2011 Japanese Super GT

[kurski]

Sepang round Race result: http://supergt.net/supergt/2011/1103/1103race_e.htm
1. Takashi Kogure/Loic Duval, Weider HSV-010
2. Ronnie Quintarelli/Masataka Yanagida, S Road MOLA GT-R
3. Toshihiro and Koudai Kaneishi, KEIHIN HSV-010

[Japanese Samurai]

Sepang round Digest movie (will be updated soon.)
http://supergt.net/supergt/movie/new...1/1103move.htm

Photos
http://www.racerevo.com/2011/06/18/s...fying-session/
http://car.nifty.com/cs/catalog/car_...19315257_1.htm

*Team LeMans(#6) seems to have updated rear end("stepped" type to "flat" type?).
http://www.racerevo.com/wp-content/u...011/06/024.jpg
*Team Bandoh(#19) have not received the update rear end yet.
*NISMO(#23, BS) adopted "No tire change" strategy again. However, it did not succeed.
*Minor update of GTR (tiny vertical fin on the front fender (black parts))
http://car.nifty.com/cs/car/sgtn/exp...9315257&idx=43

[Japanese Samurai]

Toyota motorsports digest movie
Qualifying
GT500:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lgE1...=player_popout
GT300:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIbiH...=player_popout
Race
GT500:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSFO5...=player_popout
GT300:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6ZUy...=player_popout

You can check digest movie on this website.
http://www.nismo.co.jp/motorsports/nismotv/
http://ms.toyota.co.jp/movie_sp/index.html

[Japanese Samurai]

AUTOSPORT's report
*A rear end of Team SARD(#39) was what they had developed originally.
http://car.nifty.com/cs/car/sgtn/exp...8315216&idx=13
http://car.watch.impress.co.jp/img/c...55/283/023.jpg
(TRD version)
http://car.nifty.com/cs/car/sgtn/exp...9315257&idx=28
There are five patterns(!) of rear ends of SC430.
*Only NISMO(#23) installed the side fence on a front fender of GTR. According to Treluyer's report, NISMO seem to have tried a new damper, too.
http://www.motorsport.com/#/all/news...-race-summary/

[TF110]

What do the rear fender differences hope to achieve? I guess a low d/f and high d/f but 5 different rear fenders?

[Japanese Samurai]

These are parts to gain the rear downforce.
Mechanisms to gain the rigidity of the board are different.
TRD version rear end was delivered only to two team(#35, #36) for the time deficit.

[Japanese Samurai]

Sepang round full HD photo gallery
http://car.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/...27_455725.html

[TF110]

I noticed that these cars have different layouts for their exhausts. The GTR has an exhaust that exits behind the front fender, while the HSV has rear, and SC430 in front of rear wheels. Wonder what this does?

[Japanese Samurai]

Originally Posted by TF110

I noticed that these cars have different layouts for their exhausts. The GTR has an exhaust that exits behind the front fender, while the HSV has rear, and SC430 in front of rear wheels. Wonder what this does?

Yes. HSV has a single rear exhaust. This seems to be a disadvantageous layout. Officially, Honda explains that it valued the exhaust note.
And Formula Nippon adopts a single exhaust. Therefore, to apply the knowhow of FN, Honda might have adopted a single exhaust.

[TF110]

If it's not as good as the GTR's or SC's, it doesn't seem to be affecting their performance much, seeing as how they've had good results! Winning this past race, and last year's championship.

[Japanese Samurai]

Honda's GT report by Keinosuke Taki (GT project chief)
http://www.honda.co.jp/SuperGT/spcon...preview/vol24/
*This cause of victory is in the machine characteristic of HSV that doesn't put the stress on tires. We were able to deliver the full performance of tires.
*In this race, it was proven that HSV-010 GT stood the high temperature.
Firstly, cooling the engine functioned well. We had improved the air flow of the cooling duct of the side radiator before the race. Cooling air came to flow to radiator evenly. As a result, we were able to race by shutting the half of the side air outlet (of the front fender). In a word, HSV has enough ability to cool. We can use this capacity for further performance improvement.
Secondarily, a new cool suit system functioned well.
We proved HSV to be competitive in the summer race, too.
　

[TF110]

So their cooling was sufficient enough they didn't need extra cooling? It's a lot like F1 where some cars can run better aero thanks to their cooling systems being better than others.

