Seat in Open GT series
Discussion
Can anyone tell me what that Seat in the Open Gt series is about? I absolutely don't know on wich current Seat it is based on, or is it just a one-off for this race series? I believed that a car racing in GT series was supposed to be built around a standard car, albeit losely? 
In the 'real' GT series there was a debate about the Maserati MC12 being 'purpose' built. Can't imagine that Seat is going to build a sportscar like that, would they? (By the way, it looked hideous. Like a Veyron on steroids from the old DDR 
)
Grtz
Erik
In the 'real' GT series there was a debate about the Maserati MC12 being 'purpose' built. Can't imagine that Seat is going to build a sportscar like that, would they? (By the way, it looked hideous. Like a Veyron on steroids from the old DDR ) Grtz
Erik
yeah it does look wierd. Its as if they've chucked far too much body work at it and it looks as if its 'bloated'.
Its supposedly based on the Cupra.... not sure which part of the Cupra, maybe the indicators or something ;-)
But saying that I'm not against it all that much... a big part of GT racing is all about variety. Nothing worse than seeing a GT race with nothing else but Porsche 911s all over the place. (unless its the Porsche cup then its allowed). So I think its adds a bit of concept car flavour to the grid.
Its supposedly based on the Cupra.... not sure which part of the Cupra, maybe the indicators or something ;-)
But saying that I'm not against it all that much... a big part of GT racing is all about variety. Nothing worse than seeing a GT race with nothing else but Porsche 911s all over the place. (unless its the Porsche cup then its allowed). So I think its adds a bit of concept car flavour to the grid.
Its the Cupra GT and its been racing since 2004. It initially raced in the Spanish GT Championship, but it wasn't very well developed and I think Seat officially pulled the funding for development when the older Toledo was still out performing it by about mid season. It really wasn't that quick in 04. Looked pretty mean though.
It looks nothing like any sort of road car under the skin either. It's a complete spaceframe chassis. The wing mount is bolted directly onto the rear of the chassis and is an engineering effort in itself!
Raced again in Spain last year and has had quite a bit of development done too. Rumour was in 04 that Seat were going to put lot of development into it for a Le Mans tilt. But I'm guessing that with Audi putting so much money in the R8, then R10 and Lamborghini having a certain amount of cash thrown at it for the GT1 car development, it was deemed a bad idea. Seat now have a huge effort in WTCC anyway, so that's probably where they're better off.
It looks nothing like any sort of road car under the skin either. It's a complete spaceframe chassis. The wing mount is bolted directly onto the rear of the chassis and is an engineering effort in itself!
Raced again in Spain last year and has had quite a bit of development done too. Rumour was in 04 that Seat were going to put lot of development into it for a Le Mans tilt. But I'm guessing that with Audi putting so much money in the R8, then R10 and Lamborghini having a certain amount of cash thrown at it for the GT1 car development, it was deemed a bad idea. Seat now have a huge effort in WTCC anyway, so that's probably where they're better off.
AJI said:
yeah it does look wierd. Its as if they've chucked far too much body work at it and it looks as if its 'bloated'.
Its supposedly based on the Cupra.... not sure which part of the Cupra, maybe the indicators or something ;-)
But saying that I'm not against it all that much... a big part of GT racing is all about variety. Nothing worse than seeing a GT race with nothing else but Porsche 911s all over the place. (unless its the Porsche cup then its allowed). So I think its adds a bit of concept car flavour to the grid.
I share your opinion on the variety part of GT racing. However the main attraction for GT racing for me is mostly the resemblence between the racers and the road cars (and rallying, WTCC, GT Series, etc). This Seat however doesn't look like anything on the road. Couple that to the fact that it didn't perform the way it should according to Racefan UK, I'm wondering why it is still in the series.
I truly believed however that the cars in GT series had to have some resemblance with the road cars. According to Racefan UK it is build on a spaceframe and doesn't even come close to a normal Seat. How can this be, does the Open GT Series have different rules to this?
Grtz
Erik
Open GT Series is run and based on the same regs as the Spanish GT championship. It's run by the same people too.
As the Seat is Spanish.... well, you can see why its in the series. And from what I could tell from the brief look at race one I saw, its not that slow, it was running with the Moslers and Viper, which it wasn't able to do in 2004. There has obviously been some development, just not at the hands of Seat, so its never really fulfilled its potential. Unlikely to either, as being a spaceframe car and not based on anything road wise, there's no other series it could really enter.
As the Seat is Spanish.... well, you can see why its in the series. And from what I could tell from the brief look at race one I saw, its not that slow, it was running with the Moslers and Viper, which it wasn't able to do in 2004. There has obviously been some development, just not at the hands of Seat, so its never really fulfilled its potential. Unlikely to either, as being a spaceframe car and not based on anything road wise, there's no other series it could really enter.
racefan_uk said:
Open GT Series is run and based on the same regs as the Spanish GT championship. It's run by the same people too.
As the Seat is Spanish.... well, you can see why its in the series. And from what I could tell from the brief look at race one I saw, its not that slow, it was running with the Moslers and Viper, which it wasn't able to do in 2004. There has obviously been some development, just not at the hands of Seat, so its never really fulfilled its potential. Unlikely to either, as being a spaceframe car and not based on anything road wise, there's no other series it could really enter.
Aha! Thanks for enlightening me. It was indeed running with the Moslers and Vipers. But I couldn't compare the results because I was watching the summary of the race on Eurosports Motorsport Weekend. Still the Moslers and Vipers looked ten timers better.
Grtz
Erik
For what I know the Cupra GT was based on the same chassis as the Toledo (and Leon) GT, strictly inspired/based on the car built in France by Snobeck Racing Service for the local "Superproduction" series, imo this is also the reason why the Cupra GT bodywork look so "strange", the complete chassis (rollbar included) being built to fit the Toledo/Leon shape/profile....
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