James-GMG

Well yes and no.....it may be a street car based race car but it's by no means slow. In fact, if you remove the 42mm restrictors, remove the 140lbs of ballast and drop the ride height by 15mm (all SRO/PWC specs) the car is considerably faster. In fact, it laps the long circuit at Thermal at the same rate as a 991.1 Cup! 600hp is nothing to scoff at.... :-)
Add the paddle shift system, ABS and TC and you have a very competent race car that is FAR easier to race than a Cup car. Plus you can race it in the SRO GT4 class around the world as the GT4 class is the largest and faster growing class in the SRO. Then there is IMSA Conti (soon to be Michelin), NASA, SCCA, etc.....
Lastly, the running costs! This motor will go 20KM's before you need to rebuild it, that's about 250 hours of racing......and the gearbox, 10KMS's before you even have to service it.

Now it's not a Cup car, and having raced both, the Cup is certainly more of a race car but the new R8 GT4 is a compelling option, especially for the gentlemen racer.

93 FireHawk 968

Raucky

CRex

All very true. Tested then raced against the R8GT4 at Dubai24 in the Merc GT4 this Jan, and thought the R8 a very accessible and capable car. Road-car-level ease-of-use like you said. The gearbox and electronics package are still very much road-car based, that's my main gripe (vs. the AMG taking a *****-out approach). I imagine it'd be a fun car to run unrestricted!!

A sidenote: I'm very worried for Porsche's GT4 product. The 982 needs to take a very different approach (with more emphasis on mechanical competitiveness and not reliance on BOP) or it risks irrelevance from launch.

James-GMG

WILL DO!

James-GMG

A few pics of the car from our shop last week.
The entire car has been clear bra'd and I love the look of it!