[Japanese Samurai]

Yes.
Honda is a strange manufacturer. Honda (and Dome) like to boast of their new technology, and announce it voluntarily.

[TF110]

I think they have a strong driver line up in that winning HSV, the others are good, but these guys seem to be better.

[Audi Racer]

well the HSV has the most downforce. seems really good in the corners. The HSV is the Red Bull of Super GT. lacks straightline speed though

[BBSB]

Originally Posted by Audi Racer

well the HSV has the most downforce. seems really good in the corners. The HSV is the Red Bull of Super GT. lacks straightline speed though

I think you're wrong here. The lack of straightline speed was only in the first half of it's first season. They caugh up in the 2nd half.

About the Honda drivers. I still think their drivers are not good enough. They have some fast ones but are very erratic. I agree their current best line up is Kogure/Duval. It's Honda's best hope for the titles. Their second best lineup is Kaneishi/Tsukakoshi or maybe Michigami/Nakayama.

I must say I'm very disapointed with ARTA's new drivers. They are doing a really bad job... but also the team is not doing much better, I must say, with the constant wrong choice of tires. Seriously JS, what the hell is happening with the ARTA team?
Aguri must be regretting to have dumped Firman, one of the fastest drivers I've seen in SGT.

[Audi Racer]

Originally Posted by BBSB

I think you're wrong here. The lack of straightline speed was only in the first half of it's first season. They caugh up in the 2nd half.

About the Honda drivers. I still think their drivers are not good enough. They have some fast ones but are very erratic. I agree their current best line up is Kogure/Duval. It's Honda's best hope for the titles. Their second best lineup is Kaneishi/Tsukakoshi or maybe Michigami/Nakayama.

I must say I'm very disapointed with ARTA's new drivers. They are doing a really bad job... but also the team is not doing much better, I must say, with the constant wrong choice of tires. Seriously JS, what the hell is happening with the ARTA team?
Aguri must be regretting to have dumped Firman, one of the fastest drivers I've seen in SGT.

Seems like they;re not the fastest i na strightline though. Even in this seasons races. I certainly looked that way at motegi this year.

[BBSB]

Originally Posted by Audi Racer

Seems like they;re not the fastest i na strightline though. Even in this seasons races. I certainly looked that way at motegi this year.

They did look alright to me. Maybe JS can show us some data. I remember he said after this season's Fuji round that the top speed of the HSV-010 was not inferior to it's rivals. I would like to see the data for the other two rounds though. Japanese Samurai?

PS: the Motegi round did not take place this season yet

[Japanese Samurai]

Originally Posted by BBSB

Seriously JS, what the hell is happening with the ARTA team?

*Fuji round
Mutoh failed in the qualifying attack lap, and missed the Super lap (13th).
Start driver was Motoh (13th to 8th). They adopted "no-tire-change" strategy (because of rain). Kobayashi's pace was not bad (12th to 9th).
*Okayama round
Knockout Qualifying: Q1:10th (Kobayashi), Q2:4th (Kobayashi) Q3: 7th (Mutoh)
They chose hard compound tires. Start driver was Kobayashi. He lost positions because tires did not get warm (7th to 14th to 8th). So Mutoh chose soft tires, his stint was competitive (14th to 12th).
*Sepang round
Mutoh made a mistake in sector-1 of Qualifying Super lap (7th).
They chose same tires as Weider(#1). Mutoh's stint was not so bad (7th to 2nd) though it was inferior to Duval's pace. But they wasted time on the tire exchanges during the pit stops, and race is over (Kobayashi: 10th to 9th).

[Audi Racer]

Originally Posted by BBSB

They did look alright to me. Maybe JS can show us some data. I remember he said after this season's Fuji round that the top speed of the HSV-010 was not inferior to it's rivals. I would like to see the data for the other two rounds though. Japanese Samurai?

PS: the Motegi round did not take place this season yet

sorry not motegi. It was okayama.

