Misc. Auto Racing 2014: So long and thanks for all the McNish

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BMB5150: Oct 24, 2010; 2018 Indianapolis 500 Winner

Welcome to the Miscellaneous Auto Racing Megathread of 2014. This was going to be the Sportscar thread, but since there are a bunch of other racing series that would be left out and may derail the NASCAR, Indycar, F1, or Motorcycle (unless we should combine that one into here) threads, it shall find a home here. What shall be talked about here range from Sportscars, Touring Cars, GT Cars, various dirt racing and what not.

Le Mans Prototype Sportscars

Classes

LMP1 - These are the most powerful and unique of the Le Mans Prototypes. This class is mainly fielded by the manufactures but there are some privateers who usually gets curb stomped by the manufactures. These cars can produce up to 520hp, reach speeds approaching 200mph or higher, and feature top teams using diesel or hybrid engines. This year tons of changes and additions to LMP1. Major new regs for LMP1 include thinner cars by a couple centimeters to the width of the wings, the winglet like things Audi and Toyota have they are thrown out because of that, engines are unrestricted so you can bring a thundering V12� if you�re able to make very good fuel economy so yeah it�s opened up but this won�t be a return of big as gently caress engines. Also Porsche is coming out with their 919 prototype with a very strong lineup of drivers. Toyota loving sucked at the beginning of the year and pretty much threw away last season before Le Mans even though they became faster than Audi by the end of the year snagging 1 race legit and 1 race by qualifying out in front. On top of that a slew of P1 bodies and engines have been developed, but the only promising one is the Rebellion R-One ponying up all that watch cash to make a car themselves since Lola is hosed right now. And since ALMS is gone, LMP1s are not allowed in the new series.

LMP2 - Nothing much has changed in the regulations and won�t change until 2016 when regs start unifying the P2 and DP cars instead of the wacky balance of performance we got now. Still it's about the privateer teams and cost control. A race ready car should not exceed $550k and minimum engine runtimes are slated to increase steadily over the next few years, with one engine eventually required to last 50 hours by 2015. These cars should be producing somewhere in the neighborhood of 400 - 450hp and should hit speeds of at least 170mph. As this class will almost exclusively feature privateer entries, there should be makes and models of all types. P2 teams will also be required to field a gentleman driver; see the driver class section below for more on that. This class will be in Tudor United Sportscar Championship in the prototype class alongside the DPs which they are forced to be in the Le Mans aero configuration for most races with varying regulations to get them equalized to the DP either slowing down or in case for Daytona speeding them up. They are also subject to a spec tire like DP is so they�re running on Continental Tires, hopefully with no results like the DPs had in Daytona testing in November.

GTE-Pro - The highly-competitive GTE are split into two divisions. These cars are based off of production vehicles, so a Porsche looks like a Porsche, and Corvette looks like a Corvette, etc. At full wick these bad boys can hit speeds approaching 180mph. Nothing of note has been changed this year for the GTE cars so teams aren't shuffling around and making wholesale changes to their cars unless they are getting new cars and stuff such as Corvette bringing out the C7. If you can think of a performance car manufacturer, then they�ll likely have a car running in this class in one country or another, very likely with full factory support. Manufactures include Chevrolet, BMW, Aston Martin, Porsche, Ferrari, and Viper. No clear announcements getting GTE and GT3 cars under a kind of same platform but just under names GT and GT+. In TUSC, they are unchanged under the name of GTLM and left unchanged.

GTE-Am - The same as above, but these teams are privateers, have to field a car that is a year old and are required to field at least one gentleman driver on their team. We get a mix of Ferrari's, Porsche's, and a Chevrolets but any car running in GTE-Pro after 1 year is fine.

LMPC - Le Mans Prototype Challenge this is a spec class with all teams using the same Oreca LMP chassis and Chevy LS3 V8 engine. These cars look like LMP cars but have less speed and power compared GT cars. As such, their top speeds are only around 165mph, despite their looks. It�s not surprising to see GT cars pass these guys. FLM cars are designed to be cheap to run and last a long time, to help newer teams break into the business. Despite their name, these cars will not be allowed to run at Le Mans, but other LMS series (such as ALMS) will be running them alongside their normal classes. This class will be unchanged for TUSC and lot of people jumped into this class for the certainty of regs.

If all of those class configurations weren�t confusing enough, to complicate matters further, there are also separate driver classes to help separate the wheat from the chaff:

Platinum � Drivers with extensive sportscar racing experience, specifically those with a factory drive or those that have otherwise exclusively driven in sportscars. And yes a NASCAR driver with no sportscar experience is considered a platinum driver, see Brian Vickers.

