Corvette C6.R GT2 - Click above for high-res ikon gallery
Back in August when General Motors introduced the all-new GT2 collection Corvette C6.R, it ran downsized 6.0-liter edition of the 7.0-liter V8 from the long-dominant GT1 car. At the launch, Corvette Racing information trainer Doug Fehan told us the 6.0-liter was meet an interim engine. With revised GT rules on touch for 2010, GM was already thinking a brand-new engine for its vie Vette.
Unlike the 6.0/7.0, which is a ground-up vie engine that exclusive shares base architectural dimensions with the creation small block, the 2010 C6.R's V8 is a newborn 5.5-liter unit that module indeed be derivative from the creation engine found in roadgoing Corvettes. In fact, the 5.5-liter vie engine module be built at GM's Performance Build Center alongside ZR1 and Z06 V8s.
Fehan has addicted that the 5.5 is streaming on the dyno and module make its vie entry at the 12 Hours of Sebring in March. We don't hit whatever added details on the newborn engine yet, though we were told earlier that it is based on the next-generation creation small-block, which we wait to wager in the Corvette soon.
Gallery: Mid-Ohio 2009: Corvette GT2 racing
Photos Copyright ©2009 Sam Abuelsamid / Weblogs, Inc.
[Source: General Motors]
PRESS RELEASE
Corvette Racing 2009 Review: Doug Fehan Q&A
The First in a Series of Conversations with Corvette Racing
DETROIT – Corvette Racing information trainer Doug Fehan has seen it all in motorsports, and he had to rely on every surroundings of that hard-earned experience to navigate finished a tumultuous 2009 season. In the interior of a orbicular scheme storm, Fehan steered Corvette Racing to the team's sixth intend in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the successful mid-year launching of the GT2 edition of the Corvette C6.R in the dweller Le Mans Series.
Corvette Racing's 10th anniversary flavour was a assemblage of transition. The championship-winning GT1 Compuware Corvettes secured a ordinal intend in the season-opening Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring on March 21, and prefabricated their feat attendance in the ALMS in Long Beach, Calif., on Apr 18. The curtain lapse on the GT1 epoch on June 13-14 with a GT1 conclusion in Le Mans, France, as Johnny O'Connell, Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia stood on the crowning travel of the podium. Seven weeks later, digit new-generation Corvette C6.Rs prefabricated their rivalry entry in the GT2 collection at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
As the aggroup conducted a five-race effort information in activity for a unified GT collection in 2010, Corvette Racing posted fivesome podium finishes and notched its prototypal GT2 intend at Mosport International Raceway on August 30. In the series' effort fivesome rounds, Corvette Racing scored more aggroup and manufacturer points than whatever other GT2 entry, and O'Connell and Magnussen tallied the most points in the GT2 drivers championship. The flavour ended with fireworks at Laguna Seca as Magnussen walked absent from his maltreated vie automobile after a high-speed break on the effort lap of the season.
Under Fehan's leadership, Corvette Racing has embellish digit of the world's premier creation sports automobile teams. An fervent advocate for the Corvette drive and an picture for legions of truehearted Corvette fans; Fehan received the ALMS "From the Fans" honor in 2004, 2008, and 2009. In the mass Q&A, he looks backwards at the 2009 flavour and looks aweigh to 2010.
Q: Looking in the rearview mirror, what stands out in 2009?
Fehan: "There were really digit parts to the flavour – our effort races in GT1 directive up to Le Mans, followed by the entry of the GT2 program. Our pore was and module ever be the 24 Hours of Le Mans. When GM was feat finished its restructuring, our greatest concern was that whatever strength not wager the grandness and meaning of that event. It was a encouraging moment when we were healthy to intend instance that point.
"In spite of whatever uncertainties, the aggroup convergent its forcefulness on streaming the prototypal ammo at Sebring, which we knew would be a enthusiastic effort of the field improvements we'd prefabricated in the vie cars. And then feat to Long Beach, we fulfilled the second half of our mission, which is marketing the Corvette and Chevrolet brands and representing our aggroup sponsors.
"Everyone change the grandness of writing the effort chapter of GT1 at Le Mans. They sacred themselves to succeed, and it was dead amazing to wager them acceptation that idea. It fueled their blast because they knew the aggroup was undergoing its most momentous challenge, and concurrently they were designing, thinking and building the GT2 cars. The activity was almost as such recreation as the race."
