just got back from the weekend round of the Japan Super GT Championship held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (the only round of the series held outside of Japan).

Some utterly SICK machinery there. Sepang of course is a world class track, as it is on the Formula One calendar. the front running cars were about 20-30 seconds off the F1 pace, and probably rivalled only by the DTM cars for technological sophistication.

I couldn't help noticing this car. It did pretty well in its class too, finishing ahead of the Ferraris and even some 996 RSR's.

 

oh, while i'm at it, here's a few other pics of the event:

huge grid:


event was won by the Arta NSX:


2nd place Motul 350Z (beside Arta NSX):


carbon fiber overload on the Motul Z:




interesting Ford GT:


not your father's Lexus either (500+ HP works Toyota/Lexus SC430) came in 3rd place overall:

 

Great pics...the 350 Z is the best looking of the group!
Hope you had fun!

P.S. = Are you waiting for your RT12?

 

How do the zcars compare to the 986 and 996?

 

hi. you mean the nissan 350Z's?

there's really no comparison at all, because 1) the Z-cars are full factory supported cars with big budgets; and 2) the Porsches are in the lower GT class.

Japanese Super GT has a very very unique set of technical and sporting regulations. Without getting into the details (which i'm still trying to figure out in any case, based on this press material they gave me,) the "GT500" class is for cars with 500HP or more, and the "GT300" class is for cars with around 300HP or more, but less than 500HP.

you can pretty much do what you want with your suspension, tranny, weightsaving, etc etc, and there's a huge range of leeway with engines too, but the key regulating factor is an air restrictor. there's an equivalency formula that determines how big a restrictor you have to use, based on displacement, and whether forced induction or normally aspirated.

the Porsches, Lambos, Ferraris, Maseratis, Vemacs, etc all run in GT300. The big boys in GT500 include the works Toyotas, Nissans and Hondas. Back in the mid 90's, McLaren F1's ran in that class too, winning the title outright in '95.

The GT300 cars are a lot slower than the GT500 cars for obvious reasons. The works cars share very little with their roadgoing brethren. They even run 330 width slicks front and rear!

Even then, the GT300 cars are pretty quick. I wouldn't know how to compare them with cars from other racing series. But the Boxster had all carbon fiber bodywork, inboard suspension, giant AP brakes, and weighed in at around 2,500 lbs.

hope that helped?

 

Awesome pics of one of my favorite series