Gold � Drivers with extensive sportscar racing experience. Drivers with a lot of racing experience in other series (touring cars, open wheel, etc.) but not as much in sportscars, would presumably also be tagged with this driver class.

Silver � A gentleman or amateur racing driver with moderate sportscar experience.

Bronze � A gentleman or amateur racing driver with minimum sportscar experience, or moderate experience in other series.

This driver classification exists because new regulations dictate that LMP2 and GTE-Am cars must have at least one Silver or Bronze driver in their endurance driver lineups. This is to ensure that a big-name or factory team can�t completely stock a spinoff team or a team using one of their cars (such as Porsche) with factory or otherwise highly experienced drivers exclusively, helping to ensure fairness across driver lineups. All drivers in LMP1 or GTE-Pro must be Gold or Platinum class, but Gold or Platinum drivers can still drive in the GTE-Am class (provided one of the drivers on their team is Silver or Bronze).

Racing Series

This is the premier that all of the manufactures want to compete in and win. This is the 2nd year under the FIA this championship is running with . This year will have 8 races and America gets a race back with ALMS running at the same time, but not Sebring probably thanks to the merger. Classes include LMP1, LMP2, GTE-Pro, GTE-Am

Schedule
April 20th - 6 Hours of Silverstone
May 3rd - 6 Heures de Spa-Francorchamps
June 14th - 15rd - 24th Heures du Mans
August 31st - 6 Hours of S�o Paulo
September 20th - 6 Hours of COTA
October 12th - 6 Hours of Fuji
November 1st - 6 Hours of Shanghai
November 15th - 6 Hours of Bahrain

Well I was wrong this series managed to get through the season and have good car counts. Classes include LMP2, GTE, GTC (Porsche cup cars pretty much for amateurs), and LMPC. Couple changes to the schedule and all races go from 3 to 4 hours now.

Schedule
April 19th - 4 Hours of Silverstone
May 18th - 4 Hours of Imola
July 20th - 4 Hours of Red Bull Ring
September 14th - 4 Hours of Le Castellet
October 19th - 4 Hours of Estoril

Tudor United Sportscar Championship (TUSC)
This season is the start of a unified series by ALMS and Grand-Am. What it will be is 4 classes of cars. Prototypes, Daytona Prototypes and Le Mans Protoype 2 cars, GTLM is the GT class of ALMS and GTE of WEC, LMPC is here, and GTD which is a whole new animal. What will be interesting is how all of the balance of performance with the P2 cars like the HPD, Oreca, and Radical with the DPs of the Chevrolets and Riley, and also the DeltaWing. Only other place with big changes is GTD where you have the conglomeration of more classes of cars. Pretty much it has become GT3 with smaller wings and diffuser and a slew of Porsche GT Americas. Costs will be a concern with upgrades, buying new cars, and a lot more racing time with the series going to a few more track and getting 2 major endurance races on top of it

DP - These are cars with a spec (or at least tightly regulated, a la NASCAR) closed-cockpit prototype-style chassis. They produce around 550+hp for a top speed of 200mph now with the boosting of the DP engines with the new regs. Engines you'll find in this class include all of the normal DP engines but the main ones are used are the Ford Ecoboost V6, Chevy V8, and since BMW has dropped their support Dinan V8. This year many aero upgrades have been introduced such as improved overall aero on the body, 2 tiered wings, added aero on the splitter, and most noted a big diffuser. You'll mainly see Riley body work with Ford engine (quote on quote a ford chassis) and anyone who wants to go with a Chevrolet will get to have the Corvette DP. Also seems Delta-ADR and Action Express are working on a generic DP bodywork on a Coyote Chassis. Also one fun thing to know not all similar bodywork cars are the same. Spirit of Daytona (Coyote chassis, Corvette Body), Gainsco (Riley chassis, Corvette), and Wayne Taylor Racing (Dallara chassis, Corvette) are different in the chassis but not body work. They also had to have more adjustments to the car for safety since one of them almost cleared the catch fencing at Daytona so they have holes in the wheel wells now. Further balance of performance an loving around will happen. Since we�re talking the P class, the DeltaWing will join the LMPs and DPs as well

GTD � A new class with familiar ties. It�s pretty much, the old Grand-Am GT cars, GT3 cars with a smaller wing and different diffuser competing. All of the Porsche teams in GTC and GA GT have traded in for Porsche GT Americas so there is a poo poo ton of those. But don�t fret you�ll also have a couple Audis, Ferraris, SRT with a Viper of their own, TRG with Aston Martins, and Turner with badass BMW Z4s. This class is primarily non-factory entrants since they�re all in GTLM and have garnered the most attention from teams diving in. Also since Mazda is taking the diesel engine to prototype, GX is axed.