[Japanese Samurai]

Accoroding to Tetsuji Tamanaka (owner driver of team MACH, #5)'s blog,
He offered to purchase 458GT3. However, there is no answer from Michelotto yet. The reason is that Michelotto dislikes original performance tuning of GTA. (The restrictor size of GT300 is smaller than that of FIA-GT3.) He says that GTA should apply the performance tuning of FIA-GT3 to GT300.
http://ameblo.jp/team-mach/entry-10939356871.html

[Japanese Samurai]

AUTOSPORT's report

*Problem of Lexus
Lexus renewed SC430 greatly at this season. It changed the arrangement of the engine room and lowered the center of gravity, suspension was updated. Lexus says "All are new excluding the monocoque".
BS users are doing a different attempt from last year of the tire, too. They try to use the same structural tire as HSV. It is a character that the grip power continues when getting warm once. On the other hand, the warm-up performance is inferior. Therefore, they cannot use it. This year, Lexus try a new approach to win HSV that the grip power continues.
Michelin user(Team SARD) also has a problem. The tire at this season is not suitable for the character of SC430 yet. They use the 2010 spec suspension because the data of the 2011 spec is a little. The 2011 spec suspension seems not to be versatile.
In Okayama round, Tom's(#36)'s race pace in the latter stage of the race was one second or more slower than that of KEIHIN(#17).
So TRD tried a new approach for Sepang round. To improve the pace in the long run, they changed front fender to the Fuji spec (low downforce), and prepered new rear end (to increase rear downforce) for #35, #36. Because the wind tunnel test had been delayed, it was delivered only to two team. As a result, CoP was moved to backward. These had aimed at the improvement of the cornering speed and making the tire wear a minimum.
The race pace of Lexus was not too bad in Sepang round. However, they left the problem for the qualifying result.

*BS users of Honda used quite same spec tires in Super lap of Sepang round. The result is as follows.
1. Kogure(#1) 1'55.984
3. Tsukakoshi(#17) 1'56.710 (+0.726)
6. Izawa(#100) 1'57.491 (+1.507)
7. Mutoh(#8) 1'57.712 (+1.728)

*Jim Gainer might participate with two cars from SUGO round. 2nd car will be FIA-GT spec F430 or JAF-GT300 spec F430.

[BBSB]

Originally Posted by Japanese Samurai

*Fuji round
Mutoh failed in the qualifying attack lap, and missed the Super lap (13th).
Start driver was Motoh (13th to 8th). They adopted "no-tire-change" strategy (because of rain). Kobayashi's pace was not bad (12th to 9th).
*Okayama round
Knockout Qualifying: Q1:10th (Kobayashi), Q2:4th (Kobayashi) Q3: 7th (Mutoh)
They chose hard compound tires. Start driver was Kobayashi. He lost positions because tires did not get warm (7th to 14th to 8th). So Mutoh chose soft tires, his stint was competitive (14th to 12th).
*Sepang round
Mutoh made a mistake in sector-1 of Qualifying Super lap (7th).
They chose same tires as Weider(#1). Mutoh's stint was not so bad (7th to 2nd) though it was inferior to Duval's pace. But they wasted time on the tire exchanges during the pit stops, and race is over (Kobayashi: 10th to 9th).

Yeah, that shows the team needs more focus. I remember last year several times they mentioned how they messed with tire choice. I think the team as a whole is nowhere near the level as the team I saw winning the championship emphatically in 2007.

If I'm not mistaken, since then they have underkaten at least one reshuffle, maybe this isn't helping their case.

Naturally, nothing else matters if your drivers are not up to par. In the latest race for example, Mutoh could barely keep up with the Keihin HSV despite carrying almost no WH (Keihin, 28kg) when, on paper, he should be at least close to Duval's pace in the Weider HSV (who was sligthly heavier btw). Still, I'm willing to give them time as Mutoh is still re-adapting to SGT (he raced in 2006 alongside Duval in the Epson NSX) and Kobayashi is only in his 3rd race as a SGT driver.

That said, in Sugo I expect them to be on the front row of the grid and at least be on that podium given that they will be so much ligher than most of the grid. Any other result will be a failure.

[Japanese Samurai]

JAF-GT300 Celica was remodeled to HYUNDAI Genesis GT in South Korea.
This chassis was GT500 SUPRA (!) before Celica according to Takayuki Aoki.
http://ameblo.jp/blue-aoki/entry-10939205185.html

[TF110]

That's crazy looking. Hopefully the SC430's are back on the pace in the next couple races. The tire situation will be solved soon. Toyota know what they're doing.