The Big Three
Nissan
Nissan last week became the last of the ‘Big Three’ Japanese manufacturers to confirm their plans and line-up for the forthcoming 2014 Super GT season.
The Nissan squad’s GT500 class weapon is the new “Nissan GT-R NISMO GT500,” with a chassis and engine newly developed by NISMO in accordance with the new for 2014 regulations – Turbo fours replace big banger V8s with standard chassis technology.
As in 2013, four teams and four cars will be competing in the GT500 class under the leadership of Kunihiko Kakimoto, Executive director of the Nissan squad.
Car #23 is entered under the Motul Autech GT-R banner with Tsugio Matsuda joining the team from Team Impul to pair up with Ronnie Quintarelli.
GT-R #12 from Team Impul will race as Calsoni Impul GT-R, adding Hironobu Yasuda to the drivers’ line-up alongside Joao Paulo de Oliveira.
Kondo Racing field the #24 car which will compete as the D’station Advan GT-R with Daiki Sasaki, who raced in the GT300 class and won the Fuji Sprint Cup last year, stepping up to the premier class to team up with Michael Krumm.
finally the #46 car will run as the ‘S Road Mola GT-R’ driven by a new combination of Satoshi Motoyama and Masataka Yanagida.
There’s an intriguing mix of tyre suppliers too with the #23 and #46 cars using Michelins, #12 car with Bridgestone, and #24 car fitted with Yokohama rubber.
In the GT300 class, Nissan field the GT3 spec Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 and also provide technical assistance.
For the 2014 model, the engine is modified to enable longer life in pursuit of increasing reliability .
The factory supported car will run under the NDDP Racing with B-Max banner, the team fielding the #3 car for Kazuki Hoshino and the globetrotting Lucas Ordonez. The team will used Yokohama tyres.
Honda
Honda’s GT500 weapon this season will be the only mid-engined hybrid in the class, the NSX Concept-GT powered by a 2-litre four-cylinder direct injection turbo engine developed exclusively for racing and a racing hybrid system.
The factory squad will continue as a 5 team/5 car structure, but with some changes in the driver lineups. Honda will also field two CR-Z GTs in the GT300 class.
The #8 Autobacs Racing Team Aguri（ARTA）effort sees the arrival in Super GT of Vitantonio Liuzzi, who joins Kosuke Matsuura.
Car #17 Keihin Real Racing will have the same driver lineup as last year, Koudai Tsukakoshi and Toshihiro Kaneishi.
Car #18 from Weider Modulo Dome Racing will have 2013 Le Mans 24 Hours class winner Jean Karl Vernay partnering Naoki Yamamoto.
Epson Nakajima Racing field the #32 car for another 2013 Le Mans class winner (and LMP2 World Champion), Bertrand Baguette, to partner with Daisuke Nakajima.
Car #100 from Team Kunimitsu will also have a new driver to team up with Takashi Kogure, the 2013 GT300 class champion Hideki Mutoh.
Honda’s tyre packages will remain the same as last year: #8, #17, and #100 will be using Bridgestone, #18 Michelin, and #32 car Dunlop tyres.
Toyota
Toyota’s 2014 racer in the new look GT500 is the 2-liter four-cylinder direct-injection gasoline turbo engine (RI4AG) powered Lexus RC F, the factory again fielding a six car pack in search of consecutive titles.
The Prius GT is still offered for GT300.
Reigning Champions Yuji Tachikawa and Kohei Hirate will continue to drive the Lexus Team Zent Cerumo car that now bears the champion’s number #1
There’s no change either for the driver line up in the #6 Lexus Team LeMans ENEOS car (Kazuya Oshima/Yuji Kunimoto), the #36 Lexus Team Petronas TOM’s (Kazuki Nakajima/James Rossiter), and #37 Lexus team KeePER TOM’S (Daisuke Ito/Andrea Caldarelli).
The #39 Lexus Team SARD car sees Hiroaki Ishiura will form a new partnership with Audi factory driver Oliver Jarvis.
All five of these cars retain Bridgestone rubber.
The Yokahama shod Lexus Team WedsSport Bandoh #19 car will see a new driver pairing, three-time GT500 champion Juichi Wakisaka and Yuhi Sekiguchi.
In GT300 class, a Toyots Prius GT with a hybrid system will be fielded in the competition as Toyota Racing.apr’s #31 car. This car became the first hybrid car to win a SUPER GT race last year. It’s driver squad remains unchanged with Morio Nitta and Koki Saga.
Other GT300 News
Hitotsuyama Racing have backed up their promise of an expanded effort for 2014 by adding a second Audi R8 LMS Ultra to the team’s line up.
Their second Audi is an older spec car campaigned previously by äpr racing.