To get into specifics on all of the changes by this unification watch this video for a brief rundown.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dJYRLnn5hM

Schedule
January 25th - 26th - Rolex 24 at Daytona*
March 15th � Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring*
April 12th � Long Beach GP (P/GTLM)
May 4th � Continental Tires Sports Car Festival (P/GTLM and PC/GTD races)
May 31st � Belle Isle (P/GTD)
June 7th � Kansas Speedway (PC only 2 races 45 minutes each also with Prototype Lites)
June 29th � Sahlen�s 6 Hours of The Glen*
July 13th � Mosport (P/GTLM/GTD)
July 26th � Brickyard GP
August 10th - Road America
August 24th � Virginia Int�l Raceway (PC and Prototype Lites with 2 races, GTLM/GTD with own race)
September 20th - COTA
October 4th � Petit Le Mans*

*Denotes North American Endurance Challenge

Entry List of all cars entered for the season and alternates

BMB5150 fucked around with this message at 22:27 on Jan 1, 2014

# ? Jan 1, 2014 20:35

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# ? Apr 18, 2024 14:00

BMB5150: Oct 24, 2010; 2018 Indianapolis 500 Winner

Group GT3

Started in 2005 this class of GT cars was built with the intention of bringing in several one make series cars and really any racecar under homologation rules to run in this series. In this way you get a vast amount of cars from McLaren MP4-12C�s to Chevrolet Camaro to now even a Bentley Continental. Usually not ran by a factory team but by privateers and rich people who can fund these cars. That�s why at Spa you get 60 some odd cars for the running. This class of cars have now taken over as one of the premier GT series in the world with the unification of the Blancpain Endurance Series and the FIA GT Series becoming the Blancpain GT Series. They�re in many other series in GT3 only championships like British GT Championship, ADAC GT Masters to name a few or under slightly different rules but with the same cars such as now TUSC�s GTD class, SuperGT�s GT300 class, or in World Challenge straight up GT3 cars and other top class WC cars against it.

Blancpain GT Championship

It�ll be split up into two series, the Sprint Series with 2 one hour events and the Endurance Series which is one event usually 3 hours unless otherwise noted.

April 12th � 13th : Monza, Italy (endurance)
April 18th � 21st : Coupes de P�ques, Nogaro, France (sprint)
May 17th � 18th : Brands Hatch, Great Britain (sprint)
May 24th � 25th : Silverstone, Great Britain (endurance)
June 28th - 29th : Paul Ricard, France (endurance)
July 4th � 6th : Zandvoort , the Netherlands (sprint)
July 23rd � 27th : Total 24 Hours of Spa, Belgium (endurance)
August 22nd � 24th : Slovakia Ring, Slovakia (sprint)
September 5th � 7th : Algarve, Portugal (sprint)
September 19th � 21st : N�rburgring 1000, Germany (endurance)
October 10th � 12th : Zolder, Belgium (sprint)
November 1st � 2nd : Baku World Challenge, Azerbaijan * (sprint)

*Subject to agreement

Pirelli World Challenge

Not only does it have GT3 class and equivalent cars but many other classes with entries up to 80 as sportscar365 is indicating. You'll see hear the varying cars they have from the GT to GTS to TC to TCB classes

March 30th: St. Petersburg (GT/GTS)
April 13th: Long Beach (GT/GTS)
April 27th: Barber Motorsports Park (GT/GTS/TC/TCB)
May 18th: Mosport (TC/TCB)
June 1st: Belle Isle (GT/GTS)
June 1st: New Jersey Motorsports Park (TC/TCB)
June 21st: Road America (GT/GTS/TC/TCB)
July 20th: Toronto (GT/GTS)
August 3rd: Mid-Ohio (GT/GTS/TC/TCB)
August 24th: Sonoma (GT/GTS)
August 31st: Brainerd Int�l Raceway (TC/TCB)
September 13th: Miller Motorsports Park (GT/GTS/TC/TCB)

June 21st � 22nd: 24 Hours of Nurburgring:
Not part of series but if you want GT3 cars with a whole loving mess around other cars at Nordeschleife, watch this race for this insanity. There will be over 100 cars easily, considering it�s a 14 mile gently caress off course.

