This Camaro GT3 is ‘kind of a monster’

“I saw the Chevrolet Camaro and my three daughters agreed that it had to be a race car,” he says. “Chevrolet didn’t get involved in Germany in GT3, so we did it on our own. Chevrolet was not involved and didn’t approve it.” Sitting in the Goodwood paddocks at the Members’ Meeting presented by Audrain Motorsport as part of our GT3 anniversary celebrations, the Camaro cuts a distinctly different dash to its svelte European stablemates. “It’s a big car,” says Hans. “It’s kind of a monster.” It sounds that way on track, too, its deep industrial sound unlike anything else in the category.

The Camaro hails from a time when GT3 was a simpler category than it is today. “At the time, the cars were more close to the street cars. This was the idea from Stéphane Ratel from the beginning. We were one of the six founders of GT3. We all agreed we were going to take street cars with minimum modifications and have fun. The rules were, I think, six pages. Now the rules are more than 100 pages, and the cars do not really look like the original cars anymore.”

The Camaro GT3 lives up to the American adage of there being no substitute for cubic inches. The V8 engine has a displacement of 7.9 litres, which is both its strength and weakness. “It has 900Nm of torque,” says Hans. “We have 600Nm at idle, so whenever the driver just touches a throttle pedal it, the rear wheels are slipping and you do burnout all the time.”

It’s a bit of an animal, then, which is what Hans discovered the one time he drove it. “It just goes through the gears so fast from first to second to third, you have 1.5 seconds for the next gear. It's all too much.” And not deliberately trying to peddle clichés, Hans also says that this is one American car that’s happiest travelling in a straight line. “You shouldn’t say this about a race car, but it doesn't like corners really. It loves when it’s going straight. It has an immense power. It’s extremely efficient on braking. It is fun to drive in corners, but we could have, or we should have, done a better job on that end of the car.”

His advice to driver Frank Stippler at the 82^nd Goodwood Members’ Meeting was simply to enjoy the drive because the car wouldn’t be competitive. Stippler didn’t get the memo and set the second fastest time in Sunday’s Free Practice. “That was beyond the expectations. It’s not a favourite circuit for this kind of car.”

Even if the Goodwood Motor Circuit isn’t the Camaro’s happiest home, Han still got a real kick from seeing these formative GT3 cars in action. “It’s great to have them here and to have this comeback of the class. I can see a strong tendency, especially in Great Britain, that you are establishing endurance championships with the GT3. There are about 1,000 cars around the world, which are standing in garages waiting to be racing again. So I think it’s a good idea.

“It gave me goosebumps because it’s still alive. If you don't have goosebumps, you’re not in this business, you should do something serious. Building race cars is maybe not the best business in the world, but it’s the coolest job in the world. I just enjoy it. In life, you have business profit, but this one is emotional profit.”

Photography by Joe Harding, Nick Dungan, Charlie Breninkmeijer, Jordan Butters and Toby Whales.