2016 Japanese Super GT

[MagVanisher]

@hvr777
Well, at least there's no sub-classes between All-Pro and Pro-Am within the GT300 class.

[Starfish Primer]

Originally Posted by MagVanisher

@hvr777
Well, at least there's no sub-classes between All-Pro and Pro-Am within the GT300 class.

Originally Posted by hvr777

Some of them are like "Pro-Am" lineup and there are also teams with "Full Pro" lineup.

Actually GT300 drivers come from various backgrounds (from former F1 test driver & GT500 driver Bjorn Wirdheim to Super Taikyu regular participants). Naturally this causes some multi-tier competition in GT300 itself.

Originally Posted by MagVanisher

@Starfish Primer
From what I remember, some GT300 teams have Pro-Am line-up. However, there are a few like Team Gainer have an All-Pro line-up.

Thanks a lot for your answers!

[hvr777]

Originally Posted by MagVanisher

@hvr777
Well, at least there's no sub-classes between All-Pro and Pro-Am within the GT300 class.

Yeah.

Actually it comes from my race-by-race observation. Looks like about half of GT300 teams has the chance to win the race but for another half is only have some chances at least to score points. But in the end, current GT300 lineup condition gives great experience for the competition.

[MagVanisher]

@J Jay
Well, sorry for the lame pun about μ's as it's because of them, the Red Team won the 66th Kohaku Uta Gassen.

Maybe we should tweet Nismo and Radio Le Mans about Masahiko Kondo's stellar singing career for 2016 Super GT season, should they return their coverage for it.

@hvr777
That's good, I like how everyone (sans lower-budget teams) has a chance in GT300 class.

[Japanese Samurai]

Team apr will announce 2016 SGT participation plan at Tokyo Auto Salon 2016 on Jan.15.
They confirm to reveal new Prius (ZVW50) GT300 at there.
http://as-web.jp/news/info.php?c_id=2&no=70365

[hvr777]

This is the interview of Hiroto Kaneso regarding his views on Super GT especially on his team's performance on 2015 season (on French, but it's easy to understand through Google translate)

http://www.endurance-info.com/fr/hir...-interessante/

One interesting thing, Kaneso-san doesn't want to step up to GT500 because of his intention to develop the car directly (in GT500, every teams basically only need to run the car while cars are already prepared & developed by the manufacturers)

[hvr777]

[OT] As the 3 Hours of Thailand (Asian Le Mans Series) already held qualifying yesterday, I want to give some lap time comparisons on Buriram United International Circuit between GT500, GT300, LMP2, LMP3, and GT (from AsLMS).

GT500: 1'25.295 (Yuji Tachikawa, #38 ZENT Cerumo RC F)
LMP2 : 1'26.869 (Sean Gelael, #9 Eurasia Motorsport Oreca 03R Nissan LMP2)
LMP3 : 1'30.444 (Ho-Pin Tung, #1 DC Racing Ligier JSP3)
GT : 1'33.410 (Rob Bell, #3 Clearwater Racing McLaren 650S GT3)
GT300 : 1'33.915 (Takeshi Tsuchiya, #25 VivaC 86 MC)

*GT500 & GT300 laptime data from 2015 race (certainly with weight handicap). Balance of Performance (each from Super GT and AsLMS) may be vary.

[MagVanisher]

@hvr777
While LMP2 got some decent lap-times, those prototypes couldn't catch up (or potentially surpass) against GT500 cars, especially when it comes to straight-line speed.

Of course, that comes from the current LMP2 regulations. Come 2017, I bet that it won't be the case as the prototypes got nothing against GT500 cars.

[hvr777]

Originally Posted by MagVanisher

@hvr777
While LMP2 got some decent lap-times, those prototypes couldn't catch up (or potentially surpass) against GT500 cars, especially when it comes to straight-line speed.

Of course, that comes from the current LMP2 regulations. Come 2017, I bet that it won't be the case as the prototypes got nothing against GT500 cars.

Yeah, 1.6 seconds difference for a lap is clearly significant, and at 2014 the fastest GT500 lap time (on qualifying) was even faster about 1 seconds (thanks to different weather conditions).

