Yahoo Autos Nissan Unveils Latest Z GT4 Racer
Nissan has been involved in GT4-class racing from its earliest days, starting with its 350Z. As the class grew alongside its more extreme sister rule set GT3, their involvement continued with a factory-supported NISMO 370Z GT4 program. Now, the lineage of racing Zs will continue into a third generation with yet another customer-ready racer based on the latest generation of car.
As you might expect from the GT4 class, the new Z racer mostly resembles the Z road car with reasonably sized aerodynamic components bolted on. Unlike a GT3 car, a GT4 racer is not significantly wider than its road-going predecessor and both the front dive planes and rear wing are closer to something you might find on an aftermarket road car than on a higher-end professional racer.
The company has not yet shared specs for the car, but GT4 cars are designed to compete against one another and a final announcement should mean that the Z is comfortably in the performance window to be balanced into various series around the world. Nissan has already raced a GT4 concept in June's 24 Hours of Fuji, so the car has some in-race mileage under its belt, too.
While many GT4 cars are also sold as pure track cars, the car is designed to race in series around the world built to the rule set. In the U.S, the two biggest categories are SRO's GT4 America and the top class of IMSA's Pilot Challenge. In both series, the Z should be found racing against Ford's recently-revealed new Mustang and Porsche's 718 Cayman GT4 RS.
GT4 was built as a class around cars like the Z, the Mustang, and the Cayman. However, the end of GT2 racing and the constant increase in the importance of GT3 has led more and more high-level performance cars into the class. McLaren offers a 570S for the class. Audi's entry is based on the R8. Even Aston Martin has a Vantage for the series, while Mercedes offers an AMG GT. This is not just a category for affordable sports cars, so Z GT4 customers will find tough competition when the car begins delivery early next year.
You Might Also Like
