2011 Japanese Super GT

[Japanese Samurai]

According to Juichi Wakisaka's blog,
He will transfer to team SARD (#39).
Yesterday's blog title was "Shinki-Itten (Make a fresh start)".
He says that he is doing a new challenge at Sepang.
He made a fresh start with team SARD and Michelin tires.
He was a development driver of Bridgestone.
This will be advantageous to Michelin.
http://www.js-style.com/blog/2011/12/post_1278.html

[banzailap]

Originally Posted by BBSB

Matsuda to replace Treluyer then. I'm surprised, I thought they would stick with the Japanese+foreign pair formula like they traditionally did.

Not necessarily, JP Oliveira is also twitting from Sepang since Monday...

[Japanese Samurai]

According to Honda SGT driver's talk show,
the steering display of HSV-010GT has a function which displays the inner pressure and surface temperature of each tires in real time.
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/19331124

[Monkey Head]

Just seen some screen shot of Autosport (Japan) new issue has maken a silly season of 2012 but I can just seen partial of it. Can Samurai san prepare a dfart of the list? Thanks in advance !

[Monkey Head]

Originally Posted by Monkey Head

Just seen some screen shot of Autosport (Japan) new issue has maken a silly season of 2012 but I can just seen partial of it. Can Samurai san prepare a dfart of the list? Thanks in advance !

May be I should post what I can see on the screen shot firstly,part of GT300:

apr - Corolla - Nitta/Saga/Iwasaki(possible)
#33 Hankook KTR - GT3R - Kageyama(Annouced?)/Fuiji(Possible)
#34 Hankook KTR - GT3RS -
#43 ARTA - Garaiya - Takagi(Strong possible)/Kobayashi(possible)
#61 R&D Sport - BRZ - Sasaki/Yamano(Both Strong Possible)
#62 R&D Sport - BRZ?Legacy? - Sasaki/Yamano(Both Strong Possible)
#66 A Speed - Aston Martin - Yoshimoto(Annouced?)/Hoshino(Possible)
#86 JLOC - Gallardo - Sakemoto/Aoki(Both Annouced?)
#87 JLOC - Gallardo - Yoko/Orido(Both Strong Possible)
#88 JLOC - Gallardo - Hiroyuki/Sekiguchi (Both Possible)
#360 Tomei Sport - Corvette - Tanaka/Okamura(Both Strong Possible)

New Team

team RS - TBC(Nissan?) - Hoshino/Chiyo(both Strong Possible)
#21 Hitosuyama Racing - R8 - Tsuzuki(Annouced?)/Carlo Van Dam (Possible)
#22 Hitosuyama Racing - R8 - Michael Kim/Frank Yu/Y. Taniguchi (All Strong Possible)
#52 TBC - SLS AMG GT3 - Takeuchi/Kurosawa(Both Annouced?)
#48 TBC - TBC - Doctor Takamori(Annouced?)
apr - Prius - Nitta/Saga/Iwasaki(possible)
Good Smile Racing(new team??) - Z4 - Bamba(Annouced?)/Fuiji(Possible)

[Japanese Samurai]

Sorry, AUTOSPORT comes out tomorrow (Friday) in my hometown.

AUTOSPORT web reports SGT sepang test on Dec 26-28.
*Participation teams/cars: SARD (#39, MI), MOLA (#46,MI) and Nissan (#230, BS)
*Participation drivers:
#46: Masataka Yanagida, Ronnie Quintarelli, Yuhi Sekiguchi and Katsumasa Chiyo
#39: Hiroaki Ishiura and Juichi Wakisaka(?)
#230: Satoshi Motoyama, Tsugio Matsuda, J.P Oliveira, Yuhi Sekiguchi, Katsumasa Chiyo and Michael Krumm
http://as-web.jp/news/info.php?c_id=2&no=38412

[Japanese Samurai]

According to Sportscar-racing.net, JAF is rescheduling the 2012 SGT calendar.
There is possibility of change of 4 rounds which overlap with WEC.
(2/Fuji, 6/Fuji, 7/Autoplis, S/Fuji-JAFGP) Not Sepang
http://www.sports-carracing.net/2011...tm#111229news1

[Monkey Head]

Originally Posted by Japanese Samurai

According to Sportscar-racing.net, JAF is rescheduling the 2012 SGT calendar.
There is possibility of change of 4 rounds which overlap with WEC.
(2/Fuji, 6/Fuji, 7/Autoplis, S/Fuji-JAFGP) Not Sepang
http://www.sports-carracing.net/2011...tm#111229news1

According to Adverts from GT Asia's Japanese Agency,new Autopolis date are 28-30Sep,I think other round are too hard to change in case of 'excessive co-operation' bewteen Japanese national and International races.

