Ultimate GT Showdown - Comparison Test
#1
09-27-2010, 11:42 AM
Ultimate GT Showdown - Comparison Test
Ultimate GT Showdown - Comparison Test
ALMS GT race cars and their production counterparts talk a little closed-circuit smack at Miller Motorsports Park in Utah.
By the R&T Staff / Photos & Video by Jeff Allen, Brian Blades, Chris Cantle, Jay McNally, Bert Swift & Marc Urbano / Map & Graphs by Tim Barker
September 20, 2010
Slideshow >>
Video:
Click above Video ~> WoW
Turn Up your Speaker's 
WoW, can you believe that people get paid Big $ to do this ?
Quick…strip all the headlight decals, airbrushed grilles, press-on logos and faux taillights from a NASCAR stocker and you can instantly tell that it’s a Camry, right?…or is that a Fusion? Charger? Impala? Or perhaps some variety of Oldsmo-Buick? Au naturel, the bodies seemingly have the uniformity of a dozen AA eggs in a carton, conforming precisely to an elaborate series of templates and jigs. But what about the guy who wants to see a race car that looks like, for the most part, the high-performance sports car he drives on the street? There’s an app for that, as they say in smartphone circles, and it’s called the GT Class in the American Le Mans Series.
Here, we’re not dealing with tube-frame, live-axle Cookie Cutters of Tomorrow but cars that utilize production unit bodies (or perimeter frames in the case of the Corvette) as a starting point and have engine locations, cylinder counts and drive wheels as the manufacturers originally intended. Sure, the composite bodywork’s a little wider to cover generously sized slicks, and there are jungle-gym rollcages bracing things up and protecting the drivers. But even to fans in the cheap seats, the machines are instantly recognizable as slightly burlier versions of the F430, XKR, 911, Corvette and M3. And their aural signatures are just as distinctive…the Ferrari’s hyperkinetic shriek, the Corvette’s percussive bellowing, the Porsche’s quiet-by-comparison metallic rasp.
So with much cooperation of the race teams and the staff of Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah, Road & Track embarked on a classic road/track evaluation of both the race cars and their production counterparts. On a Wednesday practice before Sunday’s main event, our small platoon of editors, photographers and videographers broke camp from a nearby Salt Lake City hotel, then descended on the 3.048-mile “Outer Course” circuit with notepads, cameras (in-car and otherwise) and VBOX GPS data-acquisition equipment. This time, we left the driving to the factory drivers, analyzing their lapping data and taking careful notes of their impressions. Here’s what we found over a fast-paced and exhilarating day.
Up first: BMW M3 vs. M3 GT >>
Corvette ZR1 vs. C6.R
• Photos
• Video
• Data Panel
Final Thoughts
• Tech Support
• Track Map
• Overall Gallery
TOP COMPETITORS
^^^Source Above^^^
Pages: 1 Photos
ALMS GT race cars and their production counterparts talk a little closed-circuit smack at Miller Motorsports Park in Utah.
By the R&T Staff / Photos & Video by Jeff Allen, Brian Blades, Chris Cantle, Jay McNally, Bert Swift & Marc Urbano / Map & Graphs by Tim Barker
September 20, 2010
Slideshow >> Video: Click above Video ~> WoW Turn Up your Speaker's WoW, can you believe that people get paid Big $ to do this ?Quick…strip all the headlight decals, airbrushed grilles, press-on logos and faux taillights from a NASCAR stocker and you can instantly tell that it’s a Camry, right?…or is that a Fusion? Charger? Impala? Or perhaps some variety of Oldsmo-Buick? Au naturel, the bodies seemingly have the uniformity of a dozen AA eggs in a carton, conforming precisely to an elaborate series of templates and jigs. But what about the guy who wants to see a race car that looks like, for the most part, the high-performance sports car he drives on the street? There’s an app for that, as they say in smartphone circles, and it’s called the GT Class in the American Le Mans Series.
Here, we’re not dealing with tube-frame, live-axle Cookie Cutters of Tomorrow but cars that utilize production unit bodies (or perimeter frames in the case of the Corvette) as a starting point and have engine locations, cylinder counts and drive wheels as the manufacturers originally intended. Sure, the composite bodywork’s a little wider to cover generously sized slicks, and there are jungle-gym rollcages bracing things up and protecting the drivers. But even to fans in the cheap seats, the machines are instantly recognizable as slightly burlier versions of the F430, XKR, 911, Corvette and M3. And their aural signatures are just as distinctive…the Ferrari’s hyperkinetic shriek, the Corvette’s percussive bellowing, the Porsche’s quiet-by-comparison metallic rasp.
So with much cooperation of the race teams and the staff of Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah, Road & Track embarked on a classic road/track evaluation of both the race cars and their production counterparts. On a Wednesday practice before Sunday’s main event, our small platoon of editors, photographers and videographers broke camp from a nearby Salt Lake City hotel, then descended on the 3.048-mile “Outer Course” circuit with notepads, cameras (in-car and otherwise) and VBOX GPS data-acquisition equipment. This time, we left the driving to the factory drivers, analyzing their lapping data and taking careful notes of their impressions. Here’s what we found over a fast-paced and exhilarating day.
Up first: BMW M3 vs. M3 GT >>
Corvette ZR1 vs. C6.R
• Photos
• Video
• Data Panel
Final Thoughts
• Tech Support
• Track Map
• Overall Gallery
TOP COMPETITORS
- Dodge Viper SRT10 coupe
- Ferrari 458 Italia
- Lamborghini Gallardo LP550-2 Valentino Balboni
- Nissan GT-R
^^^Source Above^^^
Pages: 1 Photos
Last edited by Space; 09-27-2010 at 11:55 AM.
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