SUPER GT 2024 Season Preview
Honda RACING had been running NSX Type S-based SUPER GT GT500 class contender, namely NSX-GT, up until the end of the 2023 season. But from this year on, the base car has been changed to CIVIC TYPE R, and the newly developed GT racing breed, CIVIC TYPE R-GT will be introduced in the series with a definite aim to achieve: That is to recapture the first title in four years since the Honda camp last won in 2020.
Contrary to the NSX models that have originally built as a mid-ship 2-seater sport car, CIVIC TYPE R is a sport model spun off from the 5-door, 4-seater compact car; therefore, not only the body shape but also the fundamental configuration of the car are completely different from the predecessor. With such a drastic reform and consequent requirements in mind, Honda’s development team has carried out some resolute changes in the vehicle layout.
GT500 cars usually have an inter-cooler at the center and two radiators (right & left) at the front-end of the engine bay, however, Honda engineers decided to reduce the number of radiator from two to one, and installed the inter-cooler at the lower right side of the engine bay and the remaining radiator at the left. As the result, a considerable weight equivalent to a radiator body and the coolant contained in it was pared down as well as the COG being significantly lowered.
The absolute cooling capacity should be less if two radiators are reduced to one. On the other hand, the engines modified to use carbon-neutral fuel since last year tend to operate on relatively high water temperature. Therefore, Honda’s development team have had very good reasons to believe that the cooling capacity would be enough even in the summer when ambient temperature reaches its peak. The kinematic performance of the car derived by the lighter weight and the lower COG has been thought much more beneficial in order to boost the competitiveness.
Just like last year, a total of five CIVIC TYPE R-GT cars are delivered to four teams in this season. Only the Naoki Yamamoto/Tadasuke Makino pair driving #100 car maintains the previous lineup, and all other teams saw a major shuffle of driver combination.
As for #8 ARTA, Tomoki Nojiri enters into a partnership with Nobuharu Matsushita
who had previously belonged to #17 Astemo REAL RACING. Koudai Tsukakoshi staying with the #17 car will be joined by Kakunoshin Ohta who had made GT500 debut last year in #64 Modulo Nakajima Racing. A veteran driver, Takuya Izawa will be paired by a GT500 rookie, Riki Okusa. #16 car that had fought for the title last year through to the end is to be entrusted continually to Hiroki Otsu newly mating with Ren Sato, another GT500 rookie who is coming back to the SUPER GT category since he ran NSX GT3 in 2021.
The new CIVIC TYPE R-GT had been slightly slow early in the pre-season tests, however, it gradually caught up with the pace while accumulating test laps and now is fully ready for the season opener.
“The base car had been changed so that the same settings are not necessarily effective just the way they’d been before. Especially, the change in the body shape demands us to look for the yet-to-be-known sweet spot of the setting, however, we’ve been doing fine towards the opening race at hand. We’ll further develop the car in order to achieve the ultimate goal for us, in other words, to win the series title,” said Masahiro Saiki (HRC SGT Large Project Leader) expressing his aspirations for the new season.
The 2024 SUPER GT series will start at Okayama International Circuit yet again this year, and will host a total of eight rounds at six circuits in Japan. Members of the entire HRC and the teams sincerely request its fans to look forward to a prosperous season to come and thank the fans in advance for their continuous support.
