GTA Announces SUPER GT Green Project Road Map

GT Association (GTA) Chairman Masaaki Bandoh presented the initial roadmap for the SUPER GT Green Project 2030 this Sunday, in a regular press conference held prior to the season finale at Mobility Resort Motegi.

The SUPER GT Green Project 2030 is the GTA’s action plan for driving sustainability and environmental stewardship through the end of the decade, aiming to reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide throughout the paddock by 50 percent by the year 2030 – while also retaining the full range of sensory experiences, including the sounds of exhaust notes, that have been a part of the racing experience.

The GTA will be working alongside the Japan Automobile Federation (JAF)’s Carbon Neutrality Subcomittee to promote the carbon neutralisation of SUPER GT and to establish a method for calculating CO­² emissions.

“Along with various initiatives carried for environmental issues, we need to create an environment where our fans and customers would have fun watching and that would make them wanting to visit here”, Bandoh said in his press conference.

The road map begins next season with the introduction of biomass-derived, carbon neutral fuel (CNF) in both GT500 and GT300 classes, as well as the reduction in the number of tyre sets available for standard 300km races to five sets of dry tyres, and six sets of wet tyres.

From 2024, Toyota, Honda, and Nissan will introduce a new generation of GT500 vehicles aimed at promoting the improvement of fuel efficiency technology. These cars were meant to be introduced next season, but the traditional three-year cycle of GT500 technology was extended until 2024 due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Through 2026 the series will continue to use CNF race fuel and further reduce the number of tyres available (to four sets of dry tyres, and five sets of wet tyres).

The GTA will explore the possibility of introducing hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) or other electrification technologies into GT500, from the beginning of the subsequent generation of cars in 2027, along with the introduction of domestically produced, hydrogen-derived eFuel in both GT500 and GT300.

“If we are going to use HEVs, I think the hybrid unit will be a one-make deal,” Bandoh explained. “There will be no competition; we will think of one thing to put in it, and then think of something else to add to it.”

“Regarding batteries, I think it would be difficult to make it an open competition, because there is the problem of (lack of) resources in Japan. And if you also consider the post-processing of batteries, a considerable amount of budget will be taken up for that,” he added. “We are talking with manufacturers to determine the direction and policy by the end of 2025 at the latest, as we plan to introduce hybrid elements in 2026 and 2027.”

The last attempt at a hybrid GT500 vehicle was the 2014 Honda NSX Concept-GT, but the hybrid system was removed after the 2015 season due to its detrimental weight penalty. Hybrid GT300 vehicles such as the Toyota Prius and Honda CR-Z have enjoyed success in their category over the past decade.

Other ongoing initiatives from the GTA included in the SUPER GT Green Project 2030 include the reduction of trash and the promotion of recycling plastic waste, the cooperation with local governments adjacent to the series’ circuits to promote initiatives such as forest conservation, and the consideration and implementation of new initiatives, introducing domestically-produced eFuel by promoting various technical co-operations, and the promotion of studies towards the introduction of recycled tyres.

Implementing the Green Project road map began the day after the 2022 season finale with a full day of carbon-neutral fuel testing around Mobility Resort Motegi. 13 of the 15 GT500 teams participated (excluding new GT500 champions Team Impul and Kondo Racing), along with nine GT300 teams.

Feedback from the drivers was generally positive as they spent a full day assessing the performance of the new fuel supplied by ETS Racing Fuels versus the regularly used petroleum fuels.

Four-time GT500 Champion Ronnie Quintarelli, who recorded the fastest time of the test, remarked: “To tell the truth, I had no uncomfortable feelings using the carbon-neutral fuel. The GT500 car has what you could call an ‘aggressively designed engine’ with a lot of advanced technologies applied in it. So, I thought that changing the fuel used would result in some (significant) changes, but in fact the changes were so small that I wouldn’t have noticed them if I hadn’t been told about the fuel change.

“Of course, there were careful adaptations made to the mapping (fuel injection programming), but I didn’t have any uncomfortable feelings about the acceleration response we drivers want. I thought that was rather incredible. NISMO has already done some bench testing, and we had used carbon-neutral fuel in this year’s Super Taikyu competition, so I believe we were able to put to use data gained from those experiences.”

Generally speaking, the feedback was positive after testing – though some drivers noticed a slight decrease in total performance, along with remarking about the scent of the exhaust from other cars.

“I tried things like adjusting the flow of air in the cockpit, but I was still bothered by the (exhaust) smell,” said 2004 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Seiji Ara, who was fastest in the GT300 class. “Also, I felt that there was less feeling of power during acceleration in the middle stages [compared to the race yesterday].”

“But I think this will change with the adjustments we make from now on to compensate for these effects, and since we are already talking with BMW about things now, I think we will be able to correct things with the settings. What’s more, there were no problems in other areas.”

As a benchmark, Quintarelli’s best time of 1’37.285 recorded in the morning session was just over two seconds slower than the fastest time set in qualifying on Saturday around the same circuit, a 1’35.194 recorded by Tadasuke Makino.

Ara’s top time of 1’46.766 in the #7 Studie BMW M4 GT3 was also two seconds off the 2022 pole time set by Iori Kimura.

Images © GTA