[hvr777]

Hiroki Katoh drove his #2 Lotus Evora MC at Motorhead Hill Climb event

http://red.ap.teacup.com/hiroki_katoh/681.html

[rich07]

Originally Posted by hvr777

Hiroki Katoh drove his #2 Lotus Evora MC at Motorhead Hill Climb event



http://red.ap.teacup.com/hiroki_katoh/681.html

Would be nice if video existed.

[Baliwa]

Originally Posted by rich07

Would be nice if video existed.

Actually they have the video but with Gainer GTR and Taisan Porsche instead.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEVq-Gs2BT4

btw Pacific this year still using MP4-12C or they move to 650S?

[hvr777]

Originally Posted by Baliwa

Actually they have the video but with Gainer GTR and Taisan Porsche instead.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEVq-Gs2BT4

btw Pacific this year still using MP4-12C or they move to 650S?

Still no given information yet from Pacific Racing for the McLaren car on this season. Hopefully they will get one (650S GT3) because the current car (MP4-12C) can be updated to 650S GT3.

Ah, regarding the video, look at 00:34, it's Ryohei Sakaguchi (#9 Pacific McLaren GT3) driving the Benetton F1 car.

[Artur]

Originally Posted by hvr777

[OT] As the 3 Hours of Thailand (Asian Le Mans Series) already held qualifying yesterday, I want to give some lap time comparisons on Buriram United International Circuit between GT500, GT300, LMP2, LMP3, and GT (from AsLMS).

GT500: 1'25.295 (Yuji Tachikawa, #38 ZENT Cerumo RC F)
LMP2 : 1'26.869 (Sean Gelael, #9 Eurasia Motorsport Oreca 03R Nissan LMP2)

Even the best LMP2s car of WEC are almost 4s off the GT500 best pole of Fuji(1.27.5 vs 1.31.2)

EURASIA MOTORSPORT's Oreca 03 best QLF time from the same 2015 Fuji weekend(they shared the track with WEC) was 1:38.461(the only other P2 there clocked 1:36.613). But they were better in the race with a best of 1.35.6(#9 Eurasia Motorsport Oreca 03R Nissan LMP2 clocked 1.36.1 )

Even with the race being mostly wet, thus only green when dry, KCMG(before the infamous accident with G-Force) still did a best race lap of 1.34.5

Clearly, the WEC's LMP2s are a couple of seconds faster than the ALMS's ones.

The 2014's best GT500 lap(pole), in Buriram, is only 0.5s faster than 2015's, not 1s, btw. So, the gap from GT500's best ever lap to ALMS's is just 2s.

This means that WEC LMP2s would be just as quick as the GT500, on Buriram.

On race laps, the GT500's best is only 1s faster than ALMS's P2s.

As I already posted here, the Fuji track highly flatters the GT500s and makes their performance be hyped.

Rebellion and ByKolles would confortably beat the GT500 on Buriram.

The reason for this is simple as GT500 are relatively poor on high speed corners and their speed relies on straight line speed and low speed corner grip

[hvr777]

Originally Posted by Artur

Even the best LMP2s car of WEC are almost 4s off the GT500 best pole of Fuji(1.27.5 vs 1.31.2)

EURASIA MOTORSPORT's Oreca 03 best QLF time from the same 2015 Fuji weekend(they shared the track with WEC) was 1:38.461(the only other P2 there clocked 1:36.613). But they were better in the race with a best of 1.35.6(#9 Eurasia Motorsport Oreca 03R Nissan LMP2 clocked 1.36.1 )

Even with the race being mostly wet, thus only green when dry, KCMG(before the infamous accident with G-Force) still did a best race lap of 1.34.5

Clearly, the WEC's LMP2s are a couple of seconds faster than the ALMS's ones.

The 2014's best GT500 lap(pole), in Buriram, is only 0.5s faster than 2015's, not 1s, btw. So, the gap from GT500's best ever lap to ALMS's is just 2s.

This means that WEC LMP2s would be just as quick as the GT500, on Buriram.

On race laps, the GT500's best is only 1s faster than ALMS's P2s.

As I already posted here, the Fuji track highly flatters the GT500s and makes their performance be hyped.

