Holden Monaro For British BT's

[egor]

Emotional Engineering will run a Holden Monaro in the 2003 British GT Championship.
The team is headed by former Ascari commercial director Allen Orchard, with Ben Collins being one of the drivers in the frame for the drive. The car may race under the Vauxhall name as the road going version will be introduced into the UK as a Vauxhall Monaro later on this year.

[Aysedasi]

Any pics? Is this a real GT or a saloon like an M3?

(Pardon my ignorance).

[Mal]

I think it is more like a M3

[Graham Goodwin]

This is the same kind of car that won the Bathurst 24 Hours

[KA]

Is this going to be GT or GTO class?

[Speeddemon555]

Hmmm, I hope that they use the Pontiac GTO model for racing here in the states.

[KA]

The Monaro- in road and race form-


http://www.holden.com.au/www-holden/...d=5&catid=1004

[egor]

Is this going to be GT or GTO class?

I don't know, but they say it will need work to make it eligible to race, and are not expecting to race til mid season.

They also say plans for the future hope to include Le Mans.

[Graham Goodwin]

Its a GT class car

[27tim]

Its a GT car and its going to rock :-)

Don't suppose by any chance anyone has a copy of Autosport and a scanner right there and could email me a copy of the story...I'm out of the UK so can't pick up a copy of the mag...

[27tim]

Someone emailed me a scan...thanks for that...

[rdjones]

I also see that they want to enter Le Mans in 2004 as well..............

[Aysedasi]

Sorry, looks like a Touring Car to me....

[Antrodemus]

An M3 still looks like a touring car too.
And you don't get many touring cars with 7L engines!

[Splatz the Cow]

Are you all insane?

It has no hope of passing Le Mans regs in its current form because it uses a non-standard engine. Technically its illegal for Procar Nations Cup use in Australia too, but rules can be bent a long way when you want a local car to win an international event.

Why would anyone drive this car? You know its going to be lapped 20 times by the Corvette with the same engine because its 400Kg lighter.

The BPR/FIA-GT series took 2/3 years to break its own rules for a manufacturer, The Bathurst event did it at its first attempt.

One big Cringe moment for Australian motorsport when a +700hp 900Nm car is competeing against cars averaging less than 500hp.

[27tim]

It is in production with the 7ltr 'vette engine

http://www.drive.com.au/news/article...XZDA6K3CD.html

[GTRMagic]

Is the car being constructed in Australia by Garry Rogers Motorsport, the team who built the Bathurst-winning car?

They have all the technical specs for the car, given that they helped Holden homologate it, and any vehcile produced elsewhere is not likely to be as pukka as a GRM vehicle

[27tim]

Yeah, its being built by GRM...

[racer69]

It's interesting that it will race in the GT class, it was my understanding it was being aimed at the N-GT class (GTO?)

At Bathurst it was outqualified by the Ferrari 360GT and the Cirtek Porsche GT3RS nealy won the race.

Great to see it racing in Europe

[Aysedasi]

Originally posted by Antrodemus
An M3 still looks like a touring car too.
And you don't get many touring cars with 7L engines!

The fact that a car has a big engine doesn't make it a sports car in my book. Regulars here know what I think about the M3 - it has no place in GT racing and certainly no place at Le Mans. Having seen a better picture of the Holden in "F1 Adulation Weekly" yesterday, I was right. Its a touring car.

IMO

[Muppet]

The Monaro should be an example of what the BTCC should be running IMO ;-)

However, they're quite content with running their food mixers on wheels so I'm more than happy seeing it in British GTs.

[Splatz the Cow]

Your right 27tim they've been saying that a lot. But where is it, I can assure you that in Australia it is NOT produced. They may be working on it now but... don't you think its a bit late. The race is over! This is 911 GT1 and M3 GTR V8 all over again. Sportscar racing has been taken from behind once again by basically dishonest administration. They now the car has not been built, in fact it was guarenteed entry even before the prototyped had been built.

In my opinion the car was given entry to have a 'local' car draw the crowds.

Hey if I spot one on the roads I'll be sure to post it.

But like I said, the race is already over, and parity? Does the Porsche GT3-RS produce 700HP or the Ferrari or Mosler? Let's not even go there shall we?

[Splatz the Cow]

The Porsche nearly won only for two reasons: 1) because the Holden Bandwagon was in the pits having repairs done, 2) David Brabham was driving it.

Did you even watch the start or the race?

[27tim]

StC, I hear what you are saying about the 24hrs down in Oz, my main interest is in how its going to go in Brit GTs and hopefully LeMans...It was heavy when it appeared down under, expect it to have been on a diet for the Brit GT assault :-)

[alfasud]

In many ways it is a 2 door touring car like the M3 and like the M3 GTR V8 there are no production examples. There are reports in the media that 50 cars will (might?) be made.

There has already been a thread about this and it was suggested that 50 cars would not be enough for N-GT (are 75 cars required for N-GT?). But maybe 50 cars are o.k. for GT?
http://tentenths.com/forum/showthrea...threadid=32409

We'll see which class it is eligible for, when and if the production cars roll off the production line. I expect that inlet restrictors and weight can be adjusted to suit.