Electric GT Championship, coming soon to the racetrack

Following the waves produced by the FIA Formula E, competition between fully electric cars can have a new name in 2017, which is the Electric GT Championship, to be based in the Tesla Model S P85 and P85+ road cars.

The idea for the new championship came from Mark Gemmell, who will the series CEO, and Agustín Payá, who will take care of the technical details of the cars that will participate. Both were present at the Monaco ePrix last year and were so much impressed with what they saw that moved from planned demonstrations to the purpose of creating a championship around their idea.

The goal for the new series bases around promotion and expansion of the sustainable mobility and to make sure there are ways out of the use of fossil fuel according to Gemmell. Payá gave the choice of the S Model as the car is stated to be perfect for racing, and rear-wheel drive will make things interesting. Although the S Model P85 isn't the most powerful car from Tesla, it may give a good run for the drivers of the new series as this one in terms of power and top speed should be between cars from the GT4 and GT3 classes, even though the massive two tons of weight may not be in favor of the all-electric tourer.

Not that much of modifications will be made in the P85 to give it a racecar look, as improvements are more intended to be made into the suspension, weight and aerodynamics, as well other points to make the GT version more agile and stable, while powertrain and battery in the other hand will remain the original ones, which is what happens in most of the GT classes that have internal combustion engines.

And Tesla may not be the only manufacturer, as Payá declared that interested manufacturers should bring their models to the competition. The first name coming to mind is Rimac Automobili, as the Croatian auto maker combined feats on the track with Nobuhiro Tajima at the Pikes Peak International Hillclimb with the promotion of its powerful hypercars, but stalwarts of the combustion engines are joining the EV market at cautious steps, such as BMW, Audi, Mercedes and Chevrolet.

Tests were made at Barcelona and Jarama circuits, and various high-profile circuits around Europe and the World are considered. The format of the races still needs to be revealed, and initially the Electric GT Championship would count with 10 teams with two cars each.

PHOTO: Electric GT Championship