PTG finishes 3rd and 4th at Lime Rock Park

[Kaptain]

Their M3s are the only cars in the series to have ABS, likely to level the tough GT2 class.

http://www.ptgracing.com/press_relea...6/07_01_06.htm

[Hallen]

Auberlen is just a genius in these cars. Marks is pretty much there too. The team has the drivers. Now it looks like they are getting a competitive car under them.
I am looking forward to watching them in Portland.

[PTGSport]

and the team and partners have done a great job getting the handling/grip/driving down. Yokohama tested and built a new tire with great results and the new JRZ'z are coming together. Portland will be tough because the rules and the current BMW engine choices leave a bit of power on the table to Porsche and Panoz. Portland's got alot of long straight into slow corners with critical acceleration demands (erad: need torque and HP).

Look for more great things though, they're working hard!

[Hallen]

I think of Portland as a bit more of a momentum track. Turn 12 onto the front straight demands a good handling car to get good speed down the straight. The combinations of turns 4-7 are also more of a handling section leading onto the back straight. I am not a driver and have never driven the track myself, but it seems like more of a handling track, especially with the slick pavement. The turn three exit is the only place I can think of where low end torque is going to be a big advantage.

[Kaptain]

I think Risi will have the edge at Portland with their F430 GTC.

[PTGSport]

JRZ Suspension Engineering is the shock absorber company that designs and builds the shocks for the cars.

The M3's are a bit down on power and torque compared to the others...at the moment.

to do well in the corners leading onto critical straights. For Portland, its a drag race down the fron stretch to heavy braking into the festical corners and heavy acceleration out again, to another fast right hander. The corners at Portland are pretty basic with accellerate/brake/carry speed/accelerate onto a longer stretch again. The key for handling tracks is how much of the total lap time is actually spent in a corner. Tracks like Lime Rock, Infineon etc have pretty high ratios of total time spent in a corner and are good for well-handling cars. Places like Portland have higher ratios of acceleration and straights.

Torque becomes critical in the race where the slower GT cars often have to come off-line or check up to allow faster prototypes by in traffic. Re-accelerating then becomes much more important than it might have been during qualifying or when setting raw times.

[Jim Derrig 93 750]

caught part of the portland race and watched the F430 motor right by and there was nothing you could do about it--a pure power move assisted by an extra liter of displacement. the abs was of little help as most of the corners do not involve heavy braking and good modulation by a mere human is plenty adequate. sure you can outbrake everyone at level 10, but what about level 5 when the abs isn't triggered? no help--it won't be a fair fight until they lt you have a V8.

does the abs make trail braking easier? seems like it should.

[Kaptain]

PTG's BMW M3s have 3.2 liter I-6s with 300 lb-ft of torque and 430 hp. PTG's M3s are the only cars in the ALMS to have ABS.

I talked with a guy from Risi Competizione at the Portland Grand Prix and he said the F430 GTC has 430 hp.

Jaime Melo started from the pole at Portland in his # 62 F430 GTC, but he was hit from behind in the first turn. He had to come in to change the two rear tires and came out around one minute down to the GT2-leading car. GT2 cars took around 1 minute and 13 seconds to get around the track.

Mika Salo made a pass for the lead in the final 18 minutes.

http://www.risicompetizione.com/go/news.cfm

[cjmsports]

inside front wheels and rears as weight transfers in trail braking. The guys at this level are plenty good to do it anyway in all but the most extreme cases but it certainly takes some of the burden off.

[cjmsports]

hats off to you but...2nd I'd suppose the 430 bhp for the 430 to be a bit conservative...and 3rd. The ALMS equality system revolves around air restrictors that place a theoretical limit on total BHP available by limiting total oxygen for combustion. Peak bhp should be at peak airflow, in other words at the limit that the restrictors will allow, while peak torque is not likely to be at anywhere near peak airflow (piston speed determined) so if you were building an engine to ALMS specs with the Aero profile of the 430 vs. the M3, you might very well decide you can compete easily at the same bhp with considerably less drag while allowing yourself quite a bit more torque to get away under acceleration, even more important in traffic. Could be one reason the fastest lap times seemed closer than the race.

[EricHall]

Yeah, there are so many variables that it is tough to "equalize" cars of different makes with different engines. The setup of the cars, the drivers, and the track play such a large role that it is difficult to tell what is going on. Plus, it is questionable if the ALMS should be equalizing cars in the first place. They all get built within the same spec. This is not SWC we are talking about here.
I would guess the Ferrari is pushing more HP than the BMW and the Porsches right now. They at least have a much wider power band that gives them that lower end grunt that neither the BMW or Porsches have.
I would guess that the Ferrari will get a smaller restrictor prior to the next race (I know, I said that this isn't SWC. But this is what has been happening lately). It was just too easy for them to get around the other cars. They were more like a GT1.5 car than a GT2 car. My hat is off to the Risi team though. In a short period of time the have the car pretty reliable and obviously handling very well. It just sounds like crud right now. The BMW sounds sweet!
It was a real joy to watch the M3's in ALMS. I hope that PTG stays for years to come. BMW, Porsche, Ferrari, Panoz all fighting it out is very cool. <html>
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[Kaptain]

The conversation went like this:

Me: How much hp does the F430 GTC have?

Guy from Risi Competizione: 430 (he didn't say it loud enough)

Me: four-hundred and thirty, right?

Guy from Risi Competizione: yes

Mika Salo noted that “The Porsches appear to be a little faster in a straight line but our Ferrari is very good overall. Patrick made a bit of a mistake in a corner and I got around him. I think we have a very good package over all. This was a great win for the team, a great victory for Ferrari, and a great win for Michelin.”

http://www.risicompetizione.com/go/news.cfm

The 911s were given a bigger restrictor (more air) back in April:

http://www.americanlemans.com/news/Article.aspx?ID=1914

I thought the F430 sounded nice, but not as good as the M3s.

[Hallen]

My comment about the sound of the Ferrari was purely personal opinion :)
They are sweet cars and I love the competition level we are seeing right now in GT2. The more the better in my opinion. I love BMW, but it ain't fun unless there are good competitors out there.

[cjmsports]

Never doubted that you were told just that, just doubted that they would tell you the truth. And again its Torque, Torque, Torque. 4-4.5 liters is probably the best engine volume mathematically for the current rules. but it looks like the end of an era is coming, sadly anyway...

[Kaptain]

The end of what era?

8.0 liters is the limit for GT2 and GT1.

http://www.lemans.org/sport/sport/re...MGT2_fr_gb.pdf

http://www.lemans.org/sport/sport/re...MGT1_fr_gb.pdf

[PTGSport]

I meant the era of the E46 M3 in ALMS.