GTE Speculation

[Ferrari333SP]

Originally Posted by Victor_RO

GTLM is ALMS GT/ACO GTE, GTD is GAGT + ALMS GTC/Porsche Cup.

Ahhh, gotcha; yeah interesting news about Audi and Mercedes looking at GTLM for next year.

[TF110]

If they are looking at GTLM why would they settle for GTD? Thats my take.

[Nick6]

GTDaytona?

[MitchZ06]

Who cares for the name, why the hell would someone like Merc aim at the lowest class?

[zanfo zanfagni]

Originally Posted by MitchZ06

Who cares for the name, why the hell would someone like Merc aim at the lowest class?

Maybe because some new GA GT are adapted and modified gt3 cars like the 458 and r8 lms. Bring an AMG SLS GT3, give a smaller splitter, wing and diffuser, detune the engine and here is it the AMG SLS GA.
The gallardo gt2 did not debut at sebring 2011, there was a LP560-4 GT2 already in 2009 LMS.

[CTD]

Originally Posted by Nick6

GTDaytona?

Yep, and not Gran Turismo Diesel

[TF110]

Originally Posted by zanfo zanfagni

Maybe because some new GA GT are adapted and modified gt3 cars like the 458 and r8 lms. Bring an AMG SLS GT3, give a smaller splitter, wing and diffuser, detune the engine and here is it the AMG SLS GA.
The gallardo gt2 did not debut at sebring 2011, there was a LP560-4 GT2 already in 2009 LMS.

More work to slow it down to those speeds than GTLM speed.

[MitchZ06]

Considering the rather close pace between GTE and GT3 cars as shown by IGTO they're better off getting the SLS GT3 into GTLM rather than ruining it for GTD.

[Racenut]

using the Z4 as an example, just because the GT3 car is a similar pace doesn't mean it will comply with the rules ....

[MitchZ06]

The capacity rule is essentially gone so the SLS and R8 which use the engine sold in the road car with the transmission and suspension the same as the road car (mounting points atleast) would actually be far more legal than the Z4.....infact if the turbo regs allowed a race spec turbo system the 12C GT3 would also be GTE legal. The Z4 is a real waiver basket....

[Speed-King]

Originally Posted by Racenut

using the Z4 as an example, just because the GT3 car is a similar pace doesn't mean it will comply with the rules ....

Who says they'll have to fit the rules? I could easily see GA doing another one of those "dual ruleset" thingies, scoring cars that are built to different rulesets (in this case prep 1 and prep 2) together.

[HORNDAWG]

http://www.alms.com/articles/grand-a...lass-structure

http://www.alms.com/articles/united-...co-and-le-mans






L.P.

[TF110]

Originally Posted by HORNDAWG

http://www.alms.com/articles/grand-a...lass-structure

http://www.alms.com/articles/united-...co-and-le-mans






L.P.

Old news, old story. The ACO allowed the Viper, allowed the Z4... whats stopping these guys from allowing new GTLM cars for USCR?

[Mt. Lynx]

Originally Posted by TF110

Old news, old story. The ACO allowed the Viper, allowed the Z4... whats stopping these guys from allowing new GTLM cars for USCR?

Nothing, really. And I'm sure the ACO are well aware of this. Infact, they may support it. It may be a way for ACO to keep a door open to new cars within the new unified GT rules.

[HORNDAWG]

Originally Posted by TF110

Old news, old story. The ACO allowed the Viper, allowed the Z4... whats stopping these guys from allowing new GTLM cars for USCR?

That many seem to be glossing over! Just because it was not released yesterday, does not make it any less relevant. Sorry if it does not fit with certain ideas.......





L.P.

[Chris Draper]

Originally Posted by MitchZ06

Who cares for the name, why the hell would someone like Merc aim at the lowest class?

Possibly because they care about making money, and there is more opportunity to sell cars to customers in GTD then GTLM.

[Mechanic Z]

Originally Posted by Chris Draper

Possibly because they care about making money, and there is more opportunity to sell cars to customers in GTD then GTLM.

On the other hand, there is arguably more opportunity to sell road cars using GTLM.

Good to have more Vette fans on here!

[Chris Draper]

Originally Posted by Mechanic Z

On the other hand, there is arguably more opportunity to sell road cars using GTLM.

Good to have more Vette fans on here!

I'm all for more "works" teams in GTLM, but it really goes down to what they want out of this.

Audi has made a very profitable customer program out of the GT3 car.

Keep in mind that the R8, SLS, and Z4 are all nearing the end of there production life so who knows what could happen in the future.

I know for a fact that BMW is working on a Z4 replacement. The R8 production car has been out since 2008 model year. The SLS is the newest of the bunch (2010), but it wouldn't make sense to build a GTE car when the life cycle of the model will be done in about 2 more years.

[TheMightyM]

Chris, welcome to the forum.

I'm not sure that aiming at the GTD market is a particularly compelling business plan. The merger is likely going to be a complete game-changer. In the past, both series have done things to increase the size of their grids. In 2014, that’s probably not going to be so much of an issue.

Even if 25 percent of cars that are running the entire season this year go away next year, that still leaves a grid of 45 cars for run-of-the-mill races. It's hard to imagine USCR is going to make attracting even more entries a priority if that happens. Rather, I suspect that they’d prefer to see better, not more, entries. In other words, as (hopefully) the merged series attracts more money, USCR will presumably want a higher percentage in their top classes — which is to say, anything but GTD and GX. So I really expect the bar to get raised over time.

GA-GT has in recent years been a bit unstable, with a lot of turnover among teams and a decreasing car count recently. I'm not sure that's the group I'd target anyway — Audi won in GT at Daytona this year and that hasn’t exactly translated to Audi R8 sales to GA-GT teams. (Number of Audis R8s at Barber and Road Atlanta: zero.)

[Chris Draper]

I wrote an article somewhat on this subject a while back.

http://badboyvettes.com/709