A second race car from the newly released film Gran Turismo for sale with Iconic Auctioneers (formerly known as Silverstone Auctions) on 25th August.
2012 Zytek Z11 SN LMP2 estimated at £270,000 - £320,000
Rob Hubbard, newly appointed Managing Director at Iconic Auctioneers, comments: “We are truly delighted to be able to offer two fantastic ‘hero cars’ at our first Iconic Auctioneers sale. These cars are loved by millions, so whoever wins the battle to own them will possess something both rare and much coveted.”
Gran Turismo is an American biographical coming-of-age sports drama film by Columbia Pictures, directed by Neill Blomkamp from a screenplay by Jason Hall and Zach Baylin. Based on a true story, this is the ultimate dream-come-true story of a teenage Gran Turismo player whose gaming skills won him an opportunity to become a professional race car driver. It is the first time a full cinema film based on the game Gran Turismo has been produced.
A link to the Gran Turismo promotional video. The film premieres on the 11th August:
The film tells the evocative and true story of a bedroom gamer to real time GT racer and Le Mans 24HRS driver Jann Mardenborough who won the competition to climb the ‘stairway to heaven’ with Nissans Academy programme, ending the hopes of his contemporary gamer hopefuls.
Featuring an all-star cast the film brilliantly captures the sometimes-painful twists and turns of a racers story that will captivate everyone with even the slightest interest in motorsport.
The Zytek Z11 SN has a long and proud race career and can trace its DNA back to the Reynard 02S, a racer designed in 2000 to compete at Le Mans in the LM P675 class. The project was eventually acquired by the motorsport arm of the engineering group, Zytek. In the following years they updated the chassis to comply with changing regulations and to improve performance, particularly in aerodynamics. The Z11 SN was the final evolution of this long serving and very successful sports prototype and in 2015, following Zyteks rebranding to Gibson Technology, the Z11SN was updated to the Gibson 015S.
This example, #008 is one of two Z11 SN chassis that were ordered from Zytek for the 2012 season. #007 was intended for the WEC campaign, whilst #008 was aimed at the ELMS, both prototypes to run at Le Mans. The ELMS car was funded by Nissan with inaugural PlayStation Academy winner, Lucas Ordóñez, and F2-graduate, Alex Brundle, to join reigning champion Tom Kimber-Smith for the season. The headlines were stolen by Alex’s father, Martin Brundle who was announced as being in the line-up for Le Mans in place of Kimber-Smith. At Le Mans, the car was running in the top five until a spin on Saturday evening beached the car, costing four laps in total. The drivers and team pushed hard, but recovering such a deficit in a highly competitive field was never a realistic proposition and an eighth-place finish was not truly representative of the car’s potential.
2013 saw a similar ELMS campaign planned but the main focus for chassis #008 was to race at Le Mans, once more with Nissan backing. Ordóñez was back on the driver roster for the French classic, joined by up-and-coming star, Jann Mardenborough, another top graduate of the PlayStation Academy. Leading the team was the vastly experienced Michael Krumm, a factory driver for Nissan since 1999 and the FIA GT1 World Champion in 2011. The team had worked with Zytek to revise the aerodynamics of the Z11 SN, unlocking further performance. The LMP2 class was extremely competitive but the Greaves Motorsport team showed their true form by achieving a podium place, finishing third in the category.
#008 enjoyed further success over the next few years and its career included 21 endurance sports car races, including four times at the Le Mans 24 Hours, with three finishes at La Sarthe. A class podium at Le Mans, two outright victories and being overall winner of the 2015 ELMS Championship were the high points in the career of this outstanding race car, however, the profile of #008 has suddenly been elevated by the fact that it was co-driven by Jann Mardenborough to a third place at Le Mans. Jann is the subject of a, soon to be released, major American Movie called Gran Turismo, a biographical coming-of age sports drama directed by Neill Blomkamp, produced by Columbia pictures and starring Archie Madekwe as Jann Mardenborough, a teenage Gran Turismo player aspiring to be a race car driver.
By a happy coincidence back in May, Iconic Auctioneers (then Silverstone Auctions) sold a TVR Cerbera Speed 12 as used in the Gran Turismo Computer Game for £601,500. This unique 2000 TVR Cerbera Speed 12 was the only TVR-built road car of its kind and it shot to fame when it was used as a model for game.