Japan’s SuperGT racing series has reached an important turning point in its 21-year history. Organizers have mandated a new “mother frame” that will underpin all race cars, regardless of marque.
The SuperGT series, formerly known as JGTC, or the Japan Grand Touring Championships, has inspired a generation of enthusiasts and tuners by pitting the top-spec sports cars of Japanese manufacturers against each other on road courses across the world. In its heyday, Honda NSXes battled it out with Toyota Supra Turbos, Nissan Skyline GT-Rs and Mazda RX-7s.
However, due to escalating costs in recent years, SuperGT organizers have decided to transition to a common platform with specifications shared with the German DTM series for the higher displacement GT500 cars, and to develop its own shared frame for lower displacement GT300 cars.
The carbon-fiber tub and roll cage was developed and built by Japanese race car constructor Dome. After two years of development in secret, Dome chief Minoru Hayashi has just unveiled the first images of it on his own Twitter account.
To the central tub, manufacturers can still mount their engine and drivetrain of choice, along with a composite body. For the initial demo car, Dome has chosen to graft the body of a Toyota 86 (aka Scion FR-S) onto the frame. No specs of the chassis were given, but the end result is vastly different from production car-based racers like the Subaru BRZ GT300.
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