Going on a tour of Pratt & Miller's shop today!

WMUCarGuy · 12 May 2009, 17:10 (Ref:2461059)

I'm extremely pumped! I know a guy that works there and since I'm home visiting family, I thought I'd give him a call and see if a tour is possible, and I'm going today! He told me they have the wind tunnel model of the LMP1 that never was in the lobby so I'm pretty excited to see that and hopefully the new GT2 car will be there too!

If anyone has any questions they'd like me to ask while I'm there, feel free to post them here.

**joeb** · 12 May 2009, 17:57 (Ref:2461100)

Man, that sounds like fun. I hope you get to take pictures!

WMUCarGuy · 12 May 2009, 20:24 (Ref:2461200)

Just got back, and man that place is IMPRESSIVE! It was pretty cool that Dan Binks recognized me when we were walking around the shop. I was able to take photos in the lobby, but not back in the shops. In the lobby they had a GTO.R, GXP.R, and CTS-V SGT car surrounded by hundreds of trophies. They also had a few scale models of old SRP/Group C cars.

The coolest thing they had in the lobby was the wind tunnel model of the Corvette LMP1 car that never was. The thing looked AMAZING! I'm pumped for GT2, but that LMP1 would have been amazing. It looked similar to the one that the ACO put out in that drawing, but MUCH better. Definitely had a LOT of Corvette in it, but was MUCH more than any Corvette I've ever seen. I'm waiting on confirmation from my buddy who works there on whether I can share those pics or not.

Then we went all throughout the facility going through the offices (of which the walls are covered in all kinds of P&M artwork), design shop, the fab shop (where the 2nd GT2 chassis was being built), as well as some other things they're into were being worked on. The next bay was the race shop where they did all of the carbon work (P&M now does all of their own carbon fiber whereas they sourced it out previously). A few guys were applying the resin on a GT2 rear fascia and there was pristine looking GT2 bodywork all over the place.

The next bay featured C5-R #004 (2 x Petit Le Mans winner) that was being restored for its next owner, a spare GXP.R, and several C6RS road cars in various stages of build. After that, the next bay featured the 2 GT1 C6.Rs being prepped for Le Mans. All of the teams' gear has already been shipped to France (and the operation will be MUCH smaller than in previous years), the cars will be shipped later. They also had a GT2 motor sitting around (which is no longer made by Katech, but by GM Skunkworks out of the GM Performance parts catalog. They were also tearing down a new GT2 transmission, which I was told is much more compact than the GT1 cars'. Unfortunately the 1st GT2 car was out being tested somewhere so I didn't get a look at it, but everyone seems extremely excited for it!

All in all, it was an awesome tour and I would recommend anyone that has the opportunity to take one themselves.

Gingers4Justice · 12 May 2009, 21:04 (Ref:2461228)

I've been round the prodrive facilities - completely different racing culture!

Looks great, glad you enjoyed it. Is it a big facility?

HORNDAWG · 12 May 2009, 21:20 (Ref:2461244)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gingers4Justice

I've been round the prodrive facilities - completely different racing culture!

Looks great, glad you enjoyed it. Is it a big facility?

This should give you an idea on the scope of the facility.Here

L.P.

Gingers4Justice · 12 May 2009, 21:32 (Ref:2461249)

Cheers for the link.

Yeh, that pretty big alright.

Excuse my ignorance, but where are those Cadillacs raced?

Speed-King · 12 May 2009, 21:34 (Ref:2461251)

Speed World Challenge GT, suppossedly originally designed for ALMS GT2, though.

Gingers4Justice · 12 May 2009, 21:39 (Ref:2461258)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Speed-King

Speed World Challenge GT, suppossedly originally designed for ALMS GT2, though.

How were they ever going to race a 4-door saloon in gt2?

Speed-King · 12 May 2009, 21:51 (Ref:2461266)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gingers4Justice

How were they ever going to race a 4-door saloon in gt2?

GT2S, I'd guess. Didn't the Lexus that never raced have 4 doors as well?

HORNDAWG · 12 May 2009, 21:56 (Ref:2461270)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Speed-King

GT2S, I'd guess. Didn't the Lexus that never raced have 4 doors as well?

