2024 #53 Team Midlands Astraea GT3
Original Post Date: 6/6/2023
Challenge Entered: Race of The Century - A Le Mans Challenge
Placed 1st overall and in the GT specific category
✦ Lore
The 2024 Midlands Astraea GTC may seem like an odd to choice as a base for a LMGT3 touring car. It’s a long, semi traditional two door sedan that while it may be able to keep up with the likes of a 2024 Bentley Flying spur in terms of top speed and acceleration, it’s not exactly the most nimble. However, the engineers at Midlands welcomed the challenge of bringing such an unexpected competitor to Le Mans to prove just how powerful a rear engined behemoth can be. The recipe for a porsche-esque touring car was there: 550 hp from from the engine situated in the rear, slightly rear biased weight distribution, highly tunable suspension, and massive tyres. The ironic thing is that this is all of that is wrapped up in a car that’s 4.5 meters long, almost 2 meters wide, and instead of a relatively small turboed flat 6 in the rear there’s a 5.4 L N/A V8. The Astraea GT3 is a tank of a car compared to most other traditional GT3s. Despite this, the Astraea GT3 achieves a respectable 0-60 of 3.6 seconds, an aero limited top speed of 224 mph, and cornering G’s similar to a Porsche 911 RSR. These figures are thanks to the staggering amount of energy Midlands has put into reshaping the Astraea into a wider, lower, and slightly menacing carbon fiber version of its roadgoing counterpart. In fact, due to engine size regulations, the Astraea actually has less base hp than the road version due to the loss of its supercharger. This has allowed the car to do exceedingly well in endurance testing, since the 5.4 L V8 is much less stressed than usual. This particular version of the Astraea GT3 is liveried in the traditional Team Midlands petrol blue over Sebring Grey and the factory team has decided to show off their team mascot on the side this year.
Specifications
✧ 5.44 L DOHC, N/A V8
✧ 554 horsepower @ 7100 RPM (subject to BoP changes)
✧ 433 Ft-Lb of torque @ 6300 RPM
✧ 1305 Kg (subject to BoP changes)
✧ 6 speed sequential gearbox
✧ 18 in Advan RCIII’s, 280/40R18(F), 330/35R18(R)
✧ 3.6 sec 0-60
✧ 224 mph top speed (Aero limited)
✦ OwO
Is that a furry livery on the side of this racing behemoth? Yes. Yes it is. This good boi is the whole reason the #53 Team Midlands Astraea GT3 has a .car file size of 1.8 mb. He took me forever to make (as did the gran turismo logos scattered across the car), but I’m super proud of how he turned out. Full on anime liveries are a pain, but it was worth it. X3