Can someone explain about the balance of power in GTE? I get conflicting informations, depending from sources. I understand that GTE cars must all have the same minimum weight. Apparently they all must also develop no more than 450/500hp ? So, how the balance of power works in reality? How do they restrict the power on some cars that have more than the limited power? Does the balance of power takes into account the CX of cars? Does it work with a power to weight ratio? Do they ballast some cars? How, for example can you balance the power between a 8-liter Viper and a 3.8-liter Porsche GT3? How can you balance the power between a Ferrari 458 and a Bentley Continental GT?
In theory there is a restrictor table which is made to varius engine sizes, so a 4l engine gets 2x28.6mm restrictors while a 4.5l engine gets 2x28.3 etc.. the theory behind it is to limit the airflow into the engine, and if you know the volume of air that an engine uses over time you can extrapolate the maximum power that the engine can make. This however doesn't take into account the torque advantage larger engines have... So it is flawed from the get go.. Latly the ACO/FIA have thrown the tables entierly out the window and pass out restirctors as they please, based on the performace of the cars, Which leads to a lot of sandbagging and lobying to get bigger restrictors on your car.... So far the only car in 2012, and probably 2013 to use the actual restrictors that are handed to from the table is the Ferrari 458, all other competitors have larger restrictors and thus make more power... Incidently Ferrari is also the only car that had it's performance nutered as FIA/ACO decided it was too fuel efficient and had them use a 5l smaller fuel tank then all the rest. Also they have to carry 15kg mode weiht.. This all pertains to FIA/ACO GTE rules that run in WEC, and ALMS...
Thanks for the explanations. I suspected that some form of air restrictors were in use, but that doesn't seem to be quite fair to me. I am just wondering how they can equalise the performances between cars built with a completely different philosophy. There are other factors than power influencing the performance of a car of course, and only ruling on power output seems a bit simplistic to me. Soon, we should see Bentley Continental GT Coupe and SRT Viper in GT, and I am just wondering how nutered they will have to be to be on a par with a BMW Z4, or a Porsche GT3, for example. Showroom cars claim 550/600hp!! But they are huge cars, with massive frontal areas, etc... I wouldn't call them ideal GT cars to race. Re. the ACO; they are always a law under themselves anyway, and I didn't welcome the news of them taking over the administration of the WEC. The Ferrari 458 is a bit of a yardstick in that field, with low frontal area, good dynamics, etc... It has also benefited from a lot of development in the hANDS OF SEVERAL TUNERS. Only an Audi R8 or a Lamborghini could match it technically. The Aston, Corvette are front engined and larger cars. The Ford GT has never been properly developed. A couple of years ago, a Morgan Aero8 won a couple of races in the GT3 championship against Ferrari, Lambo, Porsche, Audi, Ford, Chevrolet, Aston and so on. I guess this rare, un-aerodynamic car with just a 4-liter BMW engine went under the radar from the organisers' point of view and benefited from some leniency; it soon got protested by the Audi teams and sidelined for "excessive exhaust noise", although it had passed scrutineering! Just to show. I have heard that Porsche team have complained against the ACO at the 2 last Le Mans races, after they found it impossible to get near the Ferrari and the Corvette.
It's a bit complicated then that.. The idea behind GTE previusly known as GT2, NGT before that nad GT3 before that is to have racecars based on road cars with only a few modifications... The first rule set had air restrictors for equalizzing engines, and minimum weight all the cars ran under... It worked reather well, as the only cars compeating in it were the 360 and the 996 porsche both running 3.6l engines... It was glorius... this continued to the next gen as well with 430s and 997.. but around halfway through that gen, BMW and corvette showed up... Both requiring major waivers to even compete agains porschs and Ferrairs. on top of htat the BMW were givien major performance adjustments which made them the absolute dominators in the ALMS... This is where it all went to hell and the ACO and FIA are now runnig the show as they please changing BOP all the time... The idea behind the calss was for it to be fixed set of rules with BoP only enforced to speed up slower cars to withing 1s of the top brands... It was suposed to be develeopment based, as in the Manufs can develop their cars and get better results, but with the current state of affairs FIA/ACO chose whose gonna be fastest and this has nothing to do with development or the car itself.. Regarding Viper nad Bentley... I am of the oppinion that any car that needs special consideration should not race in the GTE class, the GT3 class will cater to them more then happily.... The Viper really takes addvantige of the air restirction rules not prohibiting the torque addvantige of large negined cars...
It surely is! My understanding is that there are different balances of power between the ACO ruling Le Mans, the WEC, the ALMS and the ELMS, and the SRO ruling the FIA GT championships. That doesn't make things easy, and cars can't jump from one series to the other, which is a pity, I think. I see that the temporary entry list for Le Mans 2013 has 3 Ferrari 458, 2 Corvette, 2 Porsche, 2 Aston Martin and 2 Viper. On paper, the Viper seems to have a large torque advantage in view of its cubic capacity, although I doubt if that plays an important role on the long straights at Le Mans where maximum speed is all important. It's their first year back and it will be interesting to watch. I think one can consider the Ferraris as favourite, but I have a soft spot for the Corvettes myself; I always enjoy following them.
ACO regs are the same for Le Mans and WEC, ALMS as well..ELMS droped GTE this year I belive, but were using ACO rules till now.. ALMS uses the ACO regs, but adjusts the balance a little bit, not by much.. SRO GT championship don't have anything to do with GTE since 2010
It's a pity that the rules are different and oblige constructors to develop different versions of the same cars to participate in various series. FIA GT has some interesting cars too, like the McLaren, the Audi R10, the BMW Z4, etc... that are not seen under the ACO rules. The great shame was that the Maserati MC12, although a leading contender in SRO GT championship, was never accepted by the ACO and not allowed to show its potential at Le Mans on the ground that it was not marketed in different countries and exceeded the maximum width by 50mm. The ACO wasn't consistent in its criteria, allowing a few years before the Toyota GT-One which was in reality a prototype in disguise.
