February was a good month for new Race car unveils and previews, we had 2 GT3 cars previewed, 1 LMP2 car and a new GT4 car. All are expected to be racing towards the later end of this year or will be ready for action at the start of the 2016 season.
ORECA 05 LMP2
This is the new LMP2 Coupe that French Manufacturer ORECA Technology has come up with to replace the ORECA 03. The new car has been designed with the new LMP2 2017 Regs in mind so is 1900mm over the normal 2000mm wide. Like previously the car will be able to use a number of engine and gear box layout’s and will stay cost-capped as per the LMP2 customer regulations. The car will go into testing soon, and then should be racing with-in the year.
Mercedes-AMG GT3
Mercedes treated us all to a preview of the up coming Mercedes-AMG GT3 that will be shown in the flesh at the Geneva motor show. This car has a lot to live up to as the SLS GT3 was a huge success on the track, the new car is powered by the same 6.3 litre V8 instead of the road car’s 4.4 twin turbo V8 which I think is a shame as that engine in race form I imagine is a real monster. The car will start testing later this year and should be in customers hands for 2016.
BMW M6 GT3
BMW have been out testing there next generation GT3 competitor the M6 GT3, The new car will replace the Z4 GT3 which also means the GTE version will get a revamp since its based on the same chassis. The new M6 GT3 uses the 4.4 twin-turbo V8 which is in the road car, but obviously will be in race spec. The car has already tested twice so is more likely to race this year than the Merc, more probably in one of the VLN race’s before a push for customer campaign’s.
KTM X-BOW GTR
The KTM X-Bow GTR is the coupe version of the X-BOW, its been designed to be a GT4 car, and will be available from April to customers. The car has been a joint project between KTM and by Reiter Engineering, with the aim to build an evolution of the old X-Bow that is competitive in the GT4 field. The car will come ready to race with a BoP to SRO levels so it can compete in the British GT Championship and the GT4 European Series, all this will cost you €139,000 which is not bad for a ready to race machine.
