Hans Reiter was full of enthusiasm for the ambiance and racing of the Pirelli World Challenge today and full too of tales of plans for 2015 and beyond!
“This Championship has got everything that we have lost in Europe for the Gentleman drivers. The cars are great, the atmosphere in the paddock is excellent and the people running the Series are doing all that they can to improve things for those running here.”
On the racing front Hans expects Reiter Engineering to return in 2015, and by the look of things that might well be with the most radical evolution yet of the GT3 Gallardo, Reiter still holds the contract to evolve the V10 engined car as Lamborghini themselves negotiate the growing pains of taking the cars successor the Huracan, GT3 project in-house. reports have suggested that the new car will race next year in development form then be made available for customers in 2016.
Reports suggest too that far from being built in-house at Lamborghini, the new car will actually be built by Audi!
Back to Reiter though, the new for 2015 Gallardo R-EX (Reiter Extension) FLII will be unveiled officially in the coming weeks but Herr Reiter gave DSC a sneak preview and suffice to say that there will be no mistaking the new version of the car.
“There are new headlamps (featuring the now de rigeur led daylight running lights) but the real changes are at the rear.”
“There will be a new gearbox replacing the modified road car item. The new ‘box is made by Hollinger with whom we have a technical partnership, it is 64kg complete, and that includes an integrated shift controller mounted internally within the ‘box.”
That 64kg is a full 30 kilos lighter than the current gearbox assembly, but it is something else about the rear of the 2015 car that will draw visual attention.
“We are extending the rear width to the maximum allowed in the regulations (up 6.5% from 1925 to 2050 mm).”
The visual difference from the pictures shown (but not yet to publish) is profound, but it’s engineering and not aesthetics that lies behind the changes:
“We want to reduce the downforce and give the car more mechanical grip instead, that helps us with straightline speed and helps the driveability for the Gentleman drivers.”
There’s a further change that Reiter is also keen to make too – and this is anything but engineering based!
“I want to change the sound of the car, I really miss the old Murcielago noise! I’m not sure we can make a big change but I am going to try! Formula One showed exactly how not to do it – You don’t quieten down opera or rock concerts – I don’t get why it’s so important to make less noise from our race cars!”
The Gallardo is, of course, not the only GT3 car currently marketed by the Reiter Engineering concern, the SARENI Chevrolet Camaro is also built by Hans and co.
“I’m prepared to say that we took a wrong turn with the car. We approached it by trying to reduce downforce as much as possible to stick entirely with mechanical grip and sadly, for this car, it simply doesn’t work well enough, we can’t get the tyres to work well enough. We’re working on a solution but the car has already got customers even in it current form (2 cars to Australia, one to New Zealand and one to Asia).
With the plans we have and the level of interest in a cr at the price point we have (the Camaro is the cheapest of all of the GT3 packages) we think we are looking t 10-15 car sales.”
Still smiling, still planning and with more to come – 5 minutes with Hans Reiter is never, ever dull!
