Up-close with a Mercedes-AMG
GT3 race car
AT PRI 2017
The Hawk Performance
(brakes) booth at the 2017 Performance Racing Industry (PRI) trade show in
Indianapolis featured the CRP Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 which competed in the
2017 Pirelli World Challenge Series SprintX GT series. Drivers Ryan Dalziel and
Daniel Morad combined to finish second in the drivers’ championship, while the CRP
Racing team finished third after the 11-round season which featured five rounds held in
support of the IndyCar Series. Sanctioned by the United States Auto Club (USAC),
SprintX races were sixty minutes long with mandatory driver and tire changes.
CRP (Competition Race Parts) Racing based in Harrisburg North Carolina is
a race car engineering company owned Nicholas Short who has experience in IndyCar, NASCAR, Trans-Am, Group C Endurance Racing, Baja desert
racing and the World Challenge series. In 2016, CRP
Racing competed in the 2016 SprintX GT series with an Audi R8 LMS and finished eighth
in team points while Canadian driver Kyle Marcelli finished tenth in the 2016
drivers’ points championship.
Driver Ryan
Dalziel born in 1982 is one of Scotland’s leading race car drivers and in
addition to the Pirelli World Challenge, finished fifth in the Tequila Patrón
ESM Nissan Onroak DPI in the 2017 IMSA Weathertech season points in his fourth
season with that team. During the 2017 Pirelli
World Challenge GT season, with his teammate Canadian Daniel Morad, the pair won
two rounds at Virginia International Raceway and the Circuit of Americas.
As with the
street version of the Mercedes-AMG GT, the GT3 racer’s structure consists
of a light stiff aluminum spaceframe with an integral high-strength steel roll cage.
The Mercedes-AMG GT3 is powered by a 6.2-liter (380 cubic inches) V-8 M156 engine
with unique bore spacing, and block design. The naturally aspirated powerplant which
features dry sump lubrication produces 550 horsepower and 550 foot/pounds of
torque.
All that power mean a BIG radiator
That power is
fed through a sequential six-speed racing transmission with a multiple-disc limited-slip
differential with adjustable traction control which is mounted on the aluminum double-wishbone
rear axle for optimal weight distribution. Mercedes-AMG sells the 2850-pound FIA GT3
regulation-compliant race car which can accelerate from 0-60 miles per hour in
3.5 seconds to race teams for $424,300.
The team’s primary
sponsor, Devilbiss, manufactures and sells atomization & spray guns for the automotive
painting industry – products that range from gravity guns, suction guns, pressure
guns, and airbrushes as well as disposable paint cups and air filtration
systems such as desiccant dryers and waterborne dryers.
Hawk Performance,
a brand of Carlisle Brake & Friction, has been in motorsports market since
1990, offering engineered friction products (rotors and pads) for nearly every
type of racing- pavement short track,
dirt short track, sports and GT cars, open-wheel road racing and drag racing. Hawk
Performance also offer products designed specifically for passenger cars and
motorcycles.
Rumors heard on the floor at PRI 2017 have Nicholas Short and CRP Racing entering an LMP2 program in the 2018 IMSA Weather Tech SportsCar Championship and possibly the 24 hours of LeMans.
For
additional information- check out these websites
All photos by the author
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