2023 Vanwall Vandervell 680 #4
Pilots: T. Dillmann, E. Guerrieri, T. Vautier
Team: Floyd Vanwall Racing Team
Race: DNF (Hypercar class) at Le Mans in 2023
Spark - S8722 (resin)
Published 04/11/25
In the early 1950s, Guy Anthony “Tony” Vandervell began his racing career by entering modified Ferraris in Formule Libre races. With the start of the F1 Championship in 1954, Vanwall created their first true car, the Vanwall Special. Though being a small operation, Vanwall was able to slowly improve their cars and achieve moderate success on the tracks. To the point that they were one of the so-called garagisti, that became the bane for Enzo Ferrari in F1. With nine victories in 29 races, Vanwall was active in F1 from 1954 to 1960. By then, Tony Vanwall was in ill-health, and he decided to terminate the racing team. That was the end of Vanwall’s involvement in actual racing. However, in 2004 a British company licensed the Vanwall name to produce a few replica racing cars. After that, the brand went back into obscurity, until 2023…
And now I need to talk about ByKolles. Colin Kolles founded Kodewa Racing in 2000, initially racing in the German F3 series. They then shifted to the F3 Euro Series and in 2006 started racing in DTM. In 2009 they shifted interest again, this time towards sports car racing. Using customer Audi prototypes, they entered the Le Mans Series and the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup. Then, in 2013, they entered the FIA World Endurance Championship, changing their name to ByKolles Racing. Always using a LMP1 car, they debuted at La Sarthe in 2016. Using the CLM P1/01, from 2016 to 2020 they raced at Le Mans, and in ALL races DNF 🤔. Then, in the end of 2020, they announced that they would come back to La Sarthe with a Hypercar. At the time they acquired the rights to the Vanwall name, rebranding themselves as Floyd Vanwall Racing Team.
In September of 2020 the team released renderings of their Hypercar, the Vanwall Vandervell 680. The new car was designed and developed in-house, tailored to use a Gibson engine. The chassis was a carbon fiber monocoque, with the engine longitudinally mounted at mid-ship. The chosen engine was a Gibson GL458, a 4496 cm³ naturally aspirated V8, capable of 478 kW (650 hp). Development was complicated, both from the technical and from the bureaucratic aspects. Ready in 2022, yet both the FIA and ACO rejected it for not completing the homologation process. The car debuted at Sebring in 2023, and after a plethora of issues, finished last. Then came Portimão and Spa, and in both races the car DNF. The next race was the Centennial Le Mans Race, and Vanwall Vandervell 680 #4 started out in 15th place. Suspension issues plagued the car, and they abandoned on the 165th lap.
All right then, that said, let me be blunt: I think the Vanwall Vandervell 680 is a shitty car. Very handsome, nonetheless a crappy car. Well, I think the problem is not essentially the car, but ByKolles. The internet is full of rumors that the team is a money laundry operation – just look at their LMP1 track record. Who the blazes agrees to blow a ton of money in a bad car for five whole seasons?!? I don’t know what was going on, though those results make you wonder. And don’t forget, LMP1s were absurdly expensive to operate (the main reason we have LMH now). Besides that, the car per se also had issues – terrible reliability and sometimes slower than the LMP2! With all that it was no surprise that FIA and ACO ejected them from the 2024 season. Well, that and the mandatory two hypercar rule…
Or maybe they were nothing but garagisti? Maybe… However, a garagista team with enough money for five years of LMP1 racing??? Kind of strange, IMHO 🤔. Interestingly, I think this is the first car that I call shitty. I reviewed a bunch of POS models, yet this is the first 1:1 that I truly slam. So why do I have one in the W-143 Garage? Hmm… Well, the convoluted history of the team and car makes it interesting. And of course, the model is Spark-gorgeous. Therefore, adding a juicy history + gorgeous model equals buying one 😁. Even so, Vanwall Vandervell 680 #4 here is only for the true Le Mans head case. And just maybe, because of that, this will become HTF in the future. Who knows, Le Mans collectors are weird…