Nissan fastest as 2024 GT500 cars continue testing

A total of 10 cars have been in action across the two-day test, which concludes on Wednesday, with seven current cars joined by a single development car each from Nissan, Toyota and Honda.

The 2024 cars made their first outing together at Okayama in late July, but this time they shared the track with current-generation cars that were conducting their final tyre tests of the season.

Unlike last year, when Bridgestone and Michelin held their in-season Motegi test separately from Yokohama and Dunlop, all four tyre manufacturers shared the track on this occasion.

Heavy rain on Monday meant the track was green for Tuesday’s pair of two-hour sessions, but it was the NISMO-run NDDP Racing Nissan Z of current points leaders Katsumasa Chiyo and Mitsunori Takaboshi that set the pace in both the morning and the afternoon.

The #3 machine’s best time of 1m38.040s came in the afternoon, and was almost four tenths up on the Team Kunimitsu Honda NSX-GT shared by Naoki Yamamoto and Tadasuke Makino.

TOM’S Toyota duo Sho Tsuboi and Ritomo Miyata ensured all three manufacturers were represented in the top three in both the morning session and across the day.

Of the 2024 test cars, the fastest was the #230 Nissan (pictured top at Okayama) that is being driven this week by NISMO pair Ronnie Quintarelli and Tsugio Matsuda. Their best time of 1m38.709s was good for second in the afternoon and fourth on the overall timesheets.

Impul drivers Bertrand Baguette and Kazuki Hiramine carried out the initial running at Okayama on Bridgestone tyres, but the car is being run on Michelins this week as Nissan continues to evaluate its 2024 aero package.

The Honda Civic Type R-GT ended up ninth-fastest both in the morning and overall, with Yamamoto and Makino sharing driving duties with ARTA man Tomoki Nojiri, three tenths slower than the Nissan in the morning.

 

Yuji Tachikawa, Hiroaki Ishiura and Kenta Yamashita were on hand to drive the Toyota test car that ended up 10th and slowest.

Testing continues on Wednesday with a single three-hour session planned, but bad weather makes it unlikely that Tuesday’s times will be improved upon.

A number of GT300 cars are also present at Motegi for two days of running across Wednesday and Thursday.

Motegi SUPER GT test times (Day 1):