At the time of writing, escort ship Racing won 120 races, eight of which were level wins Le Mans, 14 producer championships and 15 team titles. It’s likely the team will be looking to pick up at least one more win this year, the modesty of that claim stemming from the fact that the Corvette C8.R won only once last year. Come 2024, this is the monster that will bear the additional burden of the trophy case, the Corvette Z06 GT3.R 2024. The current C8.R is built for the GT Le Mans /GT endurance The pro spec was then converted to a more limited GT3 spec last year when IMSA and FIA remove GTLM/GTE. The new racer is the first Corvette designed for the GT3 competition, and we hope it helps Jake return to his regular winning ways when competing at Rolex next 24 years in Daytona.
Although the name has been completely changed, this is a reworked current C8.R, that car has always been the sibling of the production Z06. An aluminum frame from the Corvette assembly line in Bowling Green is shipped to longtime partner Pratt & Miller Engineering for mounting roll cage and carbon fiber vehicle body. There’s still a 5.5-liter V8 with a flat crank behind the cabin, also built in Bowling Green, with a maximum power output of 600 horsepower as specified. There’s the same six-speed sequential transmission as on the C8.R. The double wishbone suspension shares the same architecture as the Z06 road car but matches sports car-specific springs and dampers. Front six-piston brake calipers combine with four-piston rear to push race-specific pads on race-specific rotors.
The move to GT3 racing means chevrolet Motorsport enters a new era of working with customer groups, something unheard of in the last 25 years for factory-backed GTLM and GTE cars. GT3 means the ability to run in more series’, so in addition to appearances in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championships in the GTD Pro and GTD classes and the FIA World Endurance Championships in GT3, umbrella Cars can also appear in the Fanatec GT World Challenge, Intercontinental GT Challenge, SRO America, and Intercontinental GT Challenge. Chevrolet Motorsports says it will provide extensive support for customer entries, including spare parts vans with full spare parts at the track on race weekends and Chevrolet engineers for setup, pre- and post-race documentation support and data analysis. Teams can upgrade to “full technique, race strategy and other items” on the support menu if the teams have enough budget.
At the time the customer’s delivery begins in Q3 this year, the Z06 GT3.R will have two years of development behind it, one of those years on the track. Chevrolet did not mention the price, that number is likely to be made public near the time of launch.
