GTE Speculation

[Dented Table]

I'm very surprised there hasn't been a full thread on this already, but I've come across plently of speculation. I want this forum's thoughts and opinions; what cars and teams from different series should make the leap to GTE in the new WEC? What are some possibilities that could spawn into a fully fledged racing entry? Think outside the box here, folks, and come up with some ridiculous ideas.

Now, we've got a big task on our hands, to cover all of this. So, what are some cars you think should be well-suited to enter the GTE category? My picks...

Belgian Audi Club from the Blancpain Endurance Series in the Audi R8 LMS. It could be the United Autosports team, though, as they seem to have an unlimited budget.

McLaren from the Blancpain Endurance Series. It has basically been confirmed that they will race in Le Mans in GTE by Graham.

Marc VDS running a Ford GT? Why not? No offense to Robertson Racing, but it would be a lot less ridiculous for them to run it in a Ford GT than a private, small American husband/wife owned team. But keep your hopes high, Robertsons!

Young Driver AMR. They entered Castellet and tried to make it in Le Mans. It would be a good replacement for the Gulf AMR team moving to LMP2.

Mercedes-Benz from FIA GT3. Good drivers, good car, good team.

Now, finally, how about Reiter Engineering? They have had good endurance trim and the car seems fast and reliable. Also, I can name several good "regulars" for the driver spots in this car. They would run the Gallardo, obviously.

What about Jaguar? I think they need to run the 24 hour gauntlet again, except with two cars. An ideal lineup would be...

Paul Gentilozzi / Kenny Wilden / Boris Said
Oriol Servia / Cristiano da Matta / Bruno Junqueira

I also think someone should give the Nissan GT-R a try. Strangely, I sort of see a PlayStation / Gran Turismo / Nissan Academy thing going on. I can almost see a one-car team with Bryan Heitkotter, Kazunori Yamauchi, and Yasuyoshi Yamamoto running the GT-R like they did in the Nurburgring 24 Hours. I say Brian Heitkotter because he one the Nissan Academy award, obviously.

Any other ramblings and guesses for me to add on?

[porsche91722]

Originally Posted by Dented Table

.................Think outside the box here, folks, and come up with some ridiculous ideas. ...........................

What about Jaguar? I think they need to run the 24 hour gauntlet again, except with two cars. An ideal lineup would be...

Paul Gentilozzi / Kenny Wilden / Boris Said
Oriol Servia / Cristiano da Matta / Bruno Junqueira
........................

Jamie Whincup, Craig Lowndes and Warren Luff in a 888, Vodaphone R8 LMS. Lowndes and Luff have had a couple of runs in an R8, and are going around again at the Bathurst 12 hour, next year. Whincup is talking up, a step out of V8SC and looking at other series, sports car racing being one of them.
I hope this fits your criteria. Ridiculous..... yes! Likelihood...hardly!, but the team and those three would make a highly competitive outfit.
On your point about Jaguar..... I hope that a more deserving team would get the opportunity, to run at the LM24, than that joke entry.

[Tim the Grey]

What have I missed here? WEC is NOT GT3. More a sort of GT2bis.
Yet you list GT3 cars?

I'm confused...

[porsche91722]

Originally Posted by Tim the Grey

What have I missed here? WEC is NOT GT3. More a sort of GT2bis.
Yet you list GT3 cars?

I'm confused...

Ah... the Grinch lives .
No need for confusion, the question asked was.....
"what cars and teams from different series should make the leap to GTE in the new WEC? What are some possibilities that could spawn into a fully fledged racing entry? Think outside the box here, folks, and come up with some ridiculous ideas. "
I don't think it would be that much of a stretch to get an R8 up to GT2/WEC standards. It's been mooted before. The car would be more than competitive. We are heading into the off season, have a bit of fun.

[Mt. Lynx]

Same here. To take a GT3 spec car and turn it into a GTE spec takes alot of effort, time and money.

The R8 is not likely to get a GTE treatment at all. Something with the suspension pick up points, that works against a GTE car. Plus WRT will probably do GTWC.

