iRacing: Corvette C6R

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Worst-kept Secret in iRacing History Confirmed! -- Corvette C6.R Under Development

Anyone who has ever been to an American Le Mans Series race and watched and listened as the #3 and #4 yellow Corvettes thunder past – usually in close succession – knows the C6.R is a very special machine. With a GT-class win in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and multiple season championships in the American Le Mans Series, the C6.R can lay fair claim to the title of Ultimate Corvette Racecar.

Designed and built by Michigan-based Pratt & Miller, the C6.R features a Katech LS7.R under the hood, complete with dry-sump lubrication systems, CNC-ported cylinder heads, titanium valves and connecting rods, forged steel crankshafts, and plate-honed cylinder bores – an engine good enough to win the Global Motorsports Engine of the Year award in 2006.

The sound from this seven-liter small-block V8 pumping out almost 600 horsepower is music to the ears of Corvette enthusiasts, racers and race fans around the world. iRacing members will have the chance to harness that symphony of pistons for themselves next spring, when the GT1 Corvette is scheduled to join iRacing’s fleet.

The Chevrolet Corvette is the definitive American sports car, and the C6.R is the ultimate production-based racing version of this iconic automobile. Winner of the GT1 class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2006 (the most recent of Corvette’s four Le Mans triumphs), and the American Le Mans Series GT1 champion in each of the four years it has competed (running Corvette’s ALMS championship total to eight), the current version of the C6.R is scheduled to retire from the race track following a final shot at Le Mans in June, 2009. The Pratt & Miller team - with GM Racing the co-developer of the C6.R - will then field a new version C6.R in the GT2 class, where rules require use of more of the production car’s architecture and Corvette will take on Porsche and Ferrari.

“As the current C6.R prepares to leave the field of battle in the physical world, we’re very pleased to make a home for it in the virtual one at iRacing.com,” said Scott McKee, the company’s vice president of marketing. “Pratt & Miller will be taking on new challenges in the more restricted GT2 class, so the current C6.R will stand as a performance high-water mark. Our current members, and the many Corvette enthusiasts who have followed the C6.R’s competition history, will be able to experience this car’s remarkable capabilities long after the flag falls at Le Mans next summer.”

Acknowledging that the C6.R’s addition to the iRacing fleet wasn’t exactly a well-kept secret - Dale Earnhardt, Jr. dropped a hint during an interview on SPEEDtv’s Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain in early November, and Corvette Quarterly broke the full story a week later - McKee pointed out that eight of the 11 tracks on the current American Le Mans Series schedule are either already in the iRacing track inventory or in development, so iRacers will be able to experience the car’s performance on most of the tracks where it competed in the physical world.

“All of us on the team and at General Motors are proud of the success that the GT1-class C6.R has achieved during its racing career,” said Doug Fehan, Corvette Racing Program Manager. “Every good thing must come to an end, and so it will be this June at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with the GT1 car’s real-world racing career; we’re on to a new C6.R project now. But, it’s good to know that in the virtual world this car will continue to compete, and that the fans who have supported us over the years will have the opportunity to experience the C6.R for themselves through the creativity and innovations at iRacing.”

McKee hailed the Corvette as a particularly important addition to the iRacing inventory of cars, and stressed that the techniques iRacing uses in the development of all of its vehicles will ensure the performance fidelity of the virtual duplicate of the C6.R.

“Our friends at Pratt & Miller are sharing with us the necessary CAD files and other data,” McKee said. “When we’re finished the only element of the actual race car we won’t have is the air conditioning system.”

The iRacing Corvette C6.R is expected to be available to iRacing members before its real-world counterpart makes its final start at the 24 Hours of Le mans, June 13, 2009.

[Guest Miles Gloriosus]

Di solito le macchine americane mi generano problemi di stomaco, ma in questo caso... se poi esce anche la pista di LeMans...

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