The REBELLION Racing Team is pleased to announce a new engine partnership from the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship season onwards.
REBELLION Racing’s Rebellion R-One LMP-1 cars will be powered by twin-turbo engines from Advanced Engine Research based in Basildon, Essex, UK. REBELLION Racing will switch from naturally aspirated Toyota RV8K-LM 3.4 litre V8 engines to AER P60 V6 GDI twin-turbocharged power units.
REBELLION Racing have placed entries in the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship and the 24 Hours of Le Mans for two LMP-1 Rebellion R-One AER powered cars carrying the #12 and #13 number plates.
REBELLION Racing have made a forward thinking decision because an engine change was certain at the end of the 2015 season as this would have been the last year of the RV8K-LM. Changing for a new engine partner one year earlier than necessary was not an easy decision to make. REBELLION Racing had four highly successful years with the Toyota RV8K-LM engine and a great relationship with TMG and Toyota Motorsport engineers and management staff.
In 2011, REBELLION Racing won the Le Mans Series LMP-1 Team Championship and secured the LMP-1 Manufacturer Championship win for Lola-Toyota. The same year the Swiss team finished third in the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup Team Championship, and as 1st Privateer.
In 2012, REBELLION Racing won the FIA Endurance Trophy for LMP-1 Private Teams recording seven class wins and a 4th place overall at Le Mans 24 Hours. That same year the Swiss squad won overall the Petit Le Mans race in the USA.
In 2013, the team won a second FIA WEC Endurance Trophy for LMP-1 Private Teams and recorded six class wins. In the United States, REBELLION Racing secured a podium finish at the 12 Hours of Sebring and a back-to-back overall victory at Petit Le Mans, the closing race of the American Le Mans Series.
In 2014, introducing the new Rebellion R-One LMP1 cars, REBELLION Racing won their third FIA WEC Endurance Trophy for LMP-1 Private Teams recording eight class wins and 4th place overall at Le Mans 24 Hours.
REBELLION Racing believe that Advanced Engine Research will provide an extremely competitive engine package and that the P60 engine configuration gives the best maximum power / torque / efficiency combination available on the market for an LMP-1 team.
REBELLION Racing and their chassis partner ORECA are already working against the clock to develop a revised version of the Rebellion R-One to be fitted with the AER V6 twin-turbo engine. As the decision to change engine has been made deep into the off-season, the team have informed the FIA WEC that their cars will not be ready in time for the start of the 2015 championship. The team will miss both the FIA WEC Prologue at Circuit Paul Ricard and the first round of the championship at the 6 Hours of Silverstone. The team will be putting all their efforts into making the debut of the new Rebellion R-One AER cars around the time of the 6 Hours of Spa.
REBELLION Racing will confirm their 2015 driver line-up at a later date.
Bart Hayden, REBELLION Racing Team Manager : “We are delighted to announce our new association with Advanced Engine Research for the 2015 FIA WEC season and beyond, this partnership is exciting news for REBELLION Racing. We are pleased to welcome them as our new engine partner and look forward to building a productive and successful working relationship. The AER P60 engine has shown good performance on track already and we believe that this engine will marry well to the Rebellion R-One chassis. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank TOYOTA and TMG who have been so closely associated with our team and their continued hard work since we started our engine partnership at the end of the 2010 season. We have enjoyed a strong relationship that has resulted in many class successes and overall victories over the past four years. We are faced with a significant amount of work to upgrade the R-One cars to accommodate the P60 engine and we are fully determined to do it in the best way possible, that is why we will not be ready in time to debut the new cars at the season opening race at Silverstone.”
Mike Lancaster, Advanced Engine Research Managing Director : “We thank REBELLION Racing for choosing to work with AER and to use our AER P60 V6 GDI twin-turbocharged LMP-1 engine. It’s a fantastic opportunity for us to work with such a well respected and successful racing Team and we have already been impressed with the dedication and in-depth knowledge of the entire Team. We look forward to the 2015 WEC and Le Mans race with REBELLION Racing and we hope to build on the Team’s successes for the future. ”