British race car
Racing car model
The Quaife R4 GTS is a grand tourer-style race car designed and built by Quaife Engineering. Built to GT1 regulations, it contested select rounds of the British GT Championship in 1998, 1999, and 2001 as a technology demonstrator for the company's drivetrain products. The R4 GTS is significant for being one of three four-wheel drive GT1 race cars ever produced, the others being its immediate predecessor and the Bugatti EB 110.
History
Beginning in 1996, Quaife Engineering entered the British GT Championship with a heavily modified Ford Escort Cosworth in the GT1 class.[1] Fitted with Quaife's proprietary drivetrain technology, the four-wheel drive Escort contested the championship as a promotional exercise and as an engineering testbed for Quaife's racing products.[2] From 1998 onwards, Quaife retired the Escort and announced a custom GT1 machine designed completely in-house.[3] In order to comply with GT1 homologation requirements, which mandated the production of at least one road legal chassis, Quaife built a single road car in addition to the race car.
Driven by company owner Mike Quaife at all rounds, the R4 GTS achieved a best result of 7th overall on one occasion but struggled to compete against factory machinery including the McLaren F1 GTR, the Porsche 911 GT1, and the Lister Storm GTL.[4] After attempting a majority of races in 1998 and 1999, the R4 GTS made three appearances in 2001 before being quietly retired.[5]
References
