Sintura S99 : born too late.

[GTO Racing]

Remarkably developed, it had a brief but relatively successful carrier, winning one race in the BRDC GT championship and performing well at Laguna Seca (ALMS) for its first, and last, international appearance.

Designed by Phil Bourne, the Sintura was built around a carbon fiber chassis and was propeled by a Judd GV4 V10. What else ?

That car proved a very good potential, but the end of the 1999 season was also the end of the adventure for the S99.

Lack of finance, the bannishment of the GT1 category in the british GT championship,... what was (were) the reason(s) of the Sintura Cars withdrawal ?

PS : I'm looking for photos free for right that I want to use on my website.

[Alex Hodgkinson]

Can't help you with the pictures, but thanks for the "heads-up" on this one. Never seen the Sintura before, but man it's pretty sexy! Then again, all of the Group C second coming cars were.

[Thundersports]

Having seen the car race it was more or less a Group C2 car anyway, sorry for my ignorance but I couldn't see how it was eligable anyway as a "one off" special?

[KA]

As I remember British GT was pretty lenient on what was allowed for GT1 at that time- something like 'so long as there's a single road-going version....'

[wheadon]

i have some detailed pictures of the car which i took for a school project at donnington, i'll try to scan them and post em.

[Graham Goodwin]

I can tell you that the dsc Editor (before dsc) had the most rapid passenger ride of his life in the Sintura and came away impressed!

[ascarracinguk]

The Sintura is this car..follow links!

http://www.racingsportscars.com/phot...-08-08-000.jpg

http://www.racingsportscars.com/phot...08-08a-000.jpg

[GTO Racing]

Wheadon,

I would really appreciate to look at those pics of the Sintura.

[driftwood]

my friend now owns the Sintura
car was a 1 off but some "cheating" went on to get the car homologated to race!!!!!!!!!!!
GT1 cars then banned so car was obsolete it cost aroound £1 mil to design and build at Lola factory
Evesham Micros sponsored the car

[gfm]

We raced against it. It was a beautiful car, but it just proved how barmy the GT1 situation had developed into.
The whole GT1 GT2 mix was such a good one though uptil the big Merc and then the one-offs masquerading at production supercars; lots of overtaking faster cars slower cars but all still racing hard.
It's a perfect example of how racing develops itself up it's own arse so regularly. What's better of late is that the rule makers are getting a firmer hold of what GT cars are taken from exotic road cars.
Still just about the one romantic racing formulae we have; many hours, racing through the night, changeable weather and lots of fast and slow traffic. Gives a chance for full reign to top class racing drivers to use their wit and guile.

[driftwood]

GT1 was big money build cars and big$ to run them
there was no difference in the GT1 versus Group C or LMP constsruction and design
GT2 was more sensible now the GT3 cars are heading upwards in cost to run maintain
I often wonder if the homologation rules actually aid or hinder
Porsche built 25 917 cars and all where inspected prior to the homologation being granted
these days no one presents all the cars for inspection
I know the Sintura was fitted with reg plate road tyres and a mock up sat alongside to show that more than 1 plus the race car "existed"
obviously the RAC inspector had conjunctivitis and double vision that day