) supercar. Many others are much more expensive. For sure though not selling the cars would either indicate that he was never that fussed about having to sell them or he had perhaps changed his mind about wanting to persevere with road cars (many have failed). Seems he is a petrolhead racer and maybe racing is where his priorities lie - good luck to him.

[cmk]

Is Werner Lupberger driving anything these days? He was solid in the Ascari, and did great things with Rafanelli's longtail Riley Judd in the first ALMS races.

[Leoparky]

To be honest I think imo that the road car was a way to a means in Ascari being able to go racing.....call me cynical, but strange that not long after the car is homologated to go racing in GT3 they stop making road cars. The car was very pretty, sounded glorious and had alot of engineering expertise thrown at it....Ascari are yet another manufacturer who appear in a blaze of publicity and then are run by novices in the Auto industry and fold soon after TVR is another company in question....As an outsider it looks very shabby that with all of this happening the factory then appear with its own race team!!!.....not in the spirit of the rules or fair competition. I wonder if Damax (the other team running Ascari's) know that they are up against a factory team with all the support of Klaas and his Millions???

[archibold]

Hi Leoparky

I'm sure Robin at Damax is aware of it. From what I can tell the majority of the development work on the Ascari last year was done by Damax. Consequently if I was a driver with the budget for GT3 in Europe this year I would look to Damax as a proven team before the "factory" team that is unproven. The only doubt might be Damax's Radical program which may overstretch them between LMS, GT3 and British GT.

Although I haven't driven it at close inspection the Ascari is a serious car (Lola carbon fibre chassis sections etc.) and like a few others will receive quite serious penalties at the balancing to bring it into GT3.

Archibold

[Coniston]

Certainly I agree with what has been said - the KZ1 is a serious road car - the racer looks a little more like a GT2 or GT1 car than a GT3 (but then I thought GT3 was supposed to be more a Group N for sportscars!). From what I have gather from this and the Euroboss threads Mr Zwart is a little ...erm tempremental behind the wheel! Could be fun! Are Berlanga doing Brit Gt as well?

[GTO Racing]

Why did Zwaart withdraw from the 2005 Spanish GT championship before the end of the season ?

Photos of the car which ran in Spain?

[Leoparky]

From memory, he had a paddy fit.....afetr being told off by the Spanish FIA.....thought everyonbe was against him racing!!!....that car was the GT1/GT2 racer that Embassy looked at running, prior to the thing not being allowed to be homologated due to its Carbon Chassis

[grazias]

spanish gt 2005 had porsche driver ram klaus in pitlane.

think that was one of normal things to do with klaus and racing. more like fast and furious but no thought.

ratel can do only paper over cracks not stop organisers putting drivers with kid tantrums in their place.