MOONCRAFT MC/RT - 16 Sadly, this car will never race at Daytona as Mooncraft is now busying itself turning the MC/RT-16 into a road car TECH SPEC
Car: Mooncraft MC/RT -16 ‘Shiden’ Class: GT300
Chassis: modified Riley Mk XXII Daytona Prototype tubular chassis
Engine: Toda Racing / Toyota 1UZ- FE 4.4 litre N/A V8. Restrictor: 2x 23.6mm
Performance: 300bhp at 5300rpm; 38kg-m at 4800rpm
Transmission: Xtrac six-speed sequential, Tilton triple-plate clutch
Styling was designed to capture the essence of a professional Le Mans car, and the styling cues from the Toyota entry are clear to see throughout
size and the windshield. The greenhouse was very square on the Daytona Prototype so, from an aerodynamic perspective, our car is a lot better.’ As is common with Japanese
competition cars, aesthetics played a key role. The car had to look right, and have that all- important Le Mans-type styling. However, it also had to be a competitive racecar, and to do that it was not simply a case of producing the best body shape possible from an aerodynamic perspective alone. ‘We have two drivers in our team. One of them is a professional and the other is a gentleman driver. That means that the car would have to be very easy to drive,’ explains Yura. ‘Initially, during the car’s aerodynamic development we had to go after all the good
performance we could get, but we soon realised that the car should not be really peaky to drive. We did not want the car to have a very narrow window of operation, and if we had chased the ultimate aerodynamic performance it was likely to have made the car quite pitch sensitive and not easy to control. As we had a gentleman driver, it had to be very driveable and stable. So, as a result, we did not do a lot of wind tunnel development on it and focussed instead on stability.’
VIOLENT LIGHTNING The result of all of this work was the MC/RT-16, as the car is officially named, MC for Mooncraft, RT for Riley Technologies, but everyone simply knew it by its nickname, ‘Shiden’, Japanese for violent
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www.racecar-engineering.com • February 2012
Suspension: pushrod-actuated, double wishbone Brakes: Alcon Tyres: Yokohama 280/710-R18 Wheels: American Racing 11J-18 Wheelbase: 2790mm Front Track: 1630mm Rear Track: 1625mm Length: 4675mm Width: 1995mm Height: 1110mm Weight: 1225kg
lightning. Visually, there was almost nothing of the Daytona Prototype left – the new bubble-like greenhouse suited the swoopy lower body from an aesthetic perspective and, from a dynamic point of view, the drivers commented on how easy it made the car to drive.
From its first race in 2006 the Shiden was competitive, claiming second in the teams’ championship in its debut season and going one better the year after. It beat off a mix of JAF GT300 cars and FIA GT3 cars as well as other one-off specials, such as the Arta Gairaya. But its roots as a purpose-built car saw it hit with many ‘performance adjustments.’ At the end of 2006 it was given an additional 100kg on its minimum weight, and a further 25kg the following year, compared to the 1200kg of the Lexus IS350 running in the same class. The twin restrictors on the Toyota V8 were also cut in size from an already tight 24.3mm down to a suffocating 23.6mm. The GT300 Lexus IS350, which utilises the Toyota LMP1 engine, has twin 30.6mm restrictors.
ONE OF A KIND Despite its strong form, and perhaps as a result of the controversy it attracted, the Shiden was only ever a one off. ‘We would have made more, but nobody wanted one. It is as simple as that,’ admits Yura. Until the end of 2011 season every year the organisers added additional restrictions to the car until it was eventually outlawed at the end of the 2011 season. That aside, Mooncraft had
shown that Daytona Prototypes did not have to look so ugly after all, and perhaps Mark Raffauf and the team at NASCAR R and D took note of the Mooncraft, with its conventional DP chassis but revised greenhouse and attractive bodywork, when they were working on the DP-G3 concept. Whilst it would have been
fantastic to have seen the Shiden returning to its spiritual home on the high banks at Daytona after its enforced retirement from Super GT, it will unfortunately never happen. Instead, Yura’s team at Mooncraft are now undertaking the task they set out to do in the first place, and are turning the MC/RT-16 into a road car. So, if later this year you are driving in the area around Shizuoka, Japan, you might just get a glimpse of a Daytona Prototype in your rear view mirror as you pop down to Newdays to buy your instant noodles!
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