GM GT3 Program
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Drifting
Joined: Aug 2018
Posts: 1,274
Likes: 719
Amazing, it is going to take Corvette 3 years to develop a GT3 track car IF they make a decision to do so. I wonder if IMSA really will let Corvette run a dumb'd down GTLM car for two years in GT3 Pro. It seems like the Corvette racing program has been just wandering around since they removed Doug Fehan from heading up the program. They seem to mess up their pit stops a lot more when it seldom happened before.
They did a bit of that through Callaway in Europe who could be a potential customer in the US.
Last edited by Kodiak Bear; Aug 26, 2021 at 08:35 PM.
Race Director
Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 19,350
Likes: 654
From: Tampa, Florida
IMO what's taking time is figuring out the customer support program. and then executing it. Has to be a profit center or at least a sustainable loss for marketing and at the same time produce some success. Much much different than a factory race team as the Cad is going to continue or I should say a company sponsored race team as the Cad s are raced and the Vetts used to be raced.
They did a bit of that through Callaway in Europe who could be a potential customer in the US.
They did a bit of that through Callaway in Europe who could be a potential customer in the US.
Safety Car
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 4,030
Likes: 2,598
From: Northern VA, USA
GM spends a dumb ridiculous amount of money on the C8R program. Even if they moth balled all 20 homologation cars they'd still come out ahead. If anyone had to guess, what would you say the Corvette Racing budget is? I'll take an over/under of $20 million per season. $20million will get you 20 GT3 cars with $10M left over.
- GM understands that GT3 racing is meant to primarily be customer cars, and it has been made clear that if they enter GT3 with the Corvette, there needs to be customer cars. There was quite a bit of backlash of no customer GT3 Cadillacs (one of the reasons the 20 chassis rule exists now)
- Your budget numbers are probably not too far off I believe 10-20 is the range, but don't forget, if they mothball the cars they still have the same budget to run the factory cars. Those 20 chassis are in addition to the current running of the team costs, not instead of. GTD-Pro costs will come down some though, as they common tire will end up being quite a bit cheaper than the proprietary tire and parts and cars for the GT3 program should be cheaper than the GTE car, but they have the expense of developing and testing the new GT3 spec cars to being with.
Race Director
Joined: Feb 2011
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From: AZ
I had posted earlier that there were 59 GT3 cars to start the Spa 24 hour race a few weekends ago, so GT racing is definitely not dead as far as GT3 cars are concerned. Maybe GTD Pro, but there is a lot of business for the wealthy amateur drivers that employ some very talented pro drivers (think Bill Auberlin, top IMSA winner, the only American to be a BMW-Germany factory driver)..
Safety Car
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 4,030
Likes: 2,598
From: Northern VA, USA
I had posted earlier that there were 59 GT3 cars to start the Spa 24 hour race a few weekends ago, so GT racing is definitely not dead as far as GT3 cars are concerned. Maybe GTD Pro, but there is a lot of business for the wealthy amateur drivers that employ some very talented pro drivers (think Bill Auberlin, top IMSA winner, the only American to be a BMW-Germany factory driver)..
