According to news from IMSA, General Motors is currently working on a Chevrolet Corvette C8 for IMSA’s GT3 class. This move follows the decision to phase out the GTLM class—where the C8.R ran—after this year.
The news comes from a discussion with Mark Stielow, Director of Motorsport Competition Engineering for GM Racing, who “confirmed GM is working on a GT3 version of the C8-generation Corvette.” …
How long before we get this in rfactor 2?
I'm wondering what this will do to Corvette's GTE Pro entries for Le Mans
This is good news. I hope we will once again see customer Corvettes racing in road racing events around the world.
Chevy needs to figure out a way to "sell" them but they must be raced ,
Not raced and Chevy takes them back ,
Ferrari sold a Series car (I think ) where you did not really own the car and Ferrari supplied the support , maybe not that idea but something that rich guys cannot just buy them and park them .
Yes, hopefully many many cars will be sold and raced! That would be trickle-down grassroots racing I could get behind!
In reply to Red5 :
Yup, figure it's good for the collector car world (factory-built Corvette race car!) and the motorsports world (factory-built Corvette race car!).
Maybe they could build a version that would slot into club racing, SCCA T1 / GT2?
Porsche sells plenty of "GT3" and "GT3RS" 911's. Hope to see the Vette follow a simliar idea.
Agreed. Let's hope they won't pull the same build and don't sell like they did with the ATS-V.R GT3 race car.
That ATS-V GT3 race car was complicated, expensive and far from stock. Hopefully The GT3 Vette will be closer to stock, like a GT3 Porsche. They need to build something that doesn't need a large, dedicated team to operate. Ford sold a bunch of the factory Mustangs race cars that way at various level of tune.
Toyspyder said:This is good news. I hope we will once again see customer Corvettes racing in road racing events around the world.
They won't. I am willing to bet all my Dogecoin on the fact they will make it like the Lexus GTD program where only one "team" can run it.
In reply to Red5 :
I highly doubt there were teams that could not field the ATS-V.R.
Cadillac's own release indicated that ATS-V.R was "developed with durability in mind, particularly with the potential of customer sales or other racing in the future." In the same breath, they ruled out customer cars because it was there "responsibility as the constructor to make sure it’s right." Customer/privateer teams were lining up to buy the race car when it debuted in 2015. Cadillac still turned them down from 2015 up to 2017 when they departed the series.
In reply to Strike_Zero :
Porsche GT3 Cup cars as well as Boss 302S factory Mustang race cars can be owned and operated by a solo person, they don't require a team. I bet that the ATS-V GT3 car would have, it was a pure motorsport piece. I would like to see two levels of car. A GT3 car with the 5.5 DOHC motor and a 'club' level car with the 6.2. I wonder how the factory gearbox will stand up to long hot track days...?
DirtyBird222 said:Toyspyder said:This is good news. I hope we will once again see customer Corvettes racing in road racing events around the world.
They won't. I am willing to bet all my Dogecoin on the fact they will make it like the Lexus GTD program where only one "team" can run it.
The intent behind the new GTD-Pro class is to separate the "works" teams and give a more realistic class for the customer/privateer teams. Specifically, the Lexus team currently running GTD will be in the GTD-pro class next year. Most of the manufacturers have a similar deal.
The Corvette effort for the last ~20 years has been a "works" team. Provided, GM is serious about selling a customer race car, the options could be very good. In the late 2000's when I was working across the pond a lot, there was only one regular Corvette team (Luc Alphand) and they got destroyed by the GM effort each year at LeMans, despite being a well run organization. GM has put all their eggs in the Pratt&Miller basket for a long time now as the factory team.
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