Volpi

Automobili Volpi (commonly, Volpi) is an Italian auto manufacturer that fields a team in the TM Master Cup series, the famed Volpi Racing Team. The company is headed by Antonio Volpi, a former three time Le Mans winner, who felt that most road cars were not exciting enough and did not reflect the passion of motoring. His eldest son, Cyril, founded VRT and expanded the marque into North America in the 2000s.

About
It has the distinction of being the first "privateer" team to win the Master Cup championship, as it did in 2010 with Alexis Rainsford. The marque's "factory" team, Volpi Racing Team, is considered a separate entity from Automobili Volpi, despite both having the same ownership. Many question Volpi's status as a privateer team, as it does make road cars, but did not sell them outside of Europe. VRT did not receive official support from Automobili Volpi until midway through 2010 when VRT used the Automobili Volpi headquarters as a temporary team base, but provided no technical support.

Volpi currently only makes one road car -- the SR560, which is a common sight in GT racing. It was not released in North America until April 2011. Volpi made further inroads into the American market after it purchased Kivett Motors, Inc. in 2011. This also gives Volpi an expanded footprint in racing through its ARLA Elite Series programs.

In 2012, Volpi announced that they would be bringing a sedan to the United States and Europe, called the RA325, and would be producing a successor to the SR560, the SR570. There are no plans to race the SR570 or RA325 in the TM Master Cup series, however both models have some resemblance (notably the front grill pattern) to the TM Master Cup series cars. There are plans to rebadge some Kivetts as Volpis in Australia and Europe, however, no announcement has been made yet.

Volpi's TM Master Cup series cars are, with the exception of their first season, given numbers to indicate the number of seasons the marque has been in the series. Their current model is designated as the VC04, which stands for Volpi Chassis 04.

Unlike most manufacturers, most of the major stock car teams running Volpi or Kivett cars are affiliated (some of them very loosely) with Volpi Racing Team. Volpi does not condone team orders, and places a high value in the passion of the drivers and engineers. Some detractors say this means that Volpi encourages its teams to push the limit of the rules as much as possible. Volpi has not denied this claim.

TM Master Cup

 * Volpi Racing Team &mdash; Packer Carroll, Leonid Roderick

ARLA Elite Series

 * Note: These teams run the Kivett model as opposed to the Volpi.


 * Motor Assault Racing &mdash; Laura Cyrus
 * Gravity Racing, Inc. &mdash; Rachel Rainsford, Todd Wodarczyk, Eric Jackson, Isaac Lightener
 * Brinson Engineering &mdash; Trey Ashby
 * Dangerous Dog Racing &mdash; Kalvin Orellier
 * G-Max Crew &mdash; Jared Warth

Trivia

 * Volpi's logo is a silhouette of a fox's head, as the name Volpi means fox.