P.S.well I have lost $$ due to date change of Sepang already....

[BBSB]

Interesting Michael Krumm was testing at Sepang. I wonder if he will return to SGT next year. How old is he now?


ps: could some japanese speaker translate the following, please? thanks

「20 周目にGT300 に直線で当てられていたんだ。マシンのフィーリング（の変化の仕方）は、パーフェクト
だったんだけどね。序盤はオーバーステアだったものが、自分のパートの中盤には軽いアンダーステア
に変わって、終盤は素晴らしい状態になった。ラクに勝てたはずだよ。これでチャンピオンの可能性は極
めて薄くなってしまったけど、とにかく最終戦は勝つ。それが我々の成すべきことであり、成さねばならな
いことだ」

[Japanese Samurai]

Originally Posted by BBSB

「20 周目にGT300 に直線で当てられていたんだ。マシンのフィーリング（の変化の仕方）は、パーフェクトだったんだけどね。序盤はオーバーステアだったものが、自分のパートの中盤には軽いアンダーステアに変わって、終盤は素晴らしい 状態になった。ラクに勝てたはずだよ。これでチャンピオンの可能性は極めて薄くなってしまったけど、とにかく最終戦は勝つ。それが我々の成すべきことであり、成さねばならないことだ」

I was hit against GT300 car at 20laps.
Although the feeling of the machine was perfect.
It was oversteer at first. However, it changed from the middle of my stints to understeer.
Properly speaking, it must have been able to won comfortably.
Our champion's possibility became very difficult now.
However, we have to win at final round. It is what we should do.

AUTOhebdo - Test drive Nissan GT-R R35 GT500 at Fuji
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsK7jOD2Em0
*The monitor of dashboard displays the air pressure of tires in real time (mosaic-masked).

[Japanese Samurai]

**AUTOSPORT's SGT report
*2012 GT500 driver lineup expectations.
NISSAN
#1 MOLA: Masataka Yanagida*, Ronnie Quintarelli*
#12 IMPUL: Tsugio Matsuda*, J.P Oliveira(??), Bjorn Wirdheim(??)
#23 NISMO: Satoshi Motoyama*, J.P Oliveira(??), Michael Krumm(??), Bjorn Wirdheim(??)
#24 KONDO: Hironobu Yasuda*, Michael Krumm(??), Bjorn Wirdheim(??), Yuhi Sekiguchi(??)
*Nissan might introduce new monocoque. However, it is unclear whether the newly designed monocoque is accepted.

HONDA
#8 ARTA: Ralph Firman*, Kosuke Matsuura(??), Hideki Mutoh(??), Takashi Kobayashi(??)
#17 REAL: Toshihiro Kaneishi*, Kodai Tsukakoshi(??), Yuhki Nakayama(??), Hideki Mutoh(??), Takashi Kobayashi(??)
#18 DOME: Takashi Kogure*, Kodai Tsukakoshi(??), Carlo van Dam(??), Andrea Caldarelli(??), Hideki Mutoh(??), Yuhi Sekiguchi(??)
#32 Nakajima: Ryo Michigami*, Yuhki Nakayama(?), Daisuke Nakajima(??)
#100 Kunimitsu: Takuya Izawa*, Naoki Yamamoto*
*Aero parts of 2012 spec HSV-010GT will change a lot.
*DOME carried out driver audition on December 21-22. Participation drivers are Carlo van Dam, Andrea Caldarelli and Hideki Mutoh.
*It seems that there is no team which changes tire manufacturer.

LEXUS
#6 LeMans: Daisuke Ito*, Kazuya Oshima(?), Richard Lyons(??)
#19 Bandoh: Tatsuya Kataoka(??), Seiji Ara(??), Takuto Iguchi(??), Yuji Kunimoto(??), Tomonobu Fujii(??)
#35 KRAFT: Juichi Wakisaka(??), Takuto Iguchi(??), Yuji Kunimoto(??), Richard Lyons(??), Andrea Caldarelli(??), Tomonobu Fujii(??)
#36 Tom's: Kazuki Nakajima* Loic Duval(?), Kazuya Oshima(??), Richard Lyons(??)
#38 Cerumo: Yuji Tachikawa*, Kohei Hirate*
#39 SARD: Hiroaki Ishiura*, Takuto Iguchi(??), Juichi Wakisaka(??), Kazuya Oshima(??), Richard Lyons(??)
*2012 spec SC430 will be modified greatly also in appearance and inside.
*Circut closed test was of 2012 spec SC430.