Touring Cars

British Touring Car Championship
Ok BTCC goons give me something here. Haven�t been watching and you can add in a summary of what it is, what to look for this year and anything else

29-30 March: Brands Hatch Indy
19-20 April: Donington Park
3-4 May: Thruxton
7-8 June: Oulton Park
28-29 June: Croft
2-3 August: Snetterton
23-24 August: Knockhill
6-7 September: Rockingham
27-28 September: Silverstone
11-12 October: Brands Hatch Grand Prix

Deustche Tourenwagen Masters

4th May: Hockenheimring Baden-W�rttemberg (D)
18th May: Metropolis Motorsport Arena Oschersleben (D)
1st June: Hungaroring Budapest (UNG)
29th June: Norisring (D)
13th July: Moscow Raceway (RUS)
3rd August: Red Bull Ring Spielberg (A)
10th August: N�rburgring (D)
14th September: Lausitzring (D)
28th September: China (CHN) � TBA
19th October: Hockenheimring Baden-W�rttemberg (D)

Super GT

harperdc posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIb3Tn7VEB4

Super GT celebrated its 20th anniversary last year and the top GT-500 category (which features teams supported by the three big auto manufacturers, Toyota, Nissan and Honda) opens the 21st year with brand new cars -- Lexus LF-CC, Nissan GT-R GT500, and Honda NSX Concept GT. These are reportedly built to the same standards and rules as the DTM cars, but I haven't seen enough news (in English or Japanese) to analyze anything. They'll certainly be 500-horsepower monster machines but whether the reported closer ties between the German and Japanese series ever come to fruition or not remain to be seen.

Last year, GT-300 underwent its own transformation, with the majority of the teams switching to FIA GT3-spec machines. This means grids are full of Porsche 911s and Audi R8s with a few Mercedes SLSes, BMW Z4s and even a McLaren MP4-12C (run by the Neon Genesis Evangelion-sponsored team no less) lining up. However, the Japanese GT-300 factory-backed groups -- namely the hybrid Honda CR-Z and Toyota Prius plus the works Subaru BR-Z -- are not built to GT3 standard. Hell, the Toyota "Prius" is mid-engined rear-wheel-drive for fucks sake!!! (Oh and not quite coincidentally the Mugen Honda CR-Z team won the GT-300 class last year).

That said, Super GT is a semi-endurance series with two classes and lots of fun action. This may or may not have to do with the quality of machinery (high) and drivers (ehhhhh....) available. The ZENT Lexus won GT-500 last year in a championship NOBODY wanted to win (I'll post a pic later), while the Mugen CR-Z made a strong debut last all year long.

No matter how things go, Super GT will be an entertaining offshoot of the sports car world that remains frustratingly difficult to find coverage of. Ah, Japan!

April 6th: Okayama
May 4th: Fuji
June 1st: Autopolis
~~June 29th: Korea� somewhere�~~ Nevermind
July 20th: Sportland SUGO
August 10th: Fuji
August 31st: Suzuka
October 5th: Buriram Int�l Circuit (Thailand)
November 16th: Motegi

V8 Supercars

February 27 � March 2: Clipsal 500
March 13 � 16: 2014 F1 Australian Grand Prix
March 28 � 30: Tasmania 400
April 4 � 6: Winton 400
April 24 � 27: ITM 500 Auckland
May 16 � 18: Perth 400
June 20 � 22: SKYCITY Triple Crown Darwin
July 4 � 6: Townsville 500
August 1-3: Coates Hire Ipswich 400
August 22 � 24: Sydney Motorsport Park 400
September 12 � 14: Wilson Security Sandown 500
October 9 � 12: Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000
October 24 � 26 : ARMOR ALL Gold Coast 600
November 14 � 16: Sargent Security Phillip Island 400
December 5 � 7: Sydney 500

World Touring Car Championship

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqCAyv_a2CE

6 April: Marrakech (MAR)
20 April: Le Castellet (FRA)
4 May: Hungaroring (HUN)
11 May: Slovakia Ring (SVK)
25 May: Salzburgring (AUT)
8 June: Moscow Raceway (RUS)
22 June: Spa-Francorchamps (BEL)
3 August: Termas de R�o Hondo (ARG)
14 September: Sonoma (USA) (SASCAR goon who works here)
12 October: Shanghai (CHN)
26 October: Suzuka (JPN)
16 November: Macau (MAC)