McLaren did initially say they were going to make a GTE car aswell, but I have yet to see any confirmation about it. And either way, it will not be on the grid 2012.

Marc VDS has gone with BMW Z4 and BES AFAIK. No takings at all for the Lambda Ford GTE as of yet.

YDAMR will most likely do GTWC with a GT3 Vantage V12 the way it looks right now. The V8 Vantage GTE is however said to be up for some serious treatments to be competitive in GTE.

AFAIK Mercedes has no plans to make a GTE car.

The RSR Jaguar effort is barely a joke, so not likely. Possibly a X-C16 GT3 for 2013.

Nissan has just finished development of their GT3 car, so not likely any GTE effort in the foreseeable future.

There are other rumors going around though. As always. What happend to the LF-A GTE? And what of Dodge Viper?

I wonder how long it will be until we actually see GT3 cars at Le Mans though? All current GTE constructors also has GT3 cars... And GT3 are seemingly more successful than GTE ATM.

[Tim the Grey]

Bear in mind, I don't have rule books as bed time reading, but, don't ILMC let in GT3 cars under a GT-C class for Xhuhai?
One possible route for these cars to run at LM maybe.
But it would take a collapse of the LMP runners to bring them...

[Victor_RO]

Originally Posted by Tim the Grey

Bear in mind, I don't have rule books as bed time reading, but, don't ILMC let in GT3 cars under a GT-C class for Xhuhai?
One possible route for these cars to run at LM maybe.
But it would take a collapse of the LMP runners to bring them...

... or an unlikely increase in the number of entries. I wonder if the annexe to the main pit building can be expanded further to bring the total to 60 cars...

[ubrben]

Originally Posted by Tim the Grey

Bear in mind, I don't have rule books as bed time reading, but, don't ILMC let in GT3 cars under a GT-C class for Xhuhai?
One possible route for these cars to run at LM maybe.
But it would take a collapse of the LMP runners to bring them...

They do it at Zhuhai because the grid is poor, due to the lack of a regional championship.

It wouldn't be practical to include them at Le Mans because they are allowed more power and downforce than a GTE car, but have worse tyres and are heavier.

The Zhuhai GTE race was actually ruined early on because Bruni and Priaulx couldn't out-drag one of the R8s allowing Jorg Muller to drive away. Yes they caught back up, but burnt a lot of fuel doing it.

Ben

[Tim the Grey]

A case of GT3 being TOO good?
I seem to recall GT-E being a slightly higher spec GT-2, after GT-1 was taken away?
Which makes you wonder how a cooking GT3, whichever spec, can hold them up?
Curious.

[JAG]

Possible GTE Entries -

Lambda Ford GT - Confirmed, plans for six chassis
LFA - Version tested, seems to be on hold/cancelled
Mclaren - Certainty, but late 2012 at the very earliest
Viper - Stated interest with a Riley designed car
Spyker - Does the company even exist?
R8 LMS - ALMS specific GTE homologation planned
Nissan - GT1 car no more, a GT3 car built, GTE the next step?
Mercedes - So Many GT3's sold, but big task to make a GTE
Maserati - Would they compete with Ferrari?
Lamborghini - VAG issues with Porsche
Ginetta - Not yet

Anyone else?

[JAG]

Originally Posted by Tim the Grey

A case of GT3 being TOO good?
I seem to recall GT-E being a slightly higher spec GT-2, after GT-1 was taken away?
Which makes you wonder how a cooking GT3, whichever spec, can hold them up?
Curious.

Current GT3's are a good 3-4 seconds per lap quicker than the first generation, and far more expensive. You'd think with a BoP formula teams could buy, for example, a 458, and not touch it until the replacement launches, as it is updates are coming every year or two.

[ubrben]

Originally Posted by Tim the Grey

A case of GT3 being TOO good?
I seem to recall GT-E being a slightly higher spec GT-2, after GT-1 was taken away?
Which makes you wonder how a cooking GT3, whichever spec, can hold them up?
Curious.

