Grand-Am Chevrolet Camaro GT.R

Katech currently supplies engines for three General Motors supported teams for use in the Grand-Am Rolex GT series. The teams and car numbers which are supported are #07 by Banner Racing, #57 Steven Motorsports and #88 team Autohaus.

Grand-Am road racing, which was founded in 1999, revolutionized major league sports car road racing in North America. As the organization begins its 12th season of competition in 2011, Grand-Am is universally regarded as one of the world’s most competitive road racing organizations.

The Rolex GT category provides a stable background for the world’s top automobile manufacturers. Perhaps best of all, the Rolex series’ two-class format allows race fans watching from the grandstands or television, as well as media covering the series, to follow the action with just two easy-to-distinguish classes of race cars; Daytona Prototypes and GT.

The engine which powers the Chevrolet Camaro GT.R is the 6.2L naturally aspirated V8, which starts its life as the GM 6.2L LS3, which is available in the production Camaro SS. Katech takes this engine and adapts it to the Grand-Am Rolex GT series’ rules. Many production components are retained including the cylinder case, crankshaft, connecting rods, cylinder heads and valvetrain. The oil system gets upgraded to a Dailey dry sump system to cope with the high G-forces of the Pratt & Miller chassis combined with the continental tires. The rod bolts and pistons are also upgraded units to help sustain the higher RPM and heavier cycle of this production engine turned professional race engine. The camshaft and engine control system are also changed to meet the Grand-Am regulations.

2011 Grand-Am Season Review

The Manufacturer

For the 2011 Grand-Am Rolex GT season Chevrolet partnered with 3 Camaro GT.R teams, Pratt & Miller and Katech with the goal of winning races and championships

Chevrolet finished 1^st in manufacture points with 371

Chevrolet teams stood on the podium 10 times finishing in first and second place 5 times each
Chevrolet LS3 engines led a total of 596 out of 1802 laps

The Teams

There were 3 factory supported Chevrolet Camaro GT.R teams

The No. 88 Autohaus Motorsports team finished 2^nd with 317 points

a) Driver Jordan Taylor raced in 12 of the 12 races and finished 3^rd in points with 317

b) Driver Bill Lester raced in 12 of the 12 races and finished 4^th in points with 317

The No. 57 Stevenson Motorsports team finished 9^th in points with 285

a) Driver Jan Magnussen raced in 6 of the 12 races and finished 30^th with 126 points

b) Driver Robin Liddell raced in 12 of the 12 races and finished 15^th with 285 points

The No. 07 Banner Racing team finished 10^th in points with 285

a) Driver Oliver Gavin raced in 7 of the 12 races and finished 24^th in points with 176

b) Driver Gunter Schaldach raced all 12 of the 12 races and finished 16^th in points with 270

The Engine

The Chevrolet Camaro GT.R engine is a GM 6.2L LS3. The engine starts out life as the same LS3 that is available in the production Camaro SS, Katech then adapts it for use in the Grand-Am Rolex GT Series. The GT.R engine uses many production components including the cylinder case, cylinder heads, valve train, crankshaft, connecting rods, and fuel system. The oiling system is upgraded to a Dailey dry sump system and uses Mobil-1 oil to cope with the high G-forces of the Pratt & Miller chassis and the Continental tires. The rod bolts and pistons are upgraded to ARP and Mahle units to help sustain the higher RPM and heavier duty cycle of this production engine turned professional race engine. The harmonic damper is changed to an ATI Super Damper to keep the torsions in check. The camshaft is changed to a Comp Cams grind and the engine control system changed to Bosch to meet Grand-Am regulations.

There were 21 GT.R engines built for the season, they included Dyno Test, Grand-Am Submission, Vehicle Test and race engines. They raced for a total of 27,000 miles of track and dyno simulation with the only failure being a burnt spark plug wire.

Accomplishments

2011 Manufacturer’s Championship