Corvette's abroad?

[Fax]

While at the Petit, the PA and radio crew made mention of the fact that a couple of the European teams were interested in the existing Corvette C-5R's with an eye to campaigning them in the LMES next year.  Also it was brought up that the factory Vette team is looking at bringing the new C6R's over for some selected LMES races next year in addition to their regular ALMS and Le Mans schedule. Will be fun to see the millennium yellow terrors take on some of the Euro teams on their home soil.
John

[DickieAttwood]

That's good news - they make such a great noise.  If the works team do come to Europe for some LMES races, they're in for a busy year. Roll on 2005!

[you're not just yanking my chain are you?]

Richard

[ian murat]

Embassy Racing ?

[hgb]

That's good news. As already said, their sound is splendid.  
However, there are already some 'Vettes competing on European soil. There's the Xero Corvette in the British GT Series and the SRT Corvette in the Belgian Belcar Series which finished in 3rd last weekend in Spa-Francorchamps.

[Barry]

The Corvettes were much missed at LMES Silverstone, it would be great if they came over for the season.

[Fax]

Of course there are some Corvettes racing in Europe already but I don't believe any of these are ex-factory cars.  Probably more along the lines of Trans-Am or Grand-Am spec kit.  I'm fairly certain that none of the factory Pratt & Miller cars have made into customer hands...yet!  As soon as the flag drops at Laguna Seca they go on the market, apparently some of them are already spoken for.  The ex-Earnhardt father & son car from Daytona a few years ago has already been purchased.
John

[hgb]

Both the Xero and the SRT Corvettes are chassis build by Pratt&Miller. The Xero Corvette was used in ELMS events before it came to Xero while the Belgian SRT car is the factory spare car which was used in the ALMS in 2002.

[Fax]

Ah HGB,
You got me my on those.  I didn't realize any of the Pratt & Miller machines had made it into privateer hands.  You'll have to cut me some slack on my knowledge of the British GT series, since I threw in the towel on Autosport (and even then it didn't cover them very well) years ago its been tough to keep up with the domestic Euro GT championships.
John

[Robbo SPS]

Fax, the Xero car in British gt can be watched on the net via

www.f3000gt.co.uk i think or simular.

And the blue and white car was stunning fast at Thruxton recently. It ate all the cars to pieces and sounded great.

[Fax]

Thanks Robbo,
I'll give it a look.  At Road Atlanta Chevy had a couple of new C6's sitting in the Corvette Corral for spectators to climb around in.  Really looks and feels like a very different and smaller car than the C5, should be very interesting to see what the final incarnation of the C6R looks like when it shows up at Sebring in March.
John

[hgb]

There is some more very interesting information about the Xero Corvette at http://palmeter.com/C5Based02.htm. Read from bottom to top. Ehm, it clearly states there that the Xero car is not a factory racer. The car was formerly run by Tinkler in the US.
And there's something about the SRT car on http://www.chevroleteurope.com/corvette/english/motor_sports/sched_resul/results/2003/en_xx_sonoma_2003.htm. I didn't know they were running the car in the US.

[ian murat]

this one ??