2012 Japanese Super GT

[Articus]

Originally Posted by RubberFreak

Articus, honestly nobody resigns for a race to get lighter for the coming race simply because it is racing. You never know how the next race will go. Engine troubles, weather etc. or tire problems like BS encountered in Suzuka. You take points when you can.

Getting heavier with points is just great because the championship is open until the end almost every year. Really exciting !

I am looking forward to this WE Fuji RD6.

Originally Posted by TF110

Articus you don't make much sense. You resign for a race to get NO points but take ballast off? It's better to run in 5th position and get minimal ballast but score good points while your competitors score more but get more ballast. It's a system that works, the HSV's will lose their ballast when they score less. If it hampers them, that's doing it's job.

Facepalm. When I said "resign" i did NOT mean quit the race no points!

I meant like hanging your head in resignation. not trying too hard. Coming home 5th instead of racing to win. My fault for making this more confusing than it actually was. I tried to use a word to encapsulate the idea but clearly i picked wrong.

[Puzzle]

as much as I understand why some people hate it if there is going to be any sort of BOP in any sort of racing my opinion is it should be success ballast. having a set weight penalty for coming in a particular position removes favoritism and pleading for special breaks from teams and manufacturers that just make a mockery of the rules and it allows for some development from race to race like we see in SuperGT which to my knowledge is not found in any other BOPed race series except as mid season waivers ala Porsche getting the rulebook thrown out for them in GTE.

[Articus]

I think success ballast is the best form of BOP as it isn't subject to the waiting periods of the ruling body but I just thought that it still makes aero developments minuscule. If you find something in the wind tunnel that gets you 3 tenths of a second over the competition you have one race and then suddenly the success ballast is costing you 1 second. I don't even know what my take is on that. I just felt like pointing it out because i makes you say hey wait a minute.

I guess a 1st one weekend and an 8th the next is better than 3rd and 5th on two weekends.

The Aero developments certainly add to my interest in Super GT but I think you would be hard pressed to find someone who quit watching SGT because there were no aero updates..

The cars just never stop looking sexy, stunning.

I think the real fear here is that they may look like DTM cars. Not that they can't be developed.

While I will agree that SGT looks better than DTM. DTM doesn't exactly make me cringe.

[kober]

From spectators' point of view, BOP is better than success ballast. It makes better show, if not better racing.
With success ballast, if a team would be a second per lap quicker than the opposition, they might find themselves a second per lap slow slower during the next round, due to additional weight. The result would be lack of head-to-head racing during both of the rounds. Yes, I'm exaggerating a little.
With BOP, in theory, you should have head-to-head racing in both races, even if some of the cars are cr*p. Take a look at GTE - some say the class provides the best racing that is currently available.

Of course, for techies (or anoraks) success balast might have more appeal.

[Puzzle]

Originally Posted by kober

...Of course, for techies (or anoraks) success balast might have more appeal.

well I'm at least one of those unashamed, irrepressible anoraks

[Articus]

The more and more I think about it, the less of a difference I see between success ballast and ACO BOP. Both penalize the quickest cars(as long as the quickest car does well in race). and when you lolly gag at the back you get a pick me up in the form of less weight(this applies in both series when you think of certain cars like Porsche, Viper, Aston Martin) or more power for ACO. The only really negligible difference is the expediency. Whereas sucess ballast are automatic and get applied race by race the ACO BOP can sometimes be slow to react to dominant cars like how BMW dominated 2011 on pace. It can sometimes overreact to a quick car as well.

[MagVanisher]

Since they'll be having the same aero specs and performance as the DTM cars when 2014 hits unfortunately, I'm still wondering if the success ballast is relevant where all of the equipment (with some exceptions if they continue to develop the aerodynamics) and dimension are the same?

[TF110]

Qualifying stream here http://www.vipboxsports.eu/watch/724...am-online.html

[tbz]

race is on the way

[Puzzle]

is it just me or is there a couple of extra older gt300 cars racing.

[TF110]

Those IS350's?

[kaivo]

how prius is so fast. they spinend 2 times in beginning laps. now they are in 2nd :/

[Puzzle]

Originally Posted by TF110

Those IS350's?

yeah those and that vemac. or am i just dreaming and they've been at all the rounds

[Puzzle]

bloody fool! you had him and then you went and spun the damn prius.

[TF110]

CRZ vs. Prius, nice battles. Good win for the Impul GTR.

[Japanese Samurai]

Sunday press conference by GTA (Masaaki Bandoh)

*There is a plan to hold the exhibition race of Super GT in Okinawa next year.
*This is a plan to be proposed through GT entrant association by Hironori Takeuchi (Team Shift).
*This is a street race plan in Tomigusuku-shi, Okinawa.
*Bandoh has already inspected Tomigusuku-shi.
http://as-web.jp/news/info.php?c_id=2&no=43315

[tbz]

It would be really exciting when it happens!

[Japanese Samurai]

Autosport web interview to Masaaki Bandoh (GTA) (part 2) about Mother chassis plan

*We would like to make domestic GT300 vehicles with a price equivalent to FIA-GT3 vehicles.
*The ideal price of monocoque is under 5 million yen. Vehicle price is 30 million yen.
*In the Mother chassis plan, only the same engine-loading position as a stock car will be accepted.
*Entrant will get an engine at a low price by lease by our plan.
*We are developing new JAF-GT300 vehicle of Toyota FT-86 as GTA.
*Even if it is the South Korean vehicle and is the Malaysia vehicle, we are welcomes if even the engine-loading position was decided. It is OK even if an engine differs from a stock car.

http://as-web.jp/news/info.php?c_id=2&no=43380

[MagVanisher]

Originally Posted by Japanese Samurai

Autosport web interview to Masaaki Bandoh (GTA) (part 2) about Mother chassis plan

*We would like to make domestic GT300 vehicles with a price equivalent to FIA-GT3 vehicles.
*The ideal price of monocoque is under 5 million yen. Vehicle price is 30 million yen.
*In the Mother chassis plan, only the same engine-loading position as a stock car will be accepted.
*Entrant will get an engine at a low price by lease by our plan.
*We are developing new JAF-GT300 vehicle of Toyota FT-86 as GTA.
*Even if it is the South Korean vehicle and is the Malaysia vehicle, we are welcomes if even the engine-loading position was decided. It is OK even if an engine differs from a stock car.

http://as-web.jp/news/info.php?c_id=2&no=43380

I hope the term "stock car" is just a road car, not a NASCAR one!

Still, I wonder if the JAF/GTA will allow MR cars to compete in the new and improve GT300 class once the mother chassis plan is implemented?

[TF110]

It reads as long as the car is mid engine 'stock' it can be mid engine in GT300. I like that they allow any (manufacturer type) engine though.

[MagVanisher]

Okay, but what if they want to convert a FR car into a MR race car like the CR-Z GT300? Will they allow it in the near future?

[TF110]

Japanese Samurai has posted that they will not allow that. The engine must be where it's located 'stock'. As in where it is on the road car.

[MagVanisher]

Originally Posted by TF110

Japanese Samurai has posted that they will not allow that. The engine must be where it's located 'stock'. As in where it is on the road car.

Okay, I guess the CR-Z will be illegal to race in the near future... What a shame!

[TF110]

That's IF they use the 'mother chassis' plan!

[Speed-King]

Originally Posted by MagVanisher

Okay, I guess the CR-Z will be illegal to race in the near future... What a shame!

Super GT usually has very long grandfathering rules... so a car that's legal now will be so for quite a while.