GTE is just GT2 renamed. The straightline speed of GTE is determined by the ACO to fit in with Le Mans. They want LMP1 to do 3:30 laps. LMP2 to do 3:45 and GTE to do 4:00. If you allow a GTE car to go too fast in a straightline they do sub-4:00 laps and hold up LMP2 cars in a straightline.

This has led to some complaints in some quarters that GTE cars are too slow relative to the road cars in a straightline so GT3 exploited this view by allowing the cars to be relatively powerful. The also allow more aero freedom, diffuser, etc, but prevent the pace getting too good by doing the BoP.

It should be clear at this point that GTE and GT3 are the products of dramatically different philosophies and contexts, hence it is stupid to try and run them on the same racetrack at the same time.

Ben

[TF110]

How about the new R8 LMS ULTRA? I saw the press release say wider tires, different suspension, new aero, new RW, betterr cooling, more power... I'm betting it'd do fine in GTE.

[Simmi]

Think they might need to change the name of the class to GTeeeeeeeeee out of excitement. Will be interesting to see what Lambo come up with and how hard they choose to hit the class.

Hopefully this will shift the WEC entry figures to or beyond 40!

[Graham Goodwin]

Originally Posted by Simmi

Think they might need to change the name of the class to GTeeeeeeeeee out of excitement. Will be interesting to see what Lambo come up with and how hard they choose to hit the class.

Hopefully this will shift the WEC entry figures to or beyond 40!

Nope - don't expect 2012 numbers anywhere near that

[Simmi]

Originally Posted by Graham Goodwin

Nope - don't expect 2012 numbers anywhere near that

Just a touch too excited clearly.

[Graham Goodwin]

An admirable quality!!

[Mt. Lynx]

Jaguar? Or Cadillac? CTS-V Coupé GTE Sounds OK to me.

[Accident]

Originally Posted by Mt. Lynx

Jaguar? Or Cadillac? CTS-V Coupé GTE Sounds OK to me.

I really doubt GM would build a Cadillac to race against the Corvette, especially since they already have the WC CTS-V Coupes running.

All these rumors have me thinking that the ALMS should go GT only. I guess that's a subject for a different thread, but obviously there is a lot of interest in the GTE class right now, and I would love for these great cars to take a star role in a series, the cars and the racing are too good to just be "those things the prototypes pass." Perhaps the lure of overall wins could lure the Viper and LF-A projects out...

[Mt. Lynx]

I just noticed Gumpert has something under wraps. Will be unveiled at Geneva in March. Could this be a GTE version of the Apollo?

[TF110]

Nothing stopping the Fords from being used though. It sounds like a smaller car company will enter, someone weve left out. Maybe Subaru with the BRZ, they've already confirmed GT300 in SuperGT, which is loaded with GT3 cars...

[trahsub]

Originally Posted by TF110

Nothing stopping the Fords from being used though. It sounds like a smaller car company will enter, someone weve left out. Maybe Subaru with the BRZ, they've already confirmed GT300 in SuperGT, which is loaded with GT3 cars...

BRZ with a 2.0L four-banger? Yikes! That thing would be a show stopper...meaning the parade of cars behind it would be stopped dead (or close to it).

[Dead-Eye]

Originally Posted by TF110

Nothing stopping the Fords from being used though.

That wasn't Ford itself though, they were just blessing a private project. I find a factory (even in the sense of a factory building cars to sell to privateers) project with an outdated car less likely.

[TF110]

Yet GT300 class cars are faster than GTE. Yikes, looks like you speak too soon. Their HP is limited to around 300hp, and still beat GT3 cars? The engine isn't a problem. IF it's even them.

[trahsub]

Originally Posted by TF110

Yet GT300 class cars are faster than GTE. Yikes, looks like you speak too soon. Their HP is limited to around 300hp, and still beat GT3 cars? The engine isn't a problem. IF it's even them.

I have a hunch any BRZ running in ACO based racing would be slow as heck, Lotus Evora style.