Continental Tires Sports Car Challenge

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbNeq3qRvu4

Jan 24: Daytona International Speedway
Mar 14: Sebring International Raceway
May 3: Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca
May 24: Lime Rock Park
Jun 7: Kansas Speedway
Jun 28: Watkins Glen International
Jul 12: Canadian Tire Motorsport Park
Jul 25: Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Aug 9: Road America
Aug 23: Virginia International Raceway
Sep 20: Circuit of The Americas
Oct 3: Road Atlanta

Dirt and maybe a little bit of pavement

World Rally Championship

January 19th: Rallye Monte Carlo
February 9th: Rally Sweden
March 9th: Rally Mexico
April 6th: Rally de Portugall
May 11th: Rally Argentina
June 1st: Rally d'Italia
June 29th: Rally Poland (including one day in Lithuania)
August 3rd: Rally Finland
August 24th: Rallye Deutschland
September 14th: Rally Australia
October 5th: Rallye de France
October 26th: Rally de Espa�a
November 16th: Rally of Great Britain

*Date is the last day of the rally

European Rally Championship

31 Int. J�nnerrallye, Ober�sterreich (Austria), Asphalt/snow, 3-5 January 2014
Rally Liepāja (Latvia), Gravel/snow, 31 January-2 February 2014
Sibiu Rally Romania, Gravel/snow, 27 February-1 March 2014
Acropolis Rally (Greece), Asphalt/gravel, 28-30 March 2014
Circuit of Ireland Rally (United Kingdom), Asphalt, 17-19 April 2014
49th SATA Rallye A�ores (Portugal), Gravel, 15-17 May 2014
Geko Ypres Rally (Belgium), Asphalt, 19-21 June 2014
auto24 Rally Estonia (Estonia), Gravel, 17-19 July 2014
Barum Czech Rally Zl�n (Czech Republic), Asphalt, 29-31 August 2014
Cyprus Rally (Cyprus), Asphalt/gravel, 19-21 September 2014
Rallye International du Valais (Switzerland), Asphalt/gravel, 23-25 October 2014
Giru di Corsica-Tour de Corse (France), Asphalt, 6-8 November 2014**

Global Rallycross

TBA on Schedule

Speed Energy Stadium Super Trucks
http://vimeo.com/65618292
I seriously need to watch this series this year. Apparently Robby Gordon got a win for once in his life.

March 7th: Las Vegas
March 29th � 30th: 2 Rounds St Petersburg
April 12th � 13th: 2 Rounds Long Beach (so that�s Indycar, TUSC, WC, and this)
May 23rd: Indy
May 31st � June 1st: 2 Rounds Belle Isle
June 8th: COTA (X Games)
July 19th � 20th: 2 Rounds Toronto
September 19th � 20th: 2 Rounds Costa Mesa, CA
September 21st: San Diego
November 7th: Las Vegas

Drag Racing

National Hot Rod Association

February 9th: Pomona
Feb 23rd: Phoenix
March 16th: Gainesville
March 30th: Las Vegas
April 13th: Charlotte
April 27th: Houston
May 18th: Atlanta
May 25th: Topeka
June 1st: Englishtown
June 15th: Bristol
June 22nd: New England (NH)
June 29th: Chicago
July 6th: Norwalk
July 20th: Denver
July 27th: Sonoma
July 3rd: Seattle
August 17th: Brainerd
September 1st: Indianapolis
September 14th: Charlotte
September 21st: Dallas
September 28th: St. Louis
October 5th: Reading, PA
November 2nd: Las Vegas
November 16th: Pomona

If you have suggestions for racing or descriptions for the OP's then just post it and I'll add it on even if it's just :lol:

. So anyways here is to a better 2014 season with better racing and less chance of death shall we?

BMB5150 fucked around with this message at 22:59 on Jan 2, 2014

# ? Jan 1, 2014 20:35

George Zimmer: Jun 28, 2008

Do LMP2's really only make 350 HP? I thought it was 100 more than that.

I'm really excited for TUSCC this year. Not a fan of how they're kinda chopping up some of the races, and I'm still not 100% about DP's and P2's being in the same class, but it'll be worth watching. Hoping to make it to the Watkins Glen race this summer. Might also hit up the PWC race at NJMP. With the classes they're running, I guess it'll be like touring cars? Whatever, it's racing.

EDIT: it's too late now, but here's my idea for the thread title - Misc. Auto Racing 2014: Krohn's disease

If you've watched him drive in WEC, it makes perfect sense.