*---Confirmed
?---Strong possible
??--Possible

[BBSB]

Originally Posted by Japanese Samurai

I was hit against GT300 car at 20laps.
Although the feeling of the machine was perfect.
It was oversteer at first. However, it changed from the middle of my stints to understeer.
Properly speaking, it must have been able to won comfortably.
Our champion's possibility became very difficult now.
However, we have to win at final round. It is what we should do.

Thanks, I tried the google traslator but it is useless. That was Ralph Firman at Autopolis 2009, they should have won that.

I was bored so I went to youtube to enjoy some supergt racing and I found the these onboards of that race (2009 Rd8 Autopolis) and from the inside you can really notice many interesting things like how enjoyable this track must be to drive. Other things that stand out to me were:

- How the NSX braking is inferior to that of SC and GTR (and indeed the HSV)
- Look at the driving skills of this certain German driver in the Petronas SC, how he manages the traffic, etc. The onboard really shows how amazingly skilled this guy is.
- This also reminded me how much I miss the good old NSX on GT competition. Thank you GTA
- Notice how Firman is now on the tail of the 2 leaders, the #38 SC and #36 SC (despite whatever happened with the GT300 car that it never showed), I don't know what the hell happened to Izawa to bring the car home in only 4th place, some 36 sec. behind, even got beated by Ara in the Kondo GTR. They could have won that race and the title. Even if they finished 2nd here the title was theirs as they won the following and last race.

part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNQL_LFwrH8
part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7RzBEc8VJ0
part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlwIk...eature=related

"It seems that there is no [Honda] team which changes tire manufacturer"
Well I won't say I'm surprised but that's disapointing. Stupid Honda. Next year michelin will win again because I'm pretty sure most of the races will be affected by rain just like this year. You heard it here first

[BBSB]

I forgot to mention, notice that the 2009 spec ARTA NSX has different aero at the rear end from the other NSX's. Why is that?

[BBSB]

Originally Posted by Japanese Samurai

HONDA
#8 ARTA: Ralph Firman*, Kosuke Matsuura(??), Hideki Mutoh(??), Takashi Kobayashi(??)

I also want to give my 2 cents about that^.

According to autosport ARTA will renew their driver lineup. At the recent Honda test Ralph Firman and Kosuke Matsuura drove the ARTA HSV-010. No Koba nor Mutoh. So it's likely they will go with Matsuura to partner Firman... and I don't have a good feeling about this. They are shooting themselves in the foot yet again!

This is another inexperienced driver we're talking about! Matsuura joined ARTA's GT300 team in 2011 to replace Morio Nitta and they finished in an unprecedented lowly 12th in the drivers championship. Note that this is one of the best teams in gt300, they almost always competed for the title until this year, and they won titles before. Now, I don't follow gt300 closely so I don't know if their results this year were due to poor luck or whatever, but surely that's not a good sign? My guess is that he will do a little better than Mutoh/Koba but not enough to help the team regain it's former status.

There are so many good japanese drivers out there, why Aguri always has to go the wrong way? This is frustrating because:

1) With good drivers this team was either the best or the 2nd best Honda team.
2) Firman will continue to drive his balls off without reward.
3) Seeing this, Honda should at least move Firman to other HSV team where they already have a good driver - like at Dome #18 or Keihin #17, and thus make sure they atleast have 1 good pairing so they have any hope for next year's championship!

All I can say is, what a waste...

There's no shame in shopping for talent outside your own**. It seems to me that Aguri (and that goes for Honda aswell) has some taboo on that or something.

**Nissan and Toyota do it all the time and results are:
Titles won since 1998:
Nissan: 6
Toyota: 5
Honda: 3

[Japanese Samurai]

ARTA (#8) was a works team of Honda till 2007.
Dome was taking charge of the maintenance of their machine till then.
http://supergt.net/supergt/2007/07te...xe_t008.htm?tm
However, Super Aguri company is maintaining the machine of ARTA since 2008.
http://supergt.net/supergt/2008/08te...ex_e001.htm?tm
In short, ARTA is a privater team now.

The works teams of Honda are Weider (#18) and Kunimitsu (#100).
Maintenance garage of Weider: Dome
Maintenance garage of Kunimitsu: M-TEC/Mugen

[rich07]

Originally Posted by Japanese Samurai

*2012 spec SC430 will be modified greatly also in appearance and inside.
*Circut closed test was of 2012 spec SC430.