Q: And the particular of the GT2 portion?
Fehan: "The intend at Mosport. Watching the newborn cars' prototypal laps at Mid-Ohio and knowing that we'd be combative was sure exciting, but the conclusion at Mosport was overwhelming. It happened such rather than we expected, and it showed ALMS fans what they hit to countenance forward to in 2010 with rivalry between Corvette, Ferrari, Porsche, Jaguar, BMW, and Ford.
"I conceive by whatever measure, the GT2 Corvette launching was successful. Our neutral was to pore on Corvette Racing's set strengths: preparation, permanence and reliability. We've scholarly that is what scores points – it's not ever the fastest automobile that wins races and championships. In fivesome events, we had zero machinelike issues, and the cars were on pace. That was rattling encouraging."
Q: Surely digit of the highlights of 2009 was your stunning conclusion over Jan "The Flying Viking" Magnussen in the Tour de Road USA Bike Ride to Fight Cancer?
Fehan: "That sure ranks right at the top, but in a different category (laughs). We had whatever fun, and the vie benefited a beatific cause, the Lance jazzman Foundation. I contest the pit crews to meliorate continuously, and the bike vie demonstrated to our drivers that there is feat to be constant transformation in their take of fleshly activity as well. I mean, they ought to be healthy to keep up with the information manager!"
Q: On a earnest note, what were the lessons scholarly in Jan's last-lap break at Laguna Seca?
Fehan: "Unfortunately the hardest lessons you learn in this climb are ever country related. You never want to put your country systems to the test, but when that moment arrives, it's rattling calming to undergo that they are validated. That's what we scholarly at Laguna Seca.
"Initially we had concerns most streaming an aluminum chassis, and we had concerns most how the listing cage was integrated into the chassis. The force of the effect exceeded 50 g's, and still Jan walked away. When we analyzed the chassis after the crash, the country systems worked meet as they were designed, and the aluminum chassis did a marvelous employ of fascinating the forcefulness and protecting Jan from earnest injury.
"The extent of Jan's injuries was a broken tailbone, which we concept to the centre design. We hit redesigned that conception to prevent a reoccurrence in the future, so that is the face of the incident. Despite the severity of the crash, the gathering had the No. 3 Corvette repaired and fully operational within a pair of weeks."
Q: What is the status of the GT-spec Corvette client automobile information for 2010?
Fehan: "We currently hit digit client cars low construction, but we don't still hit addicted buyers for them. There has been large welfare in the GT-spec Corvette C6.Rs, and we conceive with continued transformation in the orbicular economy, the interested parties module be healthy to make a commitment. We'd be delighted to wager more Corvettes racing in the ALMS or overseas."
Q: While there module be a single GT collection in the ALMS in 2010, GT1 module move in the FIA information and at Le Mans. What's your appearance on the digit classes?
Fehan: "A assemblage ago, there was general commendation regarding a unified GT class, which we module wager in the ALMS in 2010. The intention at that instance was to base the FIA GT1 collection on GT cars, with limited modifications to the engine and aerodynamics. Since then, however, aggregation has encountered the same scheme issues that we hit visaged in the U.S., and whatever members of the racing community understandably desire to keep their underway cars for business reasons. Consequently whatever of the older GT1 cars module now be regenerate to the newborn regulations, including several privately owned Corvette C6.Rs, and the ACO has solicited these cars to move at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. As the scheme status improves, I wish that the selection makers module recognize the benefits of streaming digit GT collection at Le Mans and other venues."
Q: Corvette Racing module inform a production-based 5.5-liter small-block V-8 engine in 2010 in locate of the 7.0-liter and 6.0-liter engines utilised previously. What's the looking for the engine program?
Fehan: "GM Powertrain has completed the initial dynamometer tests of the 5.5-liter small-block V8, and the vie aggroup has conducted the prototypal track effort with the newborn engine. We are quite mitigated with its performance take at this point. We plan to move utilization and inform the 5.5-liter engine collection in rivalry at Sebring."
Q: What are Corvette Racing's goals for 2010?
Fehan: "The ALMS GT title and conclusion at Le Mans."
Corvette Racing's next circumstance is the season-opening Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring at Sebring International Raceway in Sebring, Fla., on March 20, 2010. The artist 12-hour endurance vie module be televised springy on SPEED play at 10 a.m. ET.
Filed under: Motorsports, Coupe, Chevrolet, Racing
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