The New Audi R8 LMS GT2 Revealed

[Luciano Santos Filho]

Could someone be kind enough to create a spreadsheet or list in order for the classes, I am confused now.

The spreadsheet won't work, the way they named it breaks Excel......

 

[E304LIFE]

It's about bloody time.

 

[ionONE1]

 

[farjam]

700hp, no TC no abs and load up the grid with amateurs. Everyone will tune in.

A public online lobby i say i'll pay for watching it

 

[aka2k]

It's pretty clear that the generation designing cars these days grew up watching Transformers and playing with Hot Wheels.

 

[Andrew Harper]

Ok, apologies if I have got some points wrong (from what I remember) but this is I think the story about the rebirth of GT2.

There were wealthy owners of La Ferrari’s, Aston Martin Vulcans, McLaren Senna’s (for example) that wanted to go racing. The SRO started to put some plans into action to try and allow these owners to race their cars. Purely an AM class race series that would support the main Blancpain series. High power exotic super cars. I think the talk was 45 minutes races. Something like that.

For one reason or another that plan failed (the last I saw they only have 6 cars,which wasn’t enough) so SRO worked on plans to bring GT2 back and this is the result.

To try and clear some of this up.

1. They are for gentleman drivers only, no pros.
2. They will race on their own and in their own series. A sort of cup series I suppose but will have different manufacturers.
3. The races will be short in length.
4. The cars are technically fair simpler than GT3 and in some ways GT4.

It’s purely a spec series of car with high power, low aero, designed for am drivers to go racing without the huge expense of GT3.

How many more we’ll get I don’t know. There are no real noises from other manufacturers that are interested. However if Audi have got involved then maybe Lamborghini may do a GT2 spec car.

People are asking why bother? I think it’s just purely the SRO trying to fill a gap for GT racing but cheaper race cars, and shorter races for the wealthy amateur to go racing.

Will we see these cars appear elsewhere? Depends. Most GT Championships are run by the SRO organisation so they’ll probably try and stop these cars appearing elsewhere.

However I feel GTE is in danger of going the way of GT1 so who knows.

 

[Andrew Harper]

It's pretty clear that the generation designing cars these days grew up watching Transformers and playing with Hot Wheels.

I just know the next time I’m in my local petrol station I’m gonna see a car on the front cover of Max Power magazine with a Honda Civic and yellow striped tyres. Lol

 

[Matt Y]

>GT2
>Put between GT3 and GT4

HONK HONK

 

[Margel]

Actually i like the Concept of a GT Class with more Power than GT3 or even GTE and less Downforce. But i also think it doesn't fit in really well in the existing GT-Classes and i also don't like the Concept that it will only be for Gentlemen Drivers, i really would like to see Pro's driving these Monsters.

Also 330K ?! I think it was supposed to be simpler and cheaper than GT3. Of course this is only the prize of the car, i don't know what it costs to actually bring it on Track and race, compared to GT3, but a new GT3 car isn't much more expensive as far as i know and i don't think tyres, fuel, transport etc. will be much cheaper... I think many Gentlemen Drivers who can afford it will just stick to GT3, since they also seem easier to drive with less Power and more Downforce...

 

[BrettSinclair1]

Do we really need another GT category? This is getting as crazy as the (lower) Formula categories.
Between the future Hypercars, GTE, GT3, GT4, Super GT / DTM, various Cup classes I do not see any space for this one.
It would be better for the sport to have a global class hirarchy rather than this mess.

 

[Tom Franz]

Actually i like the Concept of a GT Class with more Power than GT3 or even GTE and less Downforce. But i also think it doesn't fit in really well in the existing GT-Classes and i also don't like the Concept that it will only be for Gentlemen Drivers, i really would like to see Pro's driving these Monsters.

Also 330K ?! I think it was supposed to be simpler and cheaper than GT3. Of course this is only the prize of the car, i don't know what it costs to actually bring it on Track and race, compared to GT3, but a new GT3 car isn't much more expensive as far as i know and i don't think tyres, fuel, transport etc. will be much cheaper... I think many Gentlemen Drivers who can afford it will just stick to GT3, since they also seem easier to drive with less Power and more Downforce...

