Bathurst street car lap record attack

How fast can a road-registerable performance car lap Mount Panorama? That’s the question three new manufacturer timed sessions scheduled for the Bathurst 12-hour are setting out to answer.

The manufacturer sessions are a new initiative where automotive brands can put high-performance production cars on the legendary track in the hands of professional drivers and see what laps they can achieve. While we’re a long way from The Mountain replacing Nurburgring as the benchmark for performance car pace, the potential is there…

Among the expected starters for the February 3-5 event is German ace Bernd Schneider. The AMG ambassador is tipped to be driving a new Mercedes-AMG GT R which (fingers crossed) will be airfreighted to Australia for the lap record tilt.

Along with Mercedes-AMG, at least Ferrari Australasia has signalled it will take part in the sessions, although with what road car or other vehicles is unknown at this stage.

The 12-hour has become a centrepiece of promotion for sports and luxury car brands in Australia, with Aston Martin, Audi, Bentley, BMW, Lamborghini, McLaren, Nissan Nismo and Porsche all represented in the field as well as AMG and Ferrari.

The idea for the sessions came from within the ranks of the manufacturers looking for a way to more closely link their road car programs with their GT3 race cars.

Manufacturers participating in the race will be given preference to start the sessions.

The lure of claiming the fastest road registerable production car lap around Bathurst and beating a bunch of direct marketplace rivals into the bargain will be impossible for some brands to resist.

And just where the road cars emerge on time in comparison to the race cars will be fascinating to see. The GT 3 racers often have muzzled power outputs but superior tyre, braking and aerodynamic grip. Shane van Gisbergen holds the current lap record at the track set last year in a McLaren 650S GT3 at a spectacular 2:01.5670.

motoring.com.au’s expert racer Luke Youlden estimated a road car would be about 20sec slower than the racing version around the 6.213km circuit.

“Straight-line performance of the production cars will be similar and perhaps faster with no detuned engines for parity, but braking and cornering is the big difference with slicks and more importantly aero.

“Cornering speed equals lap time. F1 cars would do 400km/h without aero but lap times come from cornering,” Youlden stated.

GT R to be showcased at 12-hour
AMG is already hoping to use the race meeting to showcase the 430kW GT R and Schneider, the 2013 race winner, is expected to be one of AMG’s star attendees at Mount Panorama.

The former DTM champ and F1 driver showed off the capability of the road going GT S around Mount Panorama during the Aussie car’s launch last year. In that video he set a time of 2:24.03. With substantially more power, more grip from a wider rear track and active aerodynamics, the GT R should be quicker…

“We are definitely taking part,” confirmed Mercedes-Benz Australia/Pacific product communications boss Jerry Stamoulis.

“The Bathurst 12-hour is a very important event for AMG; we have the safety cars, we have just over 200 customers attending the event. So we want to be involved as much as possible with regards to the 12-hour.

“As for the driver, we will announce that soon and it is most likely to be an overseas driver. You will have to wait to see which AMG is used,” Stamoulis hedged…

The three streetcar sessions comprise two 15-minute hit-outs on Friday and another 10 minutes to be scheduled on either Friday or Saturday.

The timed sessions will be under race control conditions for road registerable cars driven by FIA gold or platinum ranked drivers.

“This will take a couple of years to get some traction and there seems to be a mixture of response to it,” said 12-hour event director John Casey.

“Some will sit back and some will jump in.

“If we can grow it over time as being something interesting for the fans, then happy days,” Casey stated.