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Jamie Klein

SUPER GT considering hybrid power for 2027 season

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

Japan Tsugio Matsuda

Italy Ronnie Quintarelli

1'37.285 1'38.095
2 100 Kunimitsu Honda

Japan Naoki Yamamoto

Japan Tadasuke Makino

1'37.348 1'39.387
3 3 NDDP Nissan

Japan Katsumasa Chiyo

Japan Mitsunori Takaboshi

1'37.478 1'37.453
4 17 Real Honda

Japan Koudai Tsukakoshi

Japan Nobuharu Matsushita

1'37.792  1'37.710
5 16 Mugen Honda

Japan Ukyo Sasahara

Japan Toshiki Oyu

1'37.848 1'37.943
6 14 Rookie Toyota

Japan Kenta Yamashita

Japan Kazuya Oshima

1'37.966 1'38.311
7 36 TOM'S Toyota

France Giuliano Alesi

Japan Sho Tsuboi

1'38.089 1'39.166
8 38 Cerumo Toyota

Japan Yuji Tachikawa

Japan Hiroaki Ishiura

1'38.144 1'38.546
9 39 SARD Toyota

Japan Yuhi Sekiguchi

Japan Yuichi Nakayama

1'39.635 1'38.177
10 8 ARTA Honda

Japan Tomoki Nojiri

Japan Nirei Fukuzumi

1'38.273 1'39.864
11 19 Bandoh Toyota

Japan Yuji Kunimoto

Japan Sena Sakaguchi

1'39.196 1'38.401
12 64 Nakajima Honda

Japan Takuya Izawa

Japan Hiroki Otsu

1'38.644 1'38.698
13 37 TOM'S Toyota

France Sacha Fenestraz

Japan 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

Japan Seiji Ara

1'48.963 1'46.766
2 11 Gainer Nissan

Japan Ryuichiro Tomita

1'46.827 no time
3 65 LEON Mercedes

Japan Naoya Gamou

Japan Takuro Shinohara

1'47.045 no time
4 61 R&D Sport Subaru

Japan Takuto Iguchi

Japan Hideki Yamauchi

1'47.283 1'47.832
5 20 Shade Toyota

Japan Katsuyuki Hiranaka

1'48.042 1'47.393 
6 2 Inging Toyota

Japan Hiroki Katoh

Japan Yuui Tsutsumi

1'48.343 1'47.682
7 52 Saitama T'pet Toyota

Japan Hiroki Yoshida

Japan Kohta Kawaai

1'49.201 1'47.741
8 60 LM Corsa Toyota

Japan Hiroki Yoshimoto

Japan Shunsuke Kohno

1'47.848 1'48.029
9 30 apr Toyota

Japan Manabu Orido

1'49.480 1'49.156 

Additional reporting by Kenichiro Ebii

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