GT3 cars are more expensive, require more engineers to run and will be more complicated to get lap time out of. It stands to reason that if these are simpler and less complicated to set up in order to race, it will require smaller crews. I suspect that these will have a lot less telemetry data feeding back to the crews aswell. Also RE thinking that cars with more downforce are easier to drive, watching/listening to driver interviews over the years alot of them state the opposite. Downforce cars are notoriously more tricky to drive fast (towards the upper limit) and get lap time out of.

In addition to that, if the car is more simple in general I.E. less sophisticated aero, suspension, brakes, electronics etc, they'll be cheaper to maintain and replace parts when they inevitably crash and bits break off.

 

[Tom Franz]

I'm suspecting Lamborghini to just rock up with their Super Trofeo car and be like "Alright boys, been here waiting long enough for this series to arrive. Let's get racing."

The more I look at that Audi the more parallels I draw with the most recent Super Trofeo by their sister brand.

 

[aantonioo]

the gentlemen drivers will have a hard time with more power and less aerodynamic grip, hehe

 

[ermo]

When every major sportscar brand can put out cars sporting 700-ish bhp with factory warranties, GT3/GTE cars are restricted to 5-600 hp and manufacturers continually put out special editions "unrestricted by regulations" (Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini, McLaren, Ford, Chrevolet) it seems the GT2 category definitely has merit.

If nothing else, this might be the last hurrah for traditional ICE-only sports cars -- and what a glorious hurrah it'll be if the sound of that Audi is anything to go by!

 

[Turk]

i also don't like the Concept that it will only be for Gentlemen Drivers, i really would like to see Pro's driving these Monsters.

No, professionals are ruining every sport. They're just too good at what they do for sport to be exciting anymore. Pros hit a plateau where every ones skill is fairly comparable and it's a matter of who makes the first mistake. All professional sport is about being perfect for as long as possible not who's the most skilled, they're all skilled.

So bring in the amateurs. It will make racing more exciting if the guys racing have different levels of skill, if some aren't quite fit enough, they don't know when to hold them or fold them, they can't help racing when they should be cruising. It adds a load of variables to the racing that nobody can fully understand and it will make racing fun again.

 

[Toonces]

If only any of the cars in sim racing sounded this good!

 

[Daniel Monteiro]

If I recall correctly this was kind of announced last year at Spa before the 24h Race, at the same press-conference where they announced ACC.

Less technology tends to lead to harder racing, so that's why I think it might take some (or most) of the GT3's thunder once it gets rolling.

 

[Richard Dastardly]

Do we really need another GT category? This is getting as crazy as the (lower) Formula categories.
Between the future Hypercars, GTE, GT3, GT4, Super GT / DTM, various Cup classes I do not see any space for this one.
It would be better for the sport to have a global class hirarchy rather than this mess.

SuperGT / DTM are prototypes. "Hypercar" also prototypes - look at the road going entries, they're not Grand Tourers - so you can throw those out. This new class IMO is a long-term replacement for GT3; Ratel has said in the past that it's a backup option for if GT3 prices itself into oblivion ( which is possible - with cars costing 600k+ and being basically GTE with different aero/engine packages it's not the cheap option it was once ), but he obviously isn't going to launch it as a competitor for GT3 investment. Ratel has also never liked how the FIA got hold of GT3, so he'd rather like to have the upper class under full SRO control...

Not really sure what GTE's future is; 3 works entries in the WEC this year and I'm really not sure they'll last past the season after, so that makes GTE Pro-Am everywhere in Europe, and why not run cars designed for PA racing instead; not sure if GTLM can prop up the category on it's own, but who knows, should be interesting to see.

The Am-only thing might turn it into a joke before it settles in, though. Calling it GT2 made me scratch my head from the start, although it's possibly just because of the 911 GT2...

Racing engineers/mechanics trained on battery tech are still very thin on the ground - hybrid or electric is going to be out of most endurance race team's reach for a long time yet.

 

[Terry Rock]

'Gotta' love that exhaust note.
Audi always sound so cool...even the diesels.

 

[BrettSinclair1]

SuperGT / DTM are prototypes. "Hypercar" also prototypes - look at the road going entries, they're not Grand Tourers - so you can throw those out..

I fully agree with your observations on the future of sportscar racing. However, since the Hypercars can be based on road cars and Super GT / DTM machinery alludes to road cars I counted them as "GT" in the broadest of terms. As a matter of fact, given LMP1-H, LMP1-L, LMP2, DPi, LMP3, sportscar racing in general is a bit of a (class) mess.