2012 SC430 to look like LFA? Here's hoping..

[Speed-King]

Originally Posted by rich07

2012 SC430 to look like LFA? Here's hoping..

Probably not - that would be neither here nor there and would probably look horrible.

Maybe something like a flat-nose/widebody-treatment?

[BBSB]

Originally Posted by Japanese Samurai

ARTA (#8) was a works team of Honda till 2007.
Dome was taking charge of the maintenance of their machine till then.
http://supergt.net/supergt/2007/07te...xe_t008.htm?tm
However, Super Aguri company is maintaining the machine of ARTA since 2008.
http://supergt.net/supergt/2008/08te...ex_e001.htm?tm
In short, ARTA is a privater team now.

The works teams of Honda are Weider (#18) and Kunimitsu (#100).
Maintenance garage of Weider: Dome
Maintenance garage of Kunimitsu: M-TEC/Mugen

Ah, now that's interesting. I have checked those team information pages before but I never gave much importance to the "Machine Maintenance" bit. I thought ARTA was still a works Honda team (2009 is interesting their car seemed to have different aero treatment than other NSX and was clearly faster, leading one to believe this still a works team), apparently I was wrong.

So that means the HSV's which aren't maintained by either M-TEC or Dome are last on the list at getting newly developed parts by Honda (and M-TEC and Dome) during a season?
But how do we explain 2009 case? Did/Does ARTA have own/private development?

Also, the team Kunimitsu still being a works team was a surprise. I had the idea that they lost that status to ARTA long ago or at least got less atention, so I was wrong again. That makes their results in the last few years even more disapointing, IMO. I wonder if their problem is technical (set-up mechanics, engineers, etc) or more driver related. The newer private Honda team Keihin Real Racing (#17) is giving them a real ass whooping (same tire brand). It must be embarrassing to the oldest Honda team.

[Japanese Samurai]

Originally Posted by BBSB

So that means the HSV's which aren't maintained by either M-TEC or Dome are last on the list at getting newly developed parts by Honda (and M-TEC and Dome) during a season?

Apparently, no.
The problem is what "works team" means in Honda.
In my opinion, works team in Honda is a team to which many budgets of Honda are supplied.
However, of course, the budget of Honda is supplied also to the private/satellite team.
The person concerned with a driver contract is not a team but Honda.
Therefore, in Honda, there is no difference between woks team and private/satellite team not much.
Private/satellite team has the high independency of team management.
However, ARTA is not an ace team now.

[BBSB]

Originally Posted by Japanese Samurai

Apparently, no.
The problem is what "works team" means in Honda.
In my opinion, works team in Honda is a team to which many budgets of Honda are supplied.
However, of course, the budget of Honda is supplied also to the private/satellite team.
The person concerned with a driver contract is not a team but Honda.
Therefore, in Honda, there is no difference between woks team and private/satellite team not much.
Private/satellite team has the high independency of team management.
However, ARTA is not an ace team now.

Let me see if I get what you said...

1) The difference between a works Honda team and a private Honda team is that a works team gets a bigger financing/budget from Honda. But the specification of the car is the same for ALL the teams and they all get new parts/developments during a season equally. So basically there should be no difference in performance between the cars (unless they use different tire brands).

2) Drivers are contracted to Honda and not to the teams. It's Honda who deals with the driver contracts and pays them. And now comes the interesting question: Do the teams have any say on what drivers to choose/hire to drive their car? (I'm frequently blaming Aguri for choosing the wrong drivers and maybe the chap is completely inocent, lol).

3) In short, the private [Honda] teams have no disadvantage afterall, performance-wise. Unless they get the cheaper (worse) drivers for not having a bigger budget like the works teams.

Did I get this right?

[Japanese Samurai]

1) Yes.
However, delivery of the new parts is carried out with the priority to Weider (#18) in many cases. It is only because Dome is a development team.

2) Probably, yes.
It is because Honda has not declared this.
(Nissan has declared that all Nissan GT drivers are contracts with NISMO.)
3) Basically yes.

[BBSB]

Thanks.
So it doesn't matter who carries out the maintenance of the machine, any team has the potential to fight for the title. Fair enough.

[TF110]

When will the new spec 2012 cars start testing, Samurai?

[Japanese Samurai]

It might be Sepang test on January.
However, we don't know 2012 GT500 regulations yet.

[alexkiller8]

if i remeber well, in 2012 was talked about engines more powerfull between 550-580hp to let the gt500 still be faster in straight than gt300 gt3 cars with a similiar power output (but much less downforce) and a better downforce on the front of the car with a new kind of splitter and winglets.