Sean,
I think this gives a clue as to which way you should go. You don't want a GT40 in the original sense, you want one set up as a modern trackday car. A good workshop should be able to advise what to do to the basics of the car and which components to use.
John
John, thanks for your response. I see from your porfile you have lots of varied track experience in different cars with different drivers and also have a radical and GT40, so maybe you could comment further.
An orgional GT40 Mk1 from the 60s had about 375 hp max. The tyres then were nothing like rubber avaialable for histyorics now, not least because of compound, and brakes were also nothing like what a SPF has today.
From looking at threads here, it seems most run 351 based motors with 500+hp and 500+ft lbs of torque, plus it seems half or more run 17 in wheels.
My observation is that pretty much no one here is running an origional spec Gt40, maybe some guys int he uk and Oz are running low power small blocks. Even when I look at the goodwood Gt40 reunion, we see cars with 450+hp lightter bodies who knows what in shocks. In fact look at any hostoric race times for other marques and lap times at a place like goodwwod are significantly quicker than in period. So the cars have been improved significantly, whele notionaly adhering to spec.
The question might be at what point are changes significant enough that the essence of the thing is changed and what you really are running is a modern track car that looks like a GT40.
You raise a very good question to me about what I am looking for. Maybe if I try answer, then from your experience you might help guide me.
At tracks where I run, there are occasionaly serious machines like radicals and spec racer fords. On the corners these machines are in a completly other league.
Most cars though are modded tracked out e36 bmws, various loti, newer vettes, some running slicks other not, lots of Gt3's some with slicks others not, same with caymans. Sometimes one or two 458's show up. Of course there is avast difference in car prep and drivers too.
What I trying to compare a track GT40 to is not pure modern race cars, but essentialy modern street cars which have been optimised to varying degrees for the track. The lightest of them weigh 2800lbs and most are well over 3100lbs.
My thoughts are, (and I may well be completly off base), a race car design from the 60's that weights 2300-2400lbs with modern levels of power, better rubber and decent brakes should be able to run with modern street based track cars. In other words cars that have their own compromuses for having been street based namel weight.
Now it could be that a GT40 suspension design has too may camber toe and other changes going on, to be stable like a modern. Yes there is no ABS but pads etc should yeild adequate brakes. I had understood perhaps incorrectly that by the mid 60's suspemsion dysnamics were well understood and improvements since then have mainly been in rubber aero and of course weight. In which case yes a GT40 may not have that dual personality of refinedment on the street and trackability like a GT3 but track optimised, shocks springs rubber it should be as good as a modern street based car on track?
So if I took a street based 997 GT3 as a benchmark(3300lbs) running say R compund rubber. And if I took a 500hp 302 based GT40, running even slicks or great avons to my mind if the Gt40 has decent suspension as its rumoured to have it shoudl be able to run with a street based car.
Yes it will get smoked by a radical or even a modern like a GT3 cup.
Does an optimised but uncompromised 60s racer hang with modern street cars. Or has tech moved on so much that its not really a conversation.
Now as to why a GT40. Well I loved them since I was child. The last modern I drove that did anyhting for me was a 997 gt3. I find the 458 Boring with a capital B, same with the Maclaren, these are cars that have lost their sense of occasion and interaction, experience etc in the name of ultimate lap times. The new 991 Gt3 seems to me to be the same type of car. I am sure it will be faster but to what end. The idea is to have fun, and an emotive experience not just ultimate lap times. At the same time one wants to be potentialy in the hunt.
So if I took a spf Gt40, without doing the whole hog and transforming it into something else, but if I had track based springs and shocks, and put say 17 in wheels ands slicks on it, can it more or less run with something like a street 997 Gt3.
From my research the guys who historic race SPF cars have already worked out a lot of the details, they know what pads to use, they have spring rates and optimised shocks, so essentialy taking a track optimised GT40 maybe running better rubber than historics, where does the car sit in the hunt.
So far I can find no comparative Data. We know Dennis ran a 2.07 at the Gelnn on bias ply tires. But Dennis is a serious pro with lots of exeperience int he car. I know experienced amateurs run a 2:13 in a GT3 RS 4.0 on slicks there. I know maxed out e36's with experienced amateurs get down to the same times and around 2:10. I know a real pro has run a fully tracck prepped E36 with only 250hp down to 2.08. So yeah would love to have some like for like comparisons with similar drivers.
I would love to know for example what someone like the Stig did around the top gear track in a SPF. Or can someone tell me what a modern does round goodwood, compared to a Gt40 in the dry. Has anyone run a newer GT40 around the nurbering. What were the times around Monza at the last historics. How do those compare to say a similar driver in a GT3.
What about willow springs, anybody run a GT40 there?
Yes i know I will be slower than a GT3, at least for the first few years, because a GT3 has all the nannies, but the fun will be getteing there.
Yes its bench racing going on, but its also surprising how little if any comparative data there is on a GT40, yet so many seem to be tracked.
laugh
