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At the time of writing, Corvette Racing has won 120 races, including eight class wins at Le Mans, 14 Constructors’ Championships and 15 Team titles. It’s likely the team will find a way to add at least one win this year, the modesty of that statement coming from the fact that the Corvette C8.R only won once last year. Come 2024, this is the beast that will bear the brunt of adding to the trophy cabinet, the 2024 Corvette Z06 GT3.R. The current C8.R was built to GT Le Mans/GT Endurance Pro specs, then converted to the more restrictive GT3 specs last year when IMSA and the FIA eliminated GTLM/GTE. The new racer is the first Corvette designed for GT3 competition, and we expect it to bring Jake back to regular wins when he enters competition at next year’s Rolex 24 at Daytona.
Despite the completely changed name, this is a reworked current C8.R, which car has always been a close brother to the production Z06. An aluminum frame from the Corvette’s assembly line in Bowling Green is shipped to longtime partner Pratt & Miller Engineering to be fitted with the carbon fiber roll cage and body. There’s still a 5.5-liter V8 with a flat-plane crank behind the cab that was also built at Bowling Green, with a maximum output of 600 horsepower as mandated by the regulations. There’s a six-speed sequential gearbox, just like on the C8.R. A double wishbone suspension features the same architecture as the Z06 road car, but mates with motorsport-specific springs and dampers. Six-piston front calipers combine with four-piston rear to push race-specific pads onto race-specific rotors.
The move to GT3 racing means Chevrolet Motorsports is entering a new era of collaboration with customer teams, something not seen with factory-backed GTLM and GTE cars in the last 25 years. GT3 means the opportunity to run in more series’, so in addition to appearances in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in the GTD Pro and GTD classes and the FIA World Endurance Championship in the GT3 class, cars could also appear in the Fanatec GT World Challenge, Intercontinental GT Challenge, SRO America and the Intercontinental GT Challenge. Chevrolet Motorsports says it will provide broad support for customer submissions, including a parts truck with full spare parts on the track during race weekends, and Chevrolet engineers for installation, pre- and post-race documentation and data analysis. Teams can level up to “full engineering, race strategy and other items” in the support menu if teams have the budgets.
By the time customer deliveries begin in the third quarter of this year, the Z06 GT3.R will have completed two years of development, including one on the track. Chevrolet didn’t name the price, that number will likely be made public closer to launch.
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