GRAND AM GT
Atlantic crossing
Grand-Am is spreading its wings, and the Ferrari 458 GT3 and Audi R8 LMS are the first European cars to make the move Stateside
BY MARSHALL PRUETT F
aced with the need to add new lifeblood to its GT ranks, the Grand-Am Rolex Series courted two
of the two most established GT3 manufacturers to add a European flair to NASCAR’s domestic Sportscar series. Working with Ferrari through
its Michelotto arm, and Audi with full engagement from its Customer Sport division, Grand-Am managing director of competition, Mark Raffauf, says
plans have been in place for some time to adopt more conservative GT3 machinery. ‘We told Ferrari back in ‘05 and ‘06 that when you build the [F430 replacement], please let us know and let us be part of the process from the beginning,’ he said. ‘That way a better business model can be made for you as a manufacturer for a customer programme. You don’t have to build something and then change it, you build it with what we’d
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www.racecar-engineering.com • February 2012
be looking for at that time from the beginning and it could fit more than one set of regulations without too much work.’ With Eddie Cheever, former F1
driver and owner of the Coyote Daytona Prototype marque, acting as a liaison between the series and Ferrari during the F458’s conceptual stages, a Grand-Am-specific version of the F458 GT3 was finalised as Michelotto worked through its production fulfillment.
‘They built the basic GT3
cars first – about 30 of those – because there was a higher demand for them, and then all the Challenge cars. There were about 150 of those,’ says Raffauf. ‘Sure enough, they got to ours and, by July of this year, the first one was over here and testing at Daytona. ‘All was good. The engine
came to our dyno, we did all the testing and quantifying that we do for everybody else. They had incorporated all the changes
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