joemoia

http://www.speedtv.com/articles/auto/grandam/41617/

AU N EGL

"“We believe the combination of Pontiac Motorsports, Pratt & Miller, and Katech offer a package that is reliable, fast, and a true contender in the GT class,” Stevenson said. “The Pontiac seems to be the less stressed of all the cars, and we believe it can be a real contender for the championship." Very Cool

bjm

Which is good b/c Grand Am (and GM to a lesser degree) seem to be doing everything they can to make the Corvette the worst package to have in GA. Glad to see they stayed with GM, even if GTOs are not made anymore.

joemoia

Leighton Reese ran a corvette before sitching to the GXP.R. IIRC, LG posted that Reese had told him that the vette needed 100-200 lb. weight reduction to be competitive in GT. I also remember reading that Stevenson said that they had developed the vette as far as they could go and needed some rule changes to get up to the front and be competitive.

It looks like in the corporate view of GM, Rolex is Pontiac's playground (DP engines and the GXP.R GT), while Chevy gets to play in ALMS/Le Mans

bpirate

I do not understand how the Corvette can be at a disadvantage. The spec sheet list both cars as the same. The only difference seems to be the bodywork. ???????????

LG Motorsports

Hi Guys,

To make the Corvette Competitive, it would need to be built to the max of the rules, which the GXP Pontiacs are. Then the Corvette teams need top flight drivers. And don't forget the politics that are involved.

I drove the Stevenson Corvette last season one race. It has 1 5/8" headers and the "electric Power Steering" lasted only 2 laps then overheated the electric motor. The aero was never attended to and it had not been in a wind tunnel. The car was barely tested before Daytona and they still had fuel feed problems due to no testing.

This is not the kind of thing a Private team can accomplish easily.

It only looks easy on paper.

So there is NO way to compete with a Factory team without doing development. And you can not show up to a race thinking you can "fix the issues" at the track.

All the teams that buy a Pratt Pontiac will get to see all the data from the factory team any time that they want to. They will be clued in to all wind tunnel info and chassis updates and shock data etc. The only way to compete with this kind of effort in a non factory car is to duplicate the R&D and testing.

Riley Technologies builds the GT Mazda and the GT BMW that is coming to run GT this year. The Mazda won a bunch of races in 07 which shows the kind of work it took. These cars are being built to the max of the rules, so they will be competitive. They also cost in the neighborhood of $400-500k with minimum spares. And each of the Riley customers will also get Riley data and R&D info etc.

The Price for the customer Pratt and Miller GT cars just like the Riley cars includes all of the factory info.

So in a nutshell, that is why the privateer Corvettes can not compete with the Factory Pontiacs.

LG

It boils down to

Steve49841

It's the old "speed costs money, so how fast do you want to go" thing. The upside is, to some extent, we all benefit a bit from the tech transfer these programs produce. The down side is most of us will be forever hanging on the fence watching and rooting. I guess we all have our place in the food chain. I'm just glad someone can do it.

bpirate

While I agree that it is almost always the case that the privateers can not compete with the factory teams, the issue is whether the Corvette "package" is at a disadvantage.

If Riley had used the Corvette body on it's chassis and developed it instead of the Pontiac it would most certainly have been just as competitive. Same engine package and the same weight.

HORNDAWG

What it boils down to is that the P&M GXP.R is a defacto factory built car. The overall engineering that goes into the car is the difference. And we are talking the recources of GM here, not many can match that. And when it comes to GARRA Pontiac is the GM brand, ALMS Corvette and SWC Cadillac. And no disrespect to any other builders in those series but it is harder to compete with a "works" car (usually), simply because of the disparity of resources available to the "works" efforts.

L.P.

micro

With a tube-frame GT car?

micro

Robin Liddell, Randy Pobst join Stevenson

livery shown

http://www.stevensonmotorsports.com/...vent.php?ID=16

AU N EGL

With two great drivers, Stevenson will have a very good team