Super GT
SUPER GT considering hybrid power for 2027 season
SUPER GT is considering whether to introduce hybrid power for the 2027 season as part of a push to halve its carbon emissions by 2030.
Jamie Klein
Edited: Nov 8, 2022, 7:36 AM
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The Japanese sportscar series has up to now been resistant to adding a hybrid element to the successful 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo engine formula that has been used in the top GT500 class since 2014.
However, ahead of Sunday's season finale at Motegi, series organiser GTA revealed that hybrids could be adopted as part of its roadmap, dubbed 'SUPER GT Green Project 2030', which is aimed at reducing the championship's carbon footprint by half by the end of the decade while maintaining the series' popularity.
The first step of the project, as already announced at the start of the season, is the use of carbon-neutral fuel derived from so-called second-generation biomass in both the GT500 and GT300 classes.
Additionally, teams will only be able to use five sets of dry tyres, instead of the current six, in 300km races, and six sets of wets instead of seven, in the name of encouraging greater tyre longevity.
New GT500 cars will be introduced for 2024, which will continue to use carbon-neutral fuel, while the number of permitted tyres for 300km races will drop further to four sets in the dry and five sets in the wet.
Another new generation of GT500 machinery will then be introduced in 2027, with the potential for a spec hybrid system to be added at this juncture. A decision on this is set to be made by the end of 2023.
Additionally, the series hopes to begin using domestically-produced synthetic fuel instead of having to import it from overseas.
GTA chairman Masaaki Bandoh clearly stated the series is aiming to maintain engine sound as a fundamental tenet of SUPER GT's appeal.
SUPER GT's first joint test using the carbon neutral fuel planned for next season, originally scheduled for August but postponed due to logisitical issues, took place at Motegi on Monday with 22 cars participating.
Only Nissan teams Impul and Kondo Racing skipped the test of the GT500 contingent, while five manufacturers were represented in the GT300 class - although the #25 Tsuchiya Engineering Toyota GR Supra, which was entered, did not after suffering major crash damage in Sunday's finale.
Fastest in the morning session was the #23 NISMO Nissan (Ronnie Quintarelli/Tsugio Matsuda) with a best time of 1m37.285s, while the #3 NDDP Racing Nissan (Katsumasa Chiyo/Mitsunori Takaboshi) topped the afternoon session on a 1m37.453s.
However, with teams running a mix of carbon-neutral and regular fuel across the two sessions, the times should not be considered representative.
Motegi carbon-neutral fuel test results (GT500):
Pos. No. Car/Team Drivers Morning Afternoon 1 23 NISMO Nissan
Tsugio Matsuda
Ronnie Quintarelli
1'37.285 1'38.095 2 100 Kunimitsu Honda
Naoki Yamamoto
Tadasuke Makino
1'37.348 1'39.387 3 3 NDDP Nissan
Katsumasa Chiyo
Mitsunori Takaboshi
1'37.478 1'37.453 4 17 Real Honda
Koudai Tsukakoshi
Nobuharu Matsushita
1'37.792 1'37.710 5 16 Mugen Honda
Ukyo Sasahara
Toshiki Oyu
1'37.848 1'37.943 6 14 Rookie Toyota
Kenta Yamashita
Kazuya Oshima
1'37.966 1'38.311 7 36 TOM'S Toyota
Giuliano Alesi
Sho Tsuboi
1'38.089 1'39.166 8 38 Cerumo Toyota
Yuji Tachikawa
Hiroaki Ishiura
1'38.144 1'38.546 9 39 SARD Toyota
Yuhi Sekiguchi
Yuichi Nakayama
1'39.635 1'38.177 10 8 ARTA Honda
Tomoki Nojiri
Nirei Fukuzumi
1'38.273 1'39.864 11 19 Bandoh Toyota
Yuji Kunimoto
Sena Sakaguchi
1'39.196 1'38.401 12 64 Nakajima Honda
Takuya Izawa
Hiroki Otsu
1'38.644 1'38.698 13 37 TOM'S Toyota
Sacha Fenestraz
Ritomo Miyata
1'39.314 1'38.710
Motegi carbon-neutral fuel test results (GT300):
Pos. No. Car/Team Drivers Morning Afternoon 1 7 Studie BMW
Seiji Ara
1'48.963 1'46.766 2 11 Gainer Nissan
Ryuichiro Tomita
1'46.827 no time 3 65 LEON Mercedes
Naoya Gamou
Takuro Shinohara
1'47.045 no time 4 61 R&D Sport Subaru
Takuto Iguchi
Hideki Yamauchi
1'47.283 1'47.832 5 20 Shade Toyota
Katsuyuki Hiranaka
1'48.042 1'47.393 6 2 Inging Toyota
Hiroki Katoh
Yuui Tsutsumi
1'48.343 1'47.682 7 52 Saitama T'pet Toyota
Hiroki Yoshida
Kohta Kawaai
1'49.201 1'47.741 8 60 LM Corsa Toyota
Hiroki Yoshimoto
Shunsuke Kohno
1'47.848 1'48.029 9 30 apr Toyota
Manabu Orido
1'49.480 1'49.156
Additional reporting by Kenichiro Ebii
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