COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio State‘s national championship football team will have some extra jewelry to show off on its visit to the White House on Monday.

The Buckeyes received three rings between the first and second quarter of Saturday’s spring game at Ohio Stadium.

“It’s a surreal moment. I love this place,” said defensive lineman Jack Sawyer, one of the team captains.

Players and coaches from the 2024 championship team received a ring for making the College Football Playoff, one from the CFP for winning it, and a championship ring from Ohio State.

Ohio State’s seniors — many of whom are preparing for the NFL draft in less than two weeks — showed off their rings during a ceremony at the 50-yard line.

“They’re champions. So yeah, it puts a smile on your face when you see it,” coach Ryan Day said after the spring game.

The top of the national championship ring opens and shows the scores of Ohio State’s four CFP games, with the 34-23 victory over Notre Dame at the top. Enclosed inside the ring are pieces of the confetti that dropped at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta after Ohio State won the game. The confetti is floating over a replica of the field.

All three rings also have Day’s mantra from the season of “Leave no doubt.” On the inside of the rings is a cross, signifying the team’s message and relying on its faith during the season.

“It makes it feel real. Been a long time coming for these rings but a combination of a lot of hard work, sacrifice and love when I see them,” quarterback Will Howard said.

Day originally planned not to have a spring game, considering the Buckeyes were only two months removed from playing 16 games. He originally planned on having an open practice with limited game action, but with the opener being against Texas on Aug. 30, Day reversed course.

“I’m glad we did the spring game. I wish we could have stayed out there for another four hours and get these reps and get these guys some work,” Day said. “We know who our first opponent is, so we know we have to hit the ground running. There isn’t much margin for error.”

Based on the excellent Hyundai IONIQ 5 N platform, Vanwall gives its Vandervell H-GT a high-performance aesthetic makeover inspired by the classic Lancia Delta HF Integrale. But what makes this body kit a genuine “high-performance” upgrade isn’t the way it makes the car look: it’s the 500 lb. weight savings!

Developed by Austrian racing team ByKOLLES Racing and invoking the name of a 1950s Formula 1 team, the Vandervell H-GT is essentially a new Hyundai IONIQ 5 N in aggressive, Lancia Delta-inspired carbon-fiber bodywork that the company claims gives the car an, “unprecedented weight optimization in this vehicle category.”

The H-GT’s new “thin wall” carbon fiber body slashes the car’s weight by over 230 kg (507 lbs.), which means ByKOLLES’ new Vandervell can do anything that Hyundai’s “special” IONIQ 5 N hot hatch can do. Only faster.

Raw carbon, raw performance

Mechanically identical to the IONIQ 5 N and packing the same 641 hp (with N Grin Boost) and 568 lb-ft of torque. That’s enough to launch the Hyundai version of the hatchback from a standstill to 60 mph in just 3.0 seconds.

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After its 500 lb. crash diet, it’s even quicker.

The car was first announced in 2023 (along with the renderings shown, below), when ByKOLLES was competing in the World Endurance Championship (WEC) with what used to be called an LMP car – but they keep changing the names of these things so it could be a Daytona Prototype, Hypercar, or even a 24 Hour LeMans Wonkavator by now.

The important part, however, is that a few of these cars have now broken cover, with ex-Formula 1 supremo, Bernie Ecclestone, having been seen trying the new-age Lancia on for size.

The Vanwall Vandervell website still shows the same €128,000 ($145,405, as I type this) price tag and specs it did in 2023, which either means they haven’t updated it in a while, were really, really good at pricing the thing in the first place, or both.

That’s presumably on top of the IONIQ N’s already hefty $66,100 price tag.

Electrek’s Take

This isn’t the first time my weird love of Lancia models from the 70s and 80s has been highlighted on these digital pages, but even my biased sensibilities can see that this is a unique, ultra-luxury statement piece that offers supercar levels of performance with the sort of daily driver dependability that Hyundai has offered for years.

It’s an incredible machine – and the only thing they did wrong, in my book, was not show one in Martini colors on its debut.

SOURCE | IMAGES: Vanwall Vandervell; CarExpert.