Drawing several strands together from the recent behind closed doors Balance of Performance Test at Michelin’s Ladoux facility there’s plenty of work apparently still to be done before the planned 2016 GT3 and GTE pack make it to the track.
In the GTE stakes Ford (the new GT), Corvette, Aston Martin (below), Porsche and Ferrari were all present together with BMW with the proposed GTLM adaptation of their new M6 GT3.
Weather conditions for the test were somewhat challenging with c. 40mph partial crosswinds interfering with some of the performance measurements.
The tests, with a single driver sampling all of the cars, are designed to ensure that the cars all achieve the prescribed performance envelopes in a number of different criteria. Once the baseline performance is established then the fine tuning of later Performance Balancing can be achieved.
No performance data is available from the test but several organisations whose GTE machinery took part expressed general satisfaction with the results after a process that all involved clearly found strenuous both from the point of view of getting new cars to the track during a busy season, and in achieving what can only be presumed as challenging performance envelopes
More than one manufacturer offered an opinion that the new and as yet unseen in public BMW was a far more satisfactory stab at a GTLM-relevant car than the current, and much-criticised version of the Z4 GT3.
In the GT3 stakes there was rather more drama it seems, BMW, Audi, Mercedes Benz, Porsche and Ferrari were all present with new cars. Lexus opted not to attend with their RC F GT3, the car reportedly unable once gain to reliably reach the performance envelope. Lexus will wait until next year to homologate yet another iteration of the car, believed to be as many as the fourth redesign, after an abortive prior attempt at GT3 homologation for the current season.
Whilst several previously reliable sources suggested that there had been problems for the brand new turbo V8 Ferrari 488 GT3, this was denied comprehensively by Christiano Michelotto earlier this evening, “I can confirm that the 488 GT3 and GTE completed both days of the test with no problems. We had no problem with either car being below the (performance) windows.”
That’s very good news for the car that replaces one of THE most commercially successful GT race cars of the modern era.
