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SEATTLE, Wa — How far would you go to realize your dream of racing at the prestigous 12 Hours of Sebring endurance race?

Well it seems, according to several reports that date back to the mid to late 1960s there was at least one ingenious soul who took advantage of a car rental company to make the field at Seebring. The thing is we don’t know who the individual is or whether this is just another urban myth that sounds better with each retelling.

The tale is as follows: In the mid 1960s there were a series of Ford Mustangs which were specially modified by Carroll Shelby’s company and sold under the name Shelby GT.

The wiley Shelby struck a deal with the Hertz Corporation to produce a special line of GT350s for rent, which is perhaps where the term “rent-a-racer” was first coined.  Early “Hertz” cars were initially available with four-speed manual transmissions at least until so many cars were returned from rental with burned and broken clutch assemblies.  Later models of the cars shipped to Hertz were equipped with an automatic transmission.

It is reported that many of the GT350s  were rented to use as production class cars at SCCA events, some were returned with different engines, holes where roll bars had been welded in, and other modifications to legally run on the track.

Accordingly the brakes of these rental rockets were enlarged because of the extra power.  New components such as under-hood suspension bracing were also used. Staggered rear shock absorbers prevented wheel hop and axle wind-up. Functional air intake scoops were added to force air to the rear brake pads, helping keep them cool.

But really, the cars were not really made for racing — other than for the a rich weekend warrior who wanted to get the best his buddy at the local SCCA event. It is said that these models had hydraulic valves — which might do for the local SCCA event, but which probably would not last the 12 hours of Sebring.

The story is that this intrepid soul flew into Orlando and rented one of the GT 350s from the fine folks at Hertz — but rather than racing the car, he simply drove the car to Sebring, pulled the car into the garage and pulled the engine. He transferred the engine to his race car — that had the appropriate suspension, roll bars, and other safety accoutrements to pass inspection and raced.

Sunday after the race was complete, he pulled the engine, put it back into the GT 350, and returned the car to the unsuspecting folks at Hertz, thank you very much.

We don’t know the veracity of this story — but why let the facts get in the way of a good story.

SEBRING, FL — Audi will introduce its new R-15 chassis at the prestigous 12 Hours of Sebring where fans of endurance racing will get a preview of the battle that will take place the storied 24 Hours of Le Mans three months later.

Audi won the battle with Peugeot last year — but it was clear that the Peugeot was faster — faster in qualifying and faster during the race until the rain came.

Up and until the rain began the Peugeot was significantly faster — running laps that were faster in the race than the Audi was able to run during qualifications. It was a major wake-up call for the Audi team and it begat the the R-15 for which there has been significant interest but very little information.

From one site comes this image of the new R-15. 

The car was caught testing at Vallelunga, Spain.

Head of Audi Motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich said of the new race car: “So far the R15 TDI has performed as we expected. Now it must also prove itself in race conditions. Sebring is a particularly hard race and is therefore perfectly suited to reveal even the smallest of weaknesses.”

Allan McNish, who is one of the drivers to have tested the car said: “I drove it for the first time before Christmas as planned in Spain and everything went well. Since then Audi Sport has been busy with extensive testing and everything is progressing very well and on schedule – it’s a tremendous car.

“I have been in the Audi ‘family’ for a few years now and have confidence that the team in Ingolstadt have again designed and built us a worthy successor to the R10 TDI,” McNish said..

Audi Sport Team Joest has also confirmed their driver line-ups for Sebring with McNish sharing one car with his usual partners Rinaldo Capello and eight-time Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen, and the second machine piloted by Germans Lucas Luhr, Mike Rockenfeller and Marco Werner.