Corvette
C7.R Nearing First Test
Marshall Pruett
July 04 2013
Action
resumes for the American Le Mans Series this weekend in
Lime Rock after an extended delay due to the annual
break for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but the recent trip
to France was far from a vacation for the Corvette
Racing team.
The
Michigan-based factory program sent its pair of Corvette
C6.Rs to La Sarthe, along with most of its
personnel from the Pratt & Miller workshop, but the
ongoing development, design and construction of its
next-generation racecar continued without interruption
back in the USA.
Built to
the ACO's GTE Pro specifications, the first Corvette
C7.R, set to replace the championship-winning C6.R, is
almost ready to begin testing ahead of its competition
debut at the Rolex 24 At Daytona in January.
“Where we
are right now – I just got back from the shop today – is
the very first car, which will be the test car, is in
its final stages of completion,” Corvette Racing program
manager Doug Fehan (ABOVE) told RACER. “Bodywork
is being mounted, final wirings going in the car. We
plan on testing that car this month.
“The
other two cars that we will actually end up racing are
currently on the surface plates and they are beginning
construction. We will be testing those at the end of the
year. And then should have everything up and running and
ready to go by Daytona.”
Based on
the 2014 Corvette Stingray, which was launched to wide
acclaim earlier this year, the C7.R is a timely
replacement for the C6.R. Despite winning the 2012 ALMS
GT title, the V8-powered icon has been showing its age
as few areas of development remain to be exploited.
Bringing
the C7.R to bear has come with a sense of urgency for
the Corvette Racing team, but according to Fehan, that
pressure isn't simply about creating a fresh platform to
use at Le Mans and in the upcoming United Sports Car
Racing championship.
Working
against a shortened timeline to get the C7.R ready for a
Rolex 24 debut, rather than the usual unveiling at the
12 Hours of Sebring, has the GM factory team working
overtime behind the scenes.
“When we
look at a compressed timeframe, ordinarily when we did
this in the past we had to mid-March at Sebring to get
all our ducks in a row. Now combining the series, now
we've got to the end of January and all the pre-event
testing that goes on before that. So that has created a
much larger challenge than what we faced in the past.
“That
said, we have it as well under control as any
organization possibly could. Racers are an amazing
breed. They will use all the time that you give them,
whether it's two minutes, two weeks, two months or two
years, at the end of that time they will still be
working on something. So you gauge it, you write
yourself an accurate GANTT chart and work it until
you're done and ready to race.”
With the
current lead in the ALMS GT standings and seven races
left to run, Corvette Racing will need to continue
splitting its resources as the season accelerates to the
series finale at Petit Le Mans in October.
“We did
this before when we moved from GT1 to GT2,” Fehan notes.
“We did it before when we moved from C5 to C6.
Obviously, things have escalated now on a couple of
different fronts. First and foremost is the competition
today is far more intense and far deeper than it was in
years past, so that makes it a little more difficult,
because you can't afford to take your eye off the ball
here in 2013 championship for an instant or you will be
left in the dust. So that challenge is similar but
greater than it's been in the past. That's something we
have to safeguard against.”
As the
C7.R prepares to break cover, Fehan says that despite an
early first outing for the test mule, it's unlikely the
team will unload for the Rolex 24 feeling like it has
amassed enough time and mileage on the cars.
“Ideally,
you'd like to have 30 test days between now and then but
that's a luxury we don't have, both from a financial
standpoint and just simply from a timeline standpoint,”
he confirms. “But we know that regardless of how many
test days we have with the car, it certainly won't be
fully developed when we get to Daytona and that
development will be continuous throughout the life of
that car.
“If it's
two, three, four, five years, it'll get better each
year. But we know that. We've lived through that. But
the margins are so slim today, it's incredibly hard to
show up with a new car and expect to wow people the
first time out.”
Taking on
the build of customer C7.Rs, provided there's a demand,
will also be considered, but Fehan believes the new
Corvettes will only be seen in factory colors – at least
to start the 2014 season.
“We have
the capacity to essentially build as many racecars as
there is demand for. If more teams wanted cars, we'd be
happy to build them," he said. "We'd be happy to provide
whatever support that fits their economic plan. But we
don't have any plans to actively go forward with that.
It's not a requirement; our program is a marketing-based
program.
“It's not
controlled by the amount of racecars that we sell,
unlike other programs. So it puts us in a very
comfortable position. We'd love to have more Corvettes
running and we're prepared to do that but we don't
actively market that. Nor do we have any plans to
compete against our customers.”
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