Yes.

L.P.

WMUCarGuy · 12 May 2009, 22:02 (Ref:2461272)

Quote:

Originally Posted by HORNDAWG

Yes, and BMW had 4 doors.

L.P.

When did an ALMS BMW ever have 4 doors? I don't think they ever did...

Fogelhund · 13 May 2009, 00:05 (Ref:2461334)

Quote:

Originally Posted by WMUCarGuy

When did an ALMS BMW ever have 4 doors? I don't think they ever did...

1999
http://www.mosport.com/photos/alms99-10.jpg

rich07 · 13 May 2009, 00:06 (Ref:2461336)

Wow you lucky guy WMU carguy, nice lobby there, shame you couldnt take photos in the shop but I can understand why. P&M should open a trophy shop lol. I hope your allowed to share your photo of the LMP1 model with us.

@ Gingers For Justice, what do you mean by different culture at Prodrive, if I may ask?

WMUCarGuy · 13 May 2009, 00:11 (Ref:2461339)

Quote:

Originally Posted by rich07

Wow you lucky guy WMU carguy, nice lobby there, shame you couldnt take photos in the shop but I can understand why. P&M should open a trophy shop lol. I hope your allowed to share your photo of the LMP1 model with us.

@ Gingers For Justice, what do you mean by different culture at Prodrive, if I may ask?

As soon as my buddy who works there gives me the go-ahead, I'll post them. The thing really looks wicked!

WMUCarGuy · 13 May 2009, 00:41 (Ref:2461350)

They also gave me the 2007 and 2008 P&M Yearbooks. Both are very professionally done books chronicalling the company's racing triumphs from the past 2 seasons with Corvette Racing, Pontiac Grand Am stuff, and CTS-V Speed GT stuff. The 2007 one is about 130 pages and it'll be a great coffee table addition!

**joeb** · 13 May 2009, 01:30 (Ref:2461357)

Quote:

Originally Posted by WMUCarGuy

They also gave me the 2007 and 2008 P&M Yearbooks. Both are very professionally done books chronicalling the company's racing triumphs from the past 2 seasons with Corvette Racing, Pontiac Grand Am stuff, and CTS-V Speed GT stuff. The 2007 one is about 130 pages and it'll be a great coffee table addition!

Sounds like it was a great tour, and you got to see some of the new parts for the GT2 that's pretty cool.

Aslak Vind · 13 May 2009, 15:13 (Ref:2461728)

Awesome pictures, thank you

Félix · 14 May 2009, 00:12 (Ref:2462073)

While we're on the subject, I'll ask the question again:

Anyone know what this is? It's a puzzling picture on P&M's website. http://prattmiller.smugmug.com/popul...77554464_LKRcT Unlike the other pictures in the gallery, this one is not captionned...

It looks like the first R&S MkIII concept, but with a 1999+ roll-hoop. That would be when the Corvette project was all new... unless they worked on a solution for the Cadillac LMP (a radical one!)?

WMUCarGuy · 14 May 2009, 01:44 (Ref:2462092)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Félix

While we're on the subject, I'll ask the question again:

Anyone know what this is? It's a puzzling picture on P&M's website. http://prattmiller.smugmug.com/popul...77554464_LKRcT Unlike the other pictures in the gallery, this one is not captionned...

It looks like the first R&S MkIII concept, but with a 1999+ roll-hoop. That would be when the Corvette project was all new... unless they worked on a solution for the Cadillac LMP (a radical one!)?

Yea, it's an old R&S SRP prototype. They had a scale model of it in the lobby as well, but fI forgot to get a shot of it.

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Martin Pratt (Chester Motor Club)	Matthews Dad	Tributes Forum	1	16 Jul 2008 22:57
Dave Coyne v John Pratt	chunterer	Motorsport History	27	20 Sep 2007 19:50
whats happened to testing from Renault & BMW today?	ukracing	National & International Single Seaters	7	11 Mar 2006 10:04
Medeiros Tests with D&R Today	Tim Northcutt	IRL Indycar Series	5	9 Oct 2004 14:27
VSCC LC&ES Summer Rally and Tour	BugEyed	Historic Racing Today	8	28 Jun 2004 14:09