Video: What separates a race car from a street car?

https://www.youtube.com/embed/_kvAbaxp8_8

What differentiates a hopped-up street car from a full-time GT racer can involve a bit more than just super-sticky tires and fancy aero work.

As Nate Vincent from FCP Euro explains, it also involves a lot of purpose-built and specialized equipment–and less power on tap than you might realize.

[Investing in your safety setup? Take inspiration from FCP Euro’s IMSA effort]

Presented by CRC Industries.

David S. Wallens
David S. Wallens Editorial Director
7/12/22 2:40 p.m.

People often seem surprised to hear the GT3/GT4 cars making less power than the street cars. But then they hear that the race cars get a ton of hours out of an engine. 

Also, you can learn about AMG's track-side support here:

 

aircooled
aircooled MegaDork
4/14/24 2:50 p.m.

Someone say GT4?

We are currently running GT4's in the Assetto Corsa league.  They are clearly not super high performance cars compared to some other race cars but so far have made for some close racing.

David S. Wallens
David S. Wallens Editorial Director
4/16/24 9:01 a.m.

In reply to aircooled :

Very cool and, yeah, good racing out there in the GT4 ranks IRL, too. 

codrus (Forum Supporter)
codrus (Forum Supporter) GRM+ Memberand PowerDork
4/16/24 10:55 a.m.
David S. Wallens said:

People often seem surprised to hear the GT3/GT4 cars making less power than the street cars. But then they hear that the race cars get a ton of hours out of an engine. 

The other thing that a lot of people don't realize is the weight difference.  A street BMW M4 is 3830 pounds in the lightest trim, add a driver to that and you're over 4000.  Competition weight (which incluedes driver) on the M4 GT4 is 3146.

 

Ranger50
Ranger50 MegaDork
4/16/24 1:00 p.m.

And here I am with the notion that a street car is a race car with a driver with the biggest nuts to "escape" the ever wandering eye of the popo and their ticket book.

I mean there is a Jeep Liberty at the track with a swapped in sbc/t350 combo with open headers that runs 13's... Explorer is oe quiet and goes 12.5's 

Pics of said Liberty.... LOL

dean1484
dean1484 GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
4/17/24 8:15 a.m.

The other difference to me is the safety gear. Race cars put it front and center in full view where as street cars try and hide it as much as possible.  
 

I am not sure that this is the correct terminology but I call race cars as having "active" safety gear where as the street cars have a "passive" safety system.  

dean1484
dean1484 GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
4/17/24 8:22 a.m.

Oh while I am thinking of it FCP has a good you tube channel. The production quality is above average. You can tell they are not using a IPhone 7 to film it.  They just did a 190e tribute race car build. A really cool build. I would love to do the motor swap they did in to a 190 but keep the car as a street car.  More of a improved touring type build for the street.   A great series!!  

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