Cadillac GT car progress !!!!

[weeks]

From Autoweek.com
Former Cadillac prototype driver Max Angelelli is the leading driver in the General Motors division’s attack on the SCCA Speed World Challenge GT class next season. Angelelli has already tested an early version of a Cadillac CTS-V racer, which will go up against BMW and Audi in the series.
GM sources said the factory program will likely get the go-ahead. An official announcement is expected in late October. Pratt & Miller, which runs Chevrolet’s Corvette program, took part in the first-evolution CTS-V’s tests and appears first in line to race the car once the project gets final approval.

Not quite what you thought huh?:confused:
I find that the Speed World Challenge has some of the best racing you can find and the arival of Cadillac can only make things better.

[LouisTheShark]

If GM gives the green light on the SCCA Speed World Challenge GT program and Pratt & Miller are slated to run it, the rumors of the Corvette program being in jeopardy of future funding have more credence.

[Kurt Maxwell]

I agree, Louis. Add in the new rules in FIA GT/ACO GTS and not winning LM for a third time during the 50th anniversary year and it would shock me to see this happen.

Not sure how I feel about Audi sports sedans now being joined by Cadillacs in a "GT" series, but combined with the BMW M3's and others WC should be an even better show in '04.

There may be two additional factory teams new to WCGT next year. The news should come in the next 60-90 days.

[noise boy 2]

Originally posted by LouisTheShark
If GM gives the green light on the SCCA Speed World Challenge GT program and Pratt & Miller are slated to run it, the rumors of the Corvette program being in jeopardy of future funding have more credence.

The corvette road car program at GM is run independently of all the others, and the funding for the race team comes out of their budget, not from gm in general, so I doubt that the corvette will be going anywhere. Robert

[gttouring]

good news-I love Cadillac for reasons unknown to me
it'll be good to see them there

[Kurt Maxwell]

I should have said NOT shock me to see the Corvette GTS program go away.

If they have to build a run of 25 GTS cars in '05 it certainly could make them think about having the C-6 Corvette compete in GT instead.

[Fab]

Anybody has a pic of it ?

[weeks]

I checked out the Pratt & Miller site but they had nothing on the Cadillac CTS-V. Just C5R stuff. But since its Speed world challange just imagine a CTS with a rear wing and thats basically what its gonna look like. I doubt there will be any significant aero changes.

[noise boy 2]

Originally posted by Kurt Maxwell
I should have said NOT shock me to see the Corvette GTS program go away.

If they have to build a run of 25 GTS cars in '05 it certainly could make them think about having the C-6 Corvette compete in GT instead.

You keep bringing this up, do you have any proof that the manufacturers will have to build a homologation version in the amount of 25 cars to run in GTS? I haven't read that in the '04 rules that are posted at the ACO site. Robert

[Kurt Maxwell]

The '05 rules are to call for 25 road cars in FIA GT and ACO GTS.

No more SuperVettes with 7L motors and wide bodies-unless they make 25 and offer them for sale.

Part of this is that Ratel wants to see new GTS Corvettes (and GTS Vipers) sold in road trim at a price that reflects what they cost. It simply looks bad if what is ostensibly a 50K car is beating a 600k car. So if GM sell a road Corvette C6-GTS for 400K then it is understood that it was a SuperVette that beat the Porsche,Zonda or Maserati, not a regular one.

[paul-collins]

Kurt, that outlook makes sense to me - the production classes should be racing each other in the same market. It's one of the reasons I think that Trans Am is not doing well - why are Mustangs, Panoz, Corvette and Jaguars on the same track? How can a manufacturer use this as a marketing platform? (The answer, obviously, is that they can't.)

I, however, don't see this as something that will drive Corvette out of GTS, judging by the way that Ron Fellows was talking a little while ago.

[Kurt Maxwell]

PC-I hope you are right. If they are able to go for an overall win,as Fellows has suggested,Corvette might make the investment required.

Besides,25 SuperVettes would make a great "halo" car for GM on and off the track.

