Quote:
Originally Posted by 03BeastCharmer
Does this mean the M4 is saved for DTM only, so if the Z4 is retired, the only option is the M6? Turner campaigned an M6 from the previous generations a few years ago, but it didn't do well. It just so big!! Not sure this is a step up for the Tudor series here in the US.
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The Turner M6 was a touring car, which meant they had to use a M6 road car to build the race car. All cars in the Continental Series (and Pirelli World Challenge) are built that way.
In this case,
GTLM/GTE/GTD cars are built from the ground level up as a race car and they finish it off by molding a body of a street car over the build, resulting in the race car having almost no commonality with the actual street car.
So while the new M6 GTLM/GTE will have growing pains on the race track, I suspect they will be very competitive as Tudor and European LeMans/WEC rules allow for balance of power adjustments during the race season. A good measuring stick would be how the new Viper GTE is performing in Tudor this year (year 3), and how the old M3 GTS performed in its final year.
Also this year Porsche started using the 991 generation of GTE/GT3/GTLM cars and the are stinking it up....but I suspect they will be very good next year after 1 year of learning and on the track development.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LM_GTE
Here's an example, the race car chassis , suspension, and engines are all customized.
here's how a Z4 GTE/GT3/GTLM is built: