2017 Japanese Super GT

[TF110]

Link here, race is live guys!

[J Jay]

Two Hondas in the pits...

Edit - Big smash between the #31 Prius and the Arta NSX. The NSX lost it on its own and the Prius has nowhere to go.

[MagVanisher]

Should No. 36 au LC500 car be penalized for hitting the Denso car? Still salty that it got away with a win!

[Japanese Samurai]

It was judged as racing accident.

Sunday press conference by GTA (Masaaki Bandoh) Part.2
http://supergt.net/news/single/17131

*About meaning of holding Super GT in Kumamoto.
-SUPER GT wants to be closely related to the local community of each host circuit.
-I told all entrants to do the great race the people who suffered by earthquake can enjoy.

*About BoP change for NSX-GT
-Reason of midship handicap reduction is because there was no time to decide about BoP beforehand because vehicle became new from this season.
-There are no plans which do BoP change in other vehicles.
-This measure doesn't mean abolishing midship handicaps.

*About GT300 BoP
-We judged that there were no reasons that the weight is increased for JAF-GT300 in the present.

*About regulations unifications with DTM
-The basic accord of SGT and DTM will be reconfirmed within 6 weeks.

[Japanese Samurai]

Team Tsuchiya (#25) had a trouble by which one of lift pumps inside fuel tank breaks in final stage of the race.

Team ARTA (#55) chose the strategy only left side tire exchanges.

[J Jay]

Originally Posted by MagVanisher

Should No. 36 au LC500 car be penalized for hitting the Denso car? Still salty that it got away with a win!

No, not when the other GT500 runners managed to race side-by-side for multiple corners but Hirate thought he could squeeze Nakajima when he was barely half a car ahead. Racing incident is the call I would have gone for as well.

[Japanese Samurai]

Masaaki Bandoh (GTA chairperson) always comes to GSR's grid and drinks down a water of Tatsuya Kataoka every race.
https://twitter.com/2nd48819035/stat...98508524584960

[MagVanisher]

That was weird coming from Bandoh-san.

[Japanese Samurai]

According to Response.jp,
Midship handicap (29kg) is not changed.
Minus 15kg for NSX-GT is a special performance adjustment according to Super GT sporting regulations Article 24.
https://response.jp/article/2017/05/21/294985.html

[Japanese Samurai]

According to Car Watch,
Masaaki Bandoh reveals that he had seen "NRE" engine at AUDI in Germany.
(He revealed it as secret story.)
In a word, DTM manufacturers have a intention to introduce NRE engine for DTM.
http://car.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/news/1060751.html

[MagVanisher]

Wow, the German manufacturers are adapting the NRE regulations in DTM.

[J Jay]

Great news, good for Audi for finally getting there, and hopefully for putting some of their LMP employees (like Herr Baretzky) to good use.

However, Audi were always the most receptive to the adoption of a NRE/GRE, and they are the only (German) manufacturer that I know of to openly discuss the difficulties in developing it*. It's still a long way from here to seeing all three DTM cars with NREs in them, and another leap from that to enough commonality to see joint races or even a series.

*If anyone knows otherwise, I'm all ears.

[TF110]

Originally Posted by Japanese Samurai

According to Car Watch,
Masaaki Bandoh reveals that he had seen "NRE" engine at AUDI in Germany.
(He revealed it as secret story.)
In a word, DTM manufacturers have a intention to introduce NRE engine for DTM.
http://car.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/news/1060751.html

Finally! That's step one, now to see if the others are going to follow suit like you said J Jay.

[Matt]

I thought Audi had an NRE developed for a few years now?

Or was that BMW?

[chernaudi]

Ulrich Bartezky was pushing for the global race engine (GRE) which is similar to the NRE back nearly a decade ago. Of course, that was when he was designing the Audi Sport LMP1 diesel engines and wanted to apply what he learned from that to a gasoline engine.

Not sure that DTM will be the place for that, as it's an "entertainment" (read NASCAR-like quasi spec series) series where the cars are heavily in spec territory.

[bentley speed 8]

Great race by the Keihin to get 2nd place after starting from the pits. Also that 6 car scrap for 3rd place was really good to watch.

By now it is quite clear though that the Lexus is just on another planet pacewise, and only the ballast and fuel restrictions ensured Honda and Nissan stayed in the fight. Let's see what kind of development they can bring in the next rounds, as otherwise it will inevitably be a Lexus showdown for the title fight.

[MagVanisher]

By the way, it's great that DTM is taking the NRE concept seriously, but let's not forget that ACO won't allow Bandoh's baby to Le Mans because GT500 cars are faster than GTE and they won't allow that (If only GTE are faster than LMP2 cars).