[pitviper]

just not as beautiful, awe-inspiring, or simply badass as a similarly prepared Viper, that's all...

pit

[Wally (Evo.1)]

Originally posted by Kurt Maxwell
Not sure how I feel about Audi sports sedans now being joined by Cadillacs in a "GT" series, but combined with the BMW M3's and others WC should be an even better show in '04.

There may be two additional factory teams new to WCGT next year. The news should come in the next 60-90 days.

I agree. I am really uneasy about the addition of what are essentially factory efforts (Champion Audi and PTG BMW) in competition against what seems to me to be "weekend warriors." (No disrespect intended to the hard-working crew members.) And now more factory teams? A Cadillac CTS in a GT series? What happened to the Vette vs. Viper vs. NSX battles we used to see?

And the addition of these factory teams hasn't made the racing any better. Once they got the Audis and BMWs sorted, the races have been real snoozers. Thankfully, the Touring Cars make up for the lack of action in GT.

[Fogelhund]

It is a shame that the success of SWGT is going to be its downfall. These entries really should be elsewhere and not in SWC.

[Kurt Maxwell]

1-1.5m for a two car team in WC-GT if you want to win.

The only thing is that at that price point you still won't drive away any factory teams.

If there are enough factory teams and factory supported privateers with good sponsors it may do well.

It would help if Speed and SCCA get these races on live to justify the rising costs to manufacturers and sponsors.

[kmchow]

If the SWGT keeps on getting so many factory/Works efforts, perhaps there should be 2 sub classes--Works and Independents. They have such classification in many international touring car series?

But with Cadillac racing the CTS-V, I guess the chances of a Pontiac GTO appearing in the GT class is very low then.

[kmchow]

Originally posted by Kurt Maxwell
There may be two additional factory teams new to WCGT next year. The news should come in the next 60-90 days.

My money is on Nissan with a pair of 350Zs. It would be cool to see 350s in the GT and Sentras in TC. The 350Z has been undergoing a year of development in the JGTC series.

An unlikly candidate would be Ferrari with a pair of Prodrive built 360s? The cars are highly developed in Europe.

[avsfan733]

I just want to know if it keeps the onstar, leather seats, and night vision

[gttouring]

I thought the GTS class was a 'race prepped' and further developed version of the GT eligible road car-i.e. 7L supervette, isn't this what makes GTS the 'S' of GT, that they are recognizably race only Variants of the Road car, unlike GT which is a road car stripped and prepared with some polishing and electronic managment and a roll cage...
GTS requirements for a gts onlt version seems off, a GTS car should have a version of the car available in street legal trim-but with in production reason, so you have a non-carbon tub 550, and a vette, and wingless 8.3Litre vipers...

[Wally (Evo.1)]

A team of Nissan 350Zs or Ferrari 360 Modenas would be great. At least they're sports cars and not bloated-looking Audis or BMWs.

At the risk of contradicting my earlier post, I don't really have a problem with factory teams, as long as they sell cars of the same specification to private teams. A great idea someone put forth on another site was mandating that the number of factory entries of a particular car must be matched by the number of private entries of the same car. (I think this would be a great rule in any prototype class.)

[RacingManiac]

Didn't Doug Fehan already commented that Corvette was to run "atleast" to 2005? So far that still seems more reasonable....

[kmchow]

Originally posted by Wally (Evo.1)
A great idea someone put forth on another site was mandating that the number of factory entries of a particular car must be matched by the number of private entries of the same car.

But would there be some maximum price ceilings on the cars sold to privateers? A private team is unlikely to be able to afford factory built cars.

Most manufacturers wouldn't want to be in a position where a private team may be outracing their factory counterparts.

[Kurt Maxwell]

I have no problem with the M3 coupes racing in a GT series. The 4 door "super sedans" like the Audi and Cadillac do bother me a bit.

The two other factory teams that I have heard about are sportscars.

The prospect of factory teams and big dollars could harm the WC if the privateers and amateur drivers were to go away. However,I do trust Mitch Wright and the SCCA not to let it get out of hand.

WC has to be the best road racing in N.America - maybe ever. It looks to get even better in 2004.

KM

PS-The new Vipers rock.

[pitviper]

of course they do...

pit