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Rebellion Confirms Switch to AER Engines, Set to Miss Start of Season

Rebellion Racing switches to AER engines, set to miss opening round…

Photo: John Dagys

Photo: John Dagys

Rebellion Racing will make the switch from Toyota to AER engines, although revealing Tuesday it will miss the opening round of the FIA World Endurance Championship due to the change in powerplant.

The Anglo-Swiss squad, which had run Toyota’s 3.4-liter V8 engine for the last four seasons, will move to the AER-tuned P60 V6 twin-turbo unit for 2015. The engine debuted last year with the Lotus LMP1 team.

However, due to the late decision to change engines in its Rebellion R-One chassis, the team has informed the FIA WEC that it will miss both the mandatory Prologue test at Paul Ricard as well as the first round of the season in Silverstone.

All efforts, however, are being placed for both cars to debut the new package at the Six Hours of Spa-Francorchamps on May 2.

“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,” said team manager Bart Hayden.

“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.”

The team and its chassis partner ORECA are now in the process of developing a revised version of the Rebellion R-One to be fitted with AER’s powerplant.

No word has been given on any potential testing prior to its targeted debut race at Spa.

“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,” added AER managing director Mike Lancaster.

Rebellion has yet to announce its driver lineups, although confirming it has lodged two full-season FIA WEC entry requests for the LMP1 class.

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John

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