Superleague Preview: Louder than the Maracana Stadium

Superleague Formula test driver Bruce Jouanny is fast racing into view as I stand on the pitwall at Circuit Monteblanco. Series competitions director Robin Webb hands me some earplugs. "You will need these," he shouts with an urgency that tells me that, although I hardly ever bother to wear them, even at a grand prix, maybe now is the time to change my habit.

With all background sound now blocked out, Jouanny changes up to sixth as he flashes by. You don't just appreciate the audio attack - there is still that unmistakable wail, despite the earplugs' best efforts to drown it out - but you also feel the power of the V12 as the ground shakes beneath you.

Webb is watching on proudly as his new baby, the 750bhp Panoz-MCT, zaps past us onto another voyage of discovery in its development programme. "And that's just one of them - imagine what 20 will sound like," he enthuses. "It's taken a lot of work to get here but, boy, does that noise make it worth it!"

The Superleague Formula chassis was born at Elan Motorsports Technologies in Atlanta, Georgia in the United States. The Panoz-branded machine was developed by designer Simon Marshall and aerodynamicist Nick Alcock, the combo that produced the 2004 Indy 500 winner and the successful Champ Car World Series one-make chassis.

Just like a Formula One car, it has a carbon-fibre monocoque that forms a safety cell for the drivers in case of a major accident. But, unlike an F1 car that is designed to the nth degree in terms of ultimate performance, the Superleague racer has been honed to make it the perfect machine to allow overtaking and ensure the racing is as good as it can be.

Nick Alcock works on a rear wing © Superleague Formula

"As a race car designer you are rarely given the opportunity to design such a high-calibre race car from a clean sheet of paper like this," says Alcock.

Webb takes up the story of the design brief for the Superleague racer: "It was a prerequisite that the cars had to be good for overtaking," he says. "Right from the start we've been wind tunnel testing to ensure that the cars would be able to follow each other closely. The cars have to be balanced across a range of speeds, but they should also not affect the downforce of the front wings of the car behind.

"The fact we will be reversing the grid for the second race means that we have to have a car that can overtake. With the fastest cars at the back, it should produce some spectacular action."

Spectacular is also the best word to describe that sonorous engine, which is designed and built closer to home in Leafield, Oxfordshire at Menard Competition Technologies.

MCT managing director Charlie Bamber says: "It was a fantastic opportunity for us to be involved right from the concept stage of the series. We thought it would be a great idea to have a V12, which I was involved with from my Jaguar Le Mans days, and then it was a case of realising it."

That process has taken exactly a year, from its digital design method - which was tinkered with in a virtual world until any hardware was produced. Now 35 identical motors have been delivered in time for the start of the inaugural season.

"We're not racing anyone but ourselves, so we set out our goals of 750bhp, a V12 and enough revs to make a great sound, so that's when we decided on the 4.2-litre engine," adds Bamber. "The next step was the base dimensions, and we wanted to produce as small a V12 as possible with a reasonable weight target, without relying on exotic components that weren't well proven. 700mm long, 140kg and 750bhp aren't bad numbers for a V12 race engine."

Another fascinating aspect of the motor is its capacity for an over-rev, to allow drivers a push-to-pass feature, as well as enough torque to allow ambitious passing moves to stick.

After a summer of pounding around the test tracks of Europe, the prototype car has morphed into the signed-off production racer that has now been distributed to all the clubs' teams. Group testing kicked off at Vallelunga, near Rome in Italy, this month, with sessions intensifying as the Donington Park opener approaches on August 31.

But what's it like to drive? As a race winner in FIA F3000 and A1GP, plus a season spent as Minardi's official Formula One tester, AS Roma driver and supporter Enrico Toccacelo is ideally placed to appraise the performance of the Panoz DP09B chassis and its MCT V12 engine.

Enrico Toccacelo tests the AS Roma car at Donington © LAT

"I think it's a big mix of all of them," he says. "The big brakes and downforce are like a Formula One car, and in the slow corners it's quite heavy like an A1. But in A1 there's not really any downforce, so in the fast corners you slide a lot, which is not really the case with this car, where with all the downforce you have massive grip.

"It is a big, heavy car, but you have lots of power, and we have really good brakes, which are quite impressive. It's really possible to turn in late on the brakes. But it's not really that easy to drive because you can make mistakes if you push too hard."

Superleague was adamant from the start that there would be no driver aids to help its competitors - after all, there are no trick gizmos on the football field.

Toccacelo adds: "In first and second gear you have to be really careful with the way you use the throttle - you really have to get the car straight before you get on the power as you'll get a lot of wheelspin, and you have to be really progressive on the throttle. I haven't really had the chance to follow another car closely yet - there was one lap when I overtook someone, but they were really slow. But my feeling is that the car should be okay and the racing will be interesting as you really have to fight with these cars because there's lots of power."

So what's the final analysis? Has Superleague delivered on its promise of a high-end single-seater that can race wheel-to-wheel and provide the start-to-flag excitement that mirrors a football match?

"I think the racing could be a lot like A1, with lots of overtaking with the push to pass - I think it will be a good championship," Toccacelo replies. "The car changes quite a lot, and I think when we start the races on full tanks and it's very heavy you will see a lot of overtaking. The Michelin tyres are very good, although I hear we will have a softer tyre for Donington. With these ones you have a good first lap and then maybe you lose three or four tenths, but after that it's very consistent."

So it's an exciting car to drive, as well as to watch. The big question mark, of course, will be reliability. While we've come to expect it in Formula One, an engineering exercise of this volume is bound to shake out a few bugs along the way.

While the test team has done much to ensure the car is as strong as possible on the technical front, there are no guarantees in this business, and we won't find out how good a job it's done until the opening round at Donington this weekend.

Just don't forget your earplugs.