Rebellion and ByKolles would confortably beat the GT500 on Buriram.

The reason for this is simple as GT500 are relatively poor on high speed corners and their speed relies on straight line speed and low speed corner grip

Yeah, while GT500's relatively high top speed exaggerates its lap time (especially on Fuji), its massive downforce (resulted from its aero etc) keeps the car laps (a bit) faster than LMP2 (although with +100kg more kerb weight).

[TF110]

Plus weight handicaps on the gt500's. Theyre near 150kg heavier than lmp2.

[MagVanisher]

Originally Posted by hvr777

Still no given information yet from Pacific Racing for the McLaren car on this season. Hopefully they will get one (650S GT3) because the current car (MP4-12C) can be updated to 650S GT3.

Ah, regarding the video, look at 00:34, it's Ryohei Sakaguchi (#9 Pacific McLaren GT3) driving the Benetton F1 car.

Um, I don't think they don't have the money to upgrade their McLaren car to 650S GT3 specifications. By the way, Pacific Racing Team are operating in both D1 Grand Prix (which is a drifting series) and Super GT so if you want them to have the latest GT3 car, PRT should cease their drifting operations. Just look at their twitter page to find out more.

But then again, they're spending their time securing a deal with Love Live! Sunshine!!, especially Aqours!

[J Jay]

Originally Posted by MagVanisher

But then again, they're spending their time securing a deal with Love Live! Sunshine!!, especially Aqours!

Personally I think they've got their priorities just right

[rich07]

Originally Posted by J Jay

Personally I think they've got their priorities just right

?

[J Jay]

Originally Posted by rich07

?

It's a joke. I assume you've seen how enthusiastic I am whenever an itasha is mentioned?

[carbsmith]

I am pretty sure I went over the fact weather skews lap times practically as much as the difference between prototype classes before when this came up. It's really hard to say for sure how everything compares unless they actually run the same weekend.

There's also the issue that Buriram is the one track they don't extensively test at so it's likely the worst performance level of the season for Super GT. (I mean we're getting into something besides the theoretical potential of the cars if they raced in the same series here, but we all know that GT500s are as quick as they are in good part because they have very specialized tires)

If you really want to put a downer on things some more GT500s lack a lot of aerodynamic safety features LMPs have that they would need if they ran on the same tracks and there's a bunch of other things, but it doesn't change how exciting their speed is for what they are.

[rich07]

Originally Posted by J Jay

It's a joke. I assume you've seen how enthusiastic I am whenever an itasha is mentioned?

Ah yes googling Love Live Sunshine explains it a bit haha

[Artur]

GT500's Power/Weight = 640HP/1125kg(with driver and ballast on pole setter of 2014 Buriram event) = 0.568
LMP2's Power/Weight = 450HP/970kg(with driver) = 0.464

So, neglecting traction limits and air resistance, GT500s should accelerate 22% faster than LMP2s.

Top speed gap is quite big too given the almost 200HP difference(GT500s being 42% more powered)

GT500's extra weight will only significantly handicap them on high speed corners(LMP2s likely have more downforce too, methinks). On low speed corners, the tire war single, and shorter, stint rubber will greatly favours the GT500s

On summary, if a track has long straight combined with many low speed corners(like Fuji), that will favour GT500s and their laptimes will compare much better. If a track has shorter straights and many medium and high speed corners(like Buriram), then LMP2s will compare better.

[TF110]

lmp2 are higher than 450hp. I'd say 500hp is closer?

[Japanese Samurai]

Autosport web GT500 silly season report
http://as-web.jp/news/info.php?c_id=2&no=70501
Nissan
Chiyo will step up to GT500. (IMPUL or Kondo or MOLA)
Krumm might switch to foreign program.

Lexus
Hirakawa is visiting Europe. WEC test?
Caldarelli: GP2?
Tom's (#36) and Cerumo (#38) paring won't change.
LeMans (#6) and Bandoh (#19) might change the driver lineup.
Sekiguchi: Not Impul. But Lexus?
Kunimoto: Bandoh?
Yuichi Nakayama and Nick Cassidy will step up to GT500.

Honda
ARTA (#8) might change the driver lineup. Kobayashi? Kaneishi?