Cory M

In the coverage from this weekend's race they interviewed someone from Emco who said that they would be making the box for the Mazda turbo diesel, so I would think sequentials are not just legal but necessary to compete. With the RX8 out of production maybe this new class is just a way for Mazda to swap powerplants and extend the life of all of those Riley tubeframe RX8's. If that's the case they will be tough to beat considering the level of chassis development and the GrandAM/Mazda relationship...

GTgears

I heard somewhere, maybe it was from John@BGB, that one of the stipulations they are looking at with this class is that tube frames will NOT be allowed and the chassis must be production street car based, even if it's the same sort of bodies in white that are curently being done for the Camaros and Mustangs in GS.

Personally, I'd like to see it more production based than the current GT class cars. While I would love to see our forthcoming Cayman sequential gearbox written into the rules, part of me wants to see them stick to something along the lines of internals are open, but only inside the original factory case. That would make it interesting and we might instead see some PDK and DSG gearboxes in cars.

Cory M

I was just speculating on the RX8 because all of the Mazda press releases just talk about providing the powerplant only. I agree that it should be production chassis.

cgomez

Having run a Cayman in many 90min - 9 hr Enduros and having gone through 4 gearboxes in 3 years, other than stronger build and better parts what can be done regarding cooling.

Awesome thing the Cayman can be viable to run in GX, but 24 hours is a whole different game. Even in the Cups the only way to go to have a likely winner is to use the RSR gearbox instead of the regular Race Cup box.

BGB Motorsports

Guys,

I'm pretty sure that the car will be allowed a sequential even though it sort of destroys the idea behind building a decent little baby GT car for under $175K. When I first had this elaborate day-dream, it was alluring to think that maybe we could buzz around and stay out of trouble for 24 hours in the back of the pack and make a $3700 987.2 6-speed transmission last, but more importantly, not incur the cost of a sequential. BUT...if there are RX-8s in the class, knowing what everyone knows now about how much quicker PDK cars are around a race track, you would be at a serious disadvantage not having something like a true race sequential for the Cayman.

And I know just the guy to ask about this project. EHEM. EHEM!

The rules are currently under review and aren't public. When things are allowed to be, I will post some more information.

Thanks.

John

analogmike

Cayman engines don't seem to be able to last 24 hours either as far as I can tell....

Geoffrey

Deleted

GTgears

Geoffrey,
I'm pretty sure he was talking about a certain gear manufacturer. As for building racecars, I think BGB has proven themselves several times over on that account...

DC5Chick06

My tickets are already purchased

BGB Motorsports

Mike P.,

This would be a 997.2 GTS spec motor like the ones that we run in GS this year. Our oldest motor has 60 + hours on it of 8250 RPM abuse, with stock rev limit being 7500. They're stout and they're up to the task. 400rwhp... and if they let us open it up, we could get another 20rwhp out of it.

It's reliable.

JT

Cory M

Lotus Evora GX racer:

http://www.autoguide.com/auto-news/2...-am-debut.html

still waiting to see what the vision and rules for this class will be...

GTgears

$335k!!! So much for the class being budget-minded...

93 FireHawk 968

Budget minded? I wonder how much the average team spends for a full season. Seems like even lower end pro teams with lesser known drivers have to spend a fortune to be competitive.

GuyIncognito

I think the vision is "bigger grid for the Rolex 24".

rules will be anything that supports that.

GTgears

It's all relative. I'm just saying that the cost of that Lotus is up in the realm of what a GA spec Cup Car will run you to purchase. If Grand Am wants to pull in large fields of GX class entrants to offset the loss of DP entrants, they need to be doing it with cars that cost $1/4 M or less to build or buy the car. Running costs are a different story, but if they want to create a Rolex class that sits under GT and DP in performance it's also going to need to be a group of cars that also cost a bit less than the top cars.

It's like the WRC and S2000 in FIA rally. The WRC cars cost about $1/2M. The S2000 cars, which only perform marginally less cost about half of a WRC car to build. S2000 is taking off, while entry in WRC is languishing.