The Chevrolet Camaro GT4.R will be sold to customer privateer race teams all over the globe starting next year, president of motorsports at General Motors, Mark Kent, told Sportscar365 in a recent interview.
The Camaro GT4.R is the first turn-key racecar from Chevrolet built to global sporting regulations. The GT4-spec racer is fielded in the SCCA World Challenge by Blackdog Speedshop and in the IMSA Continental Tire Sportscar Challenge by Stevenson Motorsports, but will hit the track globally in 2017 pending customer sales. Pratt & Miller, the same outfit that built the Corvette C7.R, Cadillac ATS-V.R and countless other GM racecars, engineered the GT4.R and will be responsible for production.
“We haven’t finalized it all, but our goal when we started this process was that by next year we would have a product that would be racing in the hands of other teams (in addition to Blackdog Speedshop and Stevenson),” Kent told Sportscar365. “We have received a lot of interest, a lot of tire kickers. But until we figure out the distribution process and price, it’s hard to tell how many of those tire kickers are serious. We’ll find out.”
Kent is hoping Chevrolet will work the kinks out of the new racecar throughout 2017 and by 2018 will be able to deliver a highly competitive racecar that doesn’t need to be supported by a team of mechanics and engineers. Just as the term ‘turn key racecar’ suggests, Chevy hopes teams will be able to hop in the GT4.R, press the start button and start vying for race wins and podiums.
“We hope at the end of the year we’ve ironed out all the bugs, we’ve figured out how to operate the car so when someone does buy it, ‘Here’s your owner’s manual. This is how you can compete with this car.’ (customer teams would) love to win the championships and we hope this product would enable that.”
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AWESOME. Only from GM. For a long history, GM has CONSISTENTLY been a winner in many, many circles at very competetive, to cheap, pricing …. at the track, on the street. Camaro, GT4-R, build it, the “masses” will come. Keep up the fine work, dividends, smiles, and winning … THANKS, Gene Henry