Within a month the Swedish racing season starts and first shot for the new Ginetta GT5 Challenge is Anderstorp on May 11-12. The G40 will make it´s debut on Swedish circuits and so far nine cars have been sold – which means they are just as many as the G20´s.
But how will they perform against each other? Looking at the British Ginetta GT5 Challenge will not give the right answer as the G20 use standard tires while the G40 is on slicks. At Oulton Park last weekend the difference in lap time where 5,2 seconds between best G40 and G20, but it will for sure not be that big in our series, as the G20´s here use Avon track day tires, with much more grip.
Comparing with the GT4 Ginetta G50 in British GT might give us a figure about lap times. At Oulton Park best G50 did a 1.44,7 compared to G40 pole position of 1.53,5 – a difference of 9 seconds a lap. At Anderstorp last year the G50 had lap times around 1,40 while best G20´s did low 1.52´s. That should give an indication that a well-driven G40 could do around 1.48-1.49 at Anderstorp and I think that´s a realistic target for the best drivers.
What´s the difference between the Ginetta models, apart from tires? To begin with, the G40 is another type of car, very similar to the G50/G55 in construction. It´s designed for power up to 250 bhp but in Challenge specification use the same Zetec Ford as G20 – with 20 bhp increase in power. At 800 kg the G40 weighs ca 100 kg more but the sequential gearbox (from G50) means it use the power much more effective. To use the same type of tyres for both cars was tried at the beginning but as the G40 is designed for slicks and the G20 for road tires, Ginetta decided to put them on different rubber.
Why not more power for the G4o to make it almost as quick as a GT4 car? The answer is: It´s just a question of costs. A G40 Challenge car is perhaps even cheaper to run than a G20, but increasing the power with 50 bhp should change that. Still it would be a reasonable budget-friendly car to run and some teams have tried it in the Britcar long distance series. The quickest G40 has a tuned 2-litre Zetec engine producing ca 220 bhp and manage to put pressure on BMW M3´s and Seat Leon Super Copa in the Production class. But for the moment G40 Challenge stay as is, but it´s nice to know that the little car has a lot of potential for the future.
