Le Mans Series

A new sound emerges from the Spyker pit box

© Planetlemans - Marcel ten Caat

As the final preparations ahead of the first free practice session of the weekend for the Le Mans Series where underway at Spa-Francorchamps, there was an interesting sound coming from the pit box where both Spyker C8 Laviolette GT2R cars are this weekend. Instead of the usual deep rumble from the engines a complete different sound emerged from the back of one of the cars.

When the cars left the pit lane on their first lap around the Belgian circuit it became clear that the long awaited new engine had been installed by the Dutch squad in the number 85 SNORAS Spyker Squadron Spyker C8 Laviolette GT2R and the Spa-Francorchamps round will be the first race for the engine before the team heads to Le Mans for the annual 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Peter Dumbreck did the shakedown today. One of his points of focus was to find what the best time to change the gears is with the new engine. The new engine also means the Spyker C8 Laviolette GT2R has more power and more torque, which resulted in the car already being quicker than the number 94. The new engine has a completely new lay-out and a new crankshaft.

For now the team will keep testing as several components will have to be optimized for the new engine.