# ? Jan 1, 2014 22:17

dr cum patrol esq: Sep 3, 2003; A C A B

Hoping for a safe but awesome 2014.

# ? Jan 1, 2014 22:35

BMB5150: Oct 24, 2010; 2018 Indianapolis 500 Winner

George Zimmer posted:

Do LMP2's really only make 350 HP? I thought it was 100 more than that.

Yeah saw they make a bit more. Doesn't help it's variable as all hell depending on the series. For all we know, IMSA may want to push those engines beyond that to catch up to the DPs.

# ? Jan 1, 2014 22:38

Cygni: Nov 12, 2005; raring to post

BMB, I went back and caught up on some posts in the old thread and your final project painting was fuckin' bad rear end. F5000/Can Am are just the most ridiculous and awesome. My pops was working in Can Am and F5000 in 71 for Motschenbacher running a similar M8 to the center piece in your painting. Heres my dad on the side with Chuck Parsons driving at riverside. I think its an M8F?

That era/car are loving awesome. Welp thats my story cya

# ? Jan 2, 2014 08:20

BMB5150: Oct 24, 2010; 2018 Indianapolis 500 Winner

Thanks! Got an A- in my painting class and helped big time with that. Onto TUSC news.

Mazda has pretty much redone all of the Lola B07 and it looks pretty sweet.
http://sportscar365.com/imsa/tusc/speedsource-mazda-making-progress-with-p2-car/

And with entry list for testing being 66 and getting up to 80 requests to race, IMSA decided to up the amount of entrants for endurances to go up to 68. On top of that testing will be starting this weekend friday and go through sunday.
http://sportscar365.com/imsa/tusc/imsa-increases-grid-capacity-for-naec-rounds/

# ? Jan 2, 2014 09:13

harperdc: Jul 24, 2007

Super GT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIb3Tn7VEB4

Super GT celebrated its 20th anniversary last year and the top GT-500 category (which features teams supported by the three big auto manufacturers, Toyota, Nissan and Honda) opens the 21st year with brand new cars -- Lexus LF-CC, Nissan GT-R GT500, and Honda NSX Concept GT. These are reportedly built to the same standards and rules as the DTM cars, but I haven't seen enough news (in English or Japanese) to analyze anything. They'll certainly be 500-horsepower monster machines but whether the reported closer ties between the German and Japanese series ever come to fruition or not remain to be seen.

Last year, GT-300 underwent its own transformation, with the majority of the teams switching to FIA GT3-spec machines. This means grids are full of Porsche 911s and Audi R8s with a few Mercedes SLSes, BMW Z4s and even a McLaren MP4-12C (run by the Neon Genesis Evangelion-sponsored team no less) lining up. However, the Japanese GT-300 factory-backed groups -- namely the hybrid Honda CR-Z and Toyota Prius plus the works Subaru BR-Z -- are not built to GT3 standard. Hell, the Toyota "Prius" is mid-engined rear-wheel-drive for fucks sake!!! (Oh and not quite coincidentally the Mugen Honda CR-Z team won the GT-300 class last year).

That said, Super GT is a semi-endurance series with two classes and lots of fun action. This may or may not have to do with the quality of machinery (high) and drivers (ehhhhh....) available. The ZENT Lexus won GT-500 last year in a championship NOBODY wanted to win (I'll post a pic later), while the Mugen CR-Z made a strong debut last all year long.

No matter how things go, Super GT will be an entertaining offshoot of the sports car world that remains frustratingly difficult to find coverage of. Ah, Japan!

-----

also the round in Korea has been cancelled for 2014, but apparently the groups are planning on doing it for 2015 still. Who knows. I expect this to never actually happen.

# ? Jan 2, 2014 12:25

28 Gun Bad Boy: Nov 5, 2009; Never been to Belgium

Cygni posted:

I think its an M8F?

A M8D I think. The Fs were just for the works in '71 if I'm remembering right *saddo*.

BMB5150 posted:

Mazda has pretty much redone all of the Lola B07 and it looks pretty sweet.
http://sportscar365.com/imsa/tusc/speedsource-mazda-making-progress-with-p2-car/

It doesn't look half bad, though I still have my doubts about basing it on the Lola chassis, despite all the extra work they've put into it to update it. Still I suppose it'd be a bit much to expect a full blown, big money new build works entry. But I'd imagine it gives them a solid baseline for the season which is what they want I imagine.