As for the current season, I agree that we shouldn't have a Lexus domination in the remaining rounds.

[Japanese Samurai]

According to Autosport web,
Team Tsuchiya (#25) had a trouble in left side lift pump of fuel tank.
So Tsuchiya made refueling time long for 2 seconds.
Therefore, though the pump didn't operate in the final stage of the race, they could avoided running out of gas.
They finally won by the difference for 0.091 seconds.
http://www.as-web.jp/supergt/123840?all

[Matt]

Originally Posted by chernaudi

Ulrich Bartezky was pushing for the global race engine (GRE) which is similar to the NRE back nearly a decade ago. Of course, that was when he was designing the Audi Sport LMP1 diesel engines and wanted to apply what he learned from that to a gasoline engine.

Not sure that DTM will be the place for that, as it's an "entertainment" (read NASCAR-like quasi spec series) series where the cars are heavily in spec territory.

SGT is first and foremost an "entertainment" series. The series head even says so.

[chernaudi]

Problem is that DTM to an extent fashions itself on being the German answer to NASCAR, and everyone in the series, Mercedes-Benz, BMW and even Audi are (or at least were) running cars based on cars that they sell to the public that have V8 engines in them at the time they switched from sedans to coupes (something that NASCAR can only say about the Chevy SS in Cup and the Mustang and Camaro in Xfinity).

Aside from pushing an engine concept they want and to push for a true unification of engine regs in DTM and SGT, I don't get what Audi Sport stand to gain from running a 4 cylinder in the RS 5, which, as a road car, came as standard with a V8. Yes, the new RS 5 has a forced induction engine, but that's a twin turbo V6, and the BMW M4 as a turbocharged inline 6, and the C63 AMG now has a twin turbo V8. The problem is getting BMW and M-B on board.

In that way, I can understand what Audi Sport want, as well as giving Baretzky something to do outside of the now non-existent LMP1 program.

[TF110]

The Audi A5 comes with a turbo 4. Don't see the big deal in them running one in a dtm car?

[chernaudi]

In DTM, the big three Germans are running the top of the line mid-sized coupes, not the bread and butter/meat and potatoes sedans and coupes like pre-2013.

I'd be like if Ford wanted to race the Mustang anywhere or GM with the Camaro, they'd probably have the V8, even though the Mustang can be had with the turbo 4.

Currently, the RS 5 has a twin turbo V6, the M4 a turbo straight 6, and the C43/63 AMG have a twin turbo V6 or twin turbo V8. Only the A5, 428 and C250 have turbo inline 4s, but those "bread and butter" coupes aren't what Audi, BMW and M-B want to run in DTM.

But then again, DTM is essentially a silhouette car series that are basically front engined LMPs, and Super GT have been there since they got rid of having to use production car unitbodies after 2008. And you won't find a Nissan GT-R (twin turbo V6) Lexus LC500 (V8 hybrid) or Honda/Acura NSX (twin turbo V6 hybrid) with turbo four bangers in them.

[Matt]

I was gonna say, the GT500 cars currently all run the turbo fours, when none of the road going models have that engine.

I fail to see the issue?

[chernaudi]

In a silhouette car series, I don't, unless teams and car makers want to use it as a marketing tool. If they want to market the road cars that the race cars are based off of, it'd make more sense to use some production based parts, such as the main unit body and powertrain.

[hondafan37]

Originally Posted by chernaudi

In DTM, the big three Germans are running the top of the line mid-sized coupes, not the bread and butter/meat and potatoes sedans and coupes like pre-2013.

I'd be like if Ford wanted to race the Mustang anywhere or GM with the Camaro, they'd probably have the V8, even though the Mustang can be had with the turbo 4.

Currently, the RS 5 has a twin turbo V6, the M4 a turbo straight 6, and the C43/63 AMG have a twin turbo V6 or twin turbo V8. Only the A5, 428 and C250 have turbo inline 4s, but those "bread and butter" coupes aren't what Audi, BMW and M-B want to run in DTM.

But then again, DTM is essentially a silhouette car series that are basically front engined LMPs, and Super GT have been there since they got rid of having to use production car unitbodies after 2008. And you won't find a Nissan GT-R (twin turbo V6) Lexus LC500 (V8 hybrid) or Honda/Acura NSX (twin turbo V6 hybrid) with turbo four bangers in them.

It seems that Nissan will use the 2 liter turbo four cylinder engine in the GTR GT3 2018 too.
http://www.dailysportscar.com/2017/0...nismo-gt3.html