Adam Prescott
Jan 15, 20162 min
Well the covers have finally come off the new Ginetta G57 as Chairman Lawrence Tomlinson revealed the 580bhp prototype to much applause.
Dubbed by Ginetta “as one of the fastest track day cars you can buy”, it’s still not entirely clear where this car will fit into the existing series racing, however has been accepted into the VdeV series in France, with other series’ sure to follow.
Lawrence Tomlinson, Chairman of Ginetta explained “European Le Mans Series provided the perfect platform to further introduce the Ginetta brand to the European marketplace, and we worked closely with the ACO to ensure both the car and the series was a success. As a business, we must now continue towards our goal of increasing export, which inevitably means creating a new, and significantly faster, car which is eligible for competition on a number of different global platforms.”
Crash tested to LMP1 standards and weighing in at under 900kgs the G57 is powered by a Chevrolet-sourced LS3 6.3L V8 engine and combined with a xtrac gearbox it comes in at under £200,000. When asked where does Lawrence see this car in 3 years’ time he told me “I see it as the go-to car for safe, serious, car for prototype racing” is this a hint at the potential development path for the chassis?
Ginetta technical director Ewan Baldry said “When we first went into LMP3 the intention was always to create a car like this off the back of that as we've always felt there is a wider market to be tapped in to” “This car is taking the LMP3 design and repurposing it to add more power and performance. We're aiming to make the car four-five seconds per lap faster than the LMP3 version”
“With 2 seats and air conditioning, what’s not to like?” added Lawrence, in my opinion this car has been launched as a reliability test bed for future iterations of the chassis – possibly moving towards LMP1 - a class which Lawrence has designs to compete in. What better way to evolve a chassis than to run them in different formulae and at as many different track as possible? Whatch this space…..
Top Speed – 190mph
0 -60 mph – 3.5 sec
Power – 580BHP