gt2

Amidst all the hubbub surrounding this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans, race organizers ACO have announced that the current GT1 class would be integrated into a new GT2 category for next year.

After having effectively scrapped its own GT1 class last year, the ACO welcomed in the new generation of sports-racers built for the FIA GT1 World Championship into the iconic 24-hour race. As it turns out, however, 2010 will be the only time these entries will have been allowed into the race, as the ACO moves to eliminate the category once and for all, replacing it with a two-tier category based on the current GT2 regulations.

We'll admit it - the 2011 Porsche 911 GT2 RS gives us the willies. There's something about the idea of 620 horsepower packaged into a 3,020-pound body that sends shivers down our spines, but we'd be liars if we said we weren't dying to get some seat time. (Or 'Ring time. Whatever.)

Our spies have just captured the slightly revised Porsche 911 GT2 doing what it does best - storming around a track (the Nürburgring, specifically). The removal of foglamps and a more pronounced chin spoiler set the hardcore 911 apart from its lesser Turbo brethren, and rest assured, the big GT2 wing is still intact.

Corvettes look sharp. Racing 'Vettes, even sharper. A competition-spec ZR1? Now we're talking.

After dominating the GT1 class seemingly for longer than we can remember, the Corvette Racing team is dropping down to the GT2 category for the 2010 American Le Mans Series. There they hope to find the competition, dominated by Ferraris and Porsches, even fiercer, and indeed they did for the latter part of the 2009 season. This, however, is our first look at the finished new car.

There are plenty of racing series around the world that attract big names from Formula One. Le Mans endurance sportscar racing ranks high among them, but the former F1 pilots usually go to the top-tier LMP1 class. Sometimes the GT1 class draws some big names, but this year it's the GT2 category that's drawing two drivers familiar to F1 fans: Giancarlo Fisichella and Jean Alesi.

Back in August when General Motors introduced the all-new GT2 class Corvette C6.R, it ran downsized 6.0-liter version of the 7.0-liter V8 from the long-dominant GT1 car. At the launch, Corvette Racing program manager Doug Fehan told us the 6.0-liter was just an interim engine. With revised GT rules on tap for 2010, GM was already planning a brand-new engine for its race Vette.

Panoz Esperante GT-LM - Click above for high-res image gallery

It's been a while since we've heard anything from Panoz Auto Development. The American sportscar manufacturer came onto the scene in the late Nineties with their AIV Roadster, and later went onto create various road and race versions of the Mustang-based Esperante. Around the same time company founder Danny Panoz started building cars, his father Don Panoz also started the the American Le Mans Series, vaulting the family business from automaker and race team to race series organizer.

You know what the biggest problem with Porshce's 997 Turbo is? Too slow. They're like German desert tortoises. Just kinda clumsy and always in the way. 480 horsepower and 457 lb-ft of torque rotating all four wheels might sound fast on paper, but it just isn't. Understanding this, Porsche came out with the more powerful GT2. However, 530 horsepower is still like standing still and rear-wheel drive is for drag racers. You need the traction of AWD, and something with more power than some dirty old Cadillac. A lot more power.