This will be Mustang's competition in Grand-Am racing next season.

One of the most iconic cars of the legendary Trans Am road racing series was the distinctive blue-and-yellow Camaro of Mark Donohue. He was a dominant racer in the series and drove his #6 1969 model to the series championship that year.

With the assistance of GM's High Performance Vehicle Operations, North Carolina-based Riley Technologies re-created the look and feel of that standout racecar with a tribute that looks, sounds and drives like it's ready to do battle with its contemporary pony car competitors. In fact, the heritage-inspired racer is more than concept. It is an early prototype for the Grand Am Koni Challenge GS racing class. Racecars like the GS Concept are offered and manufactured by Riley Technologies for the 2009 Grand-Am season.

The GS Concept features the race-ready suspension, reinforced chassis and drivetrain conform to the specifications required of racecars certified for the series. In fact, this racecar has already logged many hours on the racetrack as Riley team members worked to dial-in the chassis and powertrain. Additional features include:

• Seam-welded production Camaro body-in-white
• Carbon fiber hood, trunk lid, doors and fenders
• Production LS3 V-8 engine (used with solid engine mounts)
• Tremec 6060 six-speed manual transmission with close-ratio gearing
• Three-inch exhaust system with Coast Fab mufflers
• C&R racing aluminum radiator
• Upgraded engine oil cooler
• Transmission and differential coolers

The GS Racecar Concept is shown at SEMA just as it was last driven off the track, with the grime, brake dust and body imperfections commensurate with a day's worth of racing. Indeed, it isn't a car that spent hundreds of hours in a body shop in a quest of sheet metal perfection. It displays the bruises of competition and wears them as badges of honor.

Like Donohue's '69 Camaro racecar, the GS Racecar Concept wears a deep blue paint scheme that is accented with yellow graphics, a yellow-painted interior and yellow racing wheels.

 

Wow! Another everyman's car - like the Vagas that shoe the couple in the way toooooo expensive rom overlooking the strip when us common folk have to stay at the Motel 6 three blocks off the strip. Based on today's market/car sales news, is GM going to price the Camaro too far above the Mustang? Only time will tell.

The force of the market moves on: old Curcuit City turned into a CompUSA turned into a Rapid Fitness Club.
New computer anyone?

 

Wonder if they will sound like chainsaws on steroids on the track like the vettes, gto's and caddies do now.

 

SO....Chevy wants to play, they better hope they do better than Cadillac and Pontiac did in Koni Cup!!

 

These camaros will be a force to be reckoned with for sure. The support they have going into Koni this year is far above anything GM has done there in recent years. With some of the shakeups going on with a few of the Mustang teams in Koni, it will certainly be interesting to see how the 2009 season plays out . . .

Unfortunately for me, I'll be on the sidelines a whole lot more this year than before, due to some personal and regular day job commitments that will get in the way of race travel.

 

Rehagen is still going to kick their A$$!!

 

Looks like they can't.

If I am reading the current rules correctly, Camaros are allowed to compete with the largest displacement engine in the series and may do so without a restrictor plate!!! 'Must help to be built by the biggest chassis builder of Daytona Prototypes in the Rolex Series

Ya think?

Pity the Challenger: Bigger than the Camaro, must race at 100 pounds more weight than the Camaro, powered by a smaller pushrodder than the Camaro, and yet must race with a restrictor plate that is not required on the Camaro.

Greg "Eights" Ates