Rebellion Racing has announced a new engine partnership with Advanced Engine Research (AER). The deal will see the team’s R-One LMP-1 cars switch switch from naturally aspirated Toyota RV8K-LM 3.4-liter V8 engines to AER P60 V6 GDI twin-turbocharged power units.
Rebellion has stated that Advanced Engine Research will ‘provide an extremely competitive engine package,’ and that its chosen P60 engine configuration will give the team the ‘best power/ torque/ efficiency combination available on the market for an LMP 1 team’.
“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,” explained Bart Hayden, Rebellion Racing team manager. ” 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.”
However, the late decision to switch to AER power means that the team will miss the start of the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC). The team and its chassis partner Oreca are develop a revised version of the Rebellion R-One, which is to be fitted with the AER engine.
This means that 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 has stated that it will be putting all of its efforts into making the debut of the new Rebellion R-One AER cars around the time of the 6 Hours of Spa.
The team has also placed entries in the 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans for two LMP-1 Rebellion R-One AER powered cars carrying the #12 and #13 number plates.
