I had an opportunity to tour the Pratt & Miller race shop this morning thanks to the SE Michigan PCA. They build the LeMans-winning Corvettes, the World Challenge Cadillac CTS-V's and now the Rolex GT Pontiac GTO for The Racer's Group. The tour was nearly 2 hours and was conducted by GM Race Program Manager Dave Spitzer. The facility is huge and incredibly impressive. Almost everything is fabricated in-house. Unfortunately, all cameras and cellphones were confiscated at the door - so no spy pics!

The LeMans/ALMS Corvettes - 3 of last year's cars were there along with 2 more on display in the showroom (surrounded by 100's of trophies!). 2 C6R's for next season were under construction but were carefully covered up and we weren't able to even look at those.

The Pontiac GTO - 2 of these were undergoing final assembly. These will race in the Rolex GT series. The cars are simply tube-frame race cars, similar to the old TransAm cars. They have absolutely no relation to the street GTO. Well, possibly the grille was a production item .... Anyway, full carbon-fiber body, trick suspension, etc. The workmanship on these cars is flawless. These 2 were customer cars. The Racer's Group will also be running 2 next season (have they ditched Porsche all together?).

The CTS-V - there was only one of these home. One is out at Willow with a passenger seat bolted in for some sort of media event. Another is enroute to China for a big car show over there. These cars run against Porsche in the Speed World Challenge. They are HIGHLY modified - much more so than the Porsches, Corvettes and other in the series I'm fairly sure. They chopped 7 inches off the bottom of the unibody and relocated the motor about a foot to the rear (and much lower). But the amazng thing was the door! This thing felt like a thin piece of styrene when swinging open and shut - weight was maybe a few ounces!

All in all, a great tour and a good insight into the incredible resources available to these GM teams.

BTW: anybody here own the red '72 E in the parking lot?