A new era of GT racing begins...
The GT4 European Cup had its ‘balance of performance’ test last week at the Dijon circuit in France. An Aston Martin N24, a Ford Mustang FR500 GT, Maserati Trofeo and a BMW Z4 M coupe took to the track for the test and proved closely matched straight out of the box.
The series kicks off on the 5-6 May at Silverstone during the Tourist trophy event and will support the FIA GT championship.
"Incredibly, all cars were perfectly matched," said Pascal Witmeur, the GT4 European Cup series manager for SRO. "After running for two days in ideal and equal conditions, there was hardly anything between any of the cars -- they were all within the same half a second! Kurt Mollekens, our test driver, carried out several runs of variable duration on new Pirelli tyres, and the performance between the cars was matched every time. So we're now going to freeze the tech specs of the cars which all offer an approximate 3.5 kg/hp power-to-weight ratio. This is really proof of the GT4 concept and we're now ready to go racing".
Stéphane Ratel, the Chairman of SRO Motorsports Group added: "We really wanted to launch the series this year as there was a clear demand from teams and competitors for a series combining a cost-effective format with upscale GT cars. The performance of the cars at Dijon testifies to the fact that the concept, based on GT3, is safe and sound. This first season will provide everyone with an opportunity to put things in motion and I believe we'll have an impressive grid of cars by the time we reach the last race of the series scheduled at Nogaro".
A Porsche Cayman and a Nissan 350Z should be out in time for Silverstone, with a Lotus Exige and Audi TT also in the pipeline for later in the year.