Longtime GT300 competitors Cars Tokai Dream28 have announced that they will continue in the Autobacs Super GT Series next season, running a full season with a heavily revised version of their Mooncraft Engineering-built Lotus Evora MC.
The team also announced that Kazuho Takahashi and Hiroki Katoh will return as the teams’ two drivers for the 2018 season, their thirteenth year together as co-drivers since 2005.
2017 was a frustrating year for Cars Tokai Dream28, a year that saw them finish 30th and last in the GT300 Teams’ Championship, with only six classified results and none within 1 lap of the leading car.
In this, the fourth year of the Mooncraft/Lotus Mother Chassis project, the team revealed that Mooncraft are working on extensive modifications to the car to warrant the team declaring it as a “Version 2” model that will run in 2018.
At the heart of the car though, will still be the mid-mounted 4.5 litre GTA V8 engine based upon the Nissan VK45DE powerplant.
Gentleman driver Takahashi, who turns 65 years old on 18 January, will once again be the oldest competitor on the Super GT grid. The 17-year GT300 veteran will once again be partnered by Katoh, who will celebrate his 50th birthday in February, and will be taking part in his 20th season.
The two combined finished runner-up in the GT300 Drivers’ Championship in back to back years, in 2006 and 2007, driving the Mooncraft/Riley Shiden MC16. They’ve also won the GT300 class at the Suzuka 1000km twice, in 2005 and 2007.
2017 was their second consecutive scoreless campaign in Super GT, with their last top-ten finish coming in the 2015 Suzuka 1000km – where in the debut year for the Mother Chassis Evora, they scored two pole positions at Suzuka and Autopolis.
Super GT World 