Quote:
Originally Posted by Tourer
Part of the question that needs to be looked at in relation to GT3 is the cost of the cars and also repair costs. Cost of the cars is much higher than a Supercar but I honestly couldn't give you comparison repair cost estimates.
It's hard to compare the performance of DTM & Supercars as I don't think they've ever run on the same track. DTM cars have less power but are lighter and have a lot more aero. I suspect that there wouldn't be a great deal of difference, depending on the track they are both running at. I've seen an article showing a lap time 1.5 seconds quicker than a GT3 in a DTM car (both BMWs).
In reality, there's probably not a huge range of lap time difference between a GT3, DTM car and Supercar, with much of the variable in time difference being down to the nature of the track at which testing is taking place.
|
I'm not trying to compare costs to repair Supercars vs DTM or GT3, I'm making a point of the costs of a Supercars-level series using converted road cars instead of tube frame racecars. I'm only using GT3 and DTM for points of comparison on how far things could safely be taken before costs were prohibitive.
GT3 is very expensive in part because the body panels are made of carbon fiber - not something that enters into the equation for a roadcar-derived Supercars concept. DTM cars are so insanely quick that to make them actually be production-based while meeting both speed and safety needs would actually make them MORE expensive than the purpose-built carbon tub design they use.
The closest we've ever come to DTM level performance from a production chassis car was pre-2012 GT500, and even then they only required use of the original unibody - and not even the ENTIRE unibody, just the portion that encompassed the driver's compartment. Everything else was completely custom. Still a very different beast from what we're talking here.