Thursday 8th October 2015

Callaway launches stunning Corvette racer

The quest to find the toughest-looking race car in the world might be at an end...

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The name Callaway means different things to different people. If you routinely wear terrible trousers and chase a small ball around a glorified park then you'll probably associate it most with the golf mega company. So award yourself some PH blokepoints if, instead, your first instinct on seeing it is to think of the U.S. tuning and racing firm with the same name, the one that's just introduced this stunning looking Corvette race GT3 race car.

America, f**k yeah and so on

Callaway began tuning BMWs in the U.S. in the 1970s, but it's most associated with the bristly Corvettes it has produced over the years. The German-based Callaway Competition racing team has now built what has to be the meanest looking of the lot, the new C7 GT3-R, which was launched this week at Hockenheim wearing this stealth fighter black livery.

The back end is particularly Batmobile, with a vast wing, a carbonfibre splitter and some very serious looking side vents built into the rear wheelarches.

The team says that the GT3-R will be racing next year in various GT3 series around the world - here's hoping they don't change the paint scheme. Power comes from a 600hp tuned version of the Chevrolet 6.2-litre V8 and heads to the back wheels through a six-speed X-Trac sequential box. Obviously we're not going to know if it's fast until it takes to the track against some proper rivals, but it certainly looks like it should be an absolute rocket.

 

 

[GroundEffect]

GT3 cars are odd beasts to me. You pose the rhetorical question if it will be fast or not...well, by the BoP rules, they will MAKE it fast.

I cannot really get my head around the whole BoP system and whether or not a car ever becomes uncompetitive; would an early 2000s DBRS9 for example be any slower than the latest V12 Vantage GT3 after it's been homologated via BoP?

Also, in race trim I highly doubt it'll produce 600BHP - BoP will pull that down significantly (for example, the BMW Z4 GT3 produces around 470-480PS and the highest power car, the SLS GT3 is around 530PS).