0:00 - Introduction
0:42 - Ghibli 3
2:18 - Zenith
4:10 - Vortex
8:16 - Laptime comparison
11:02 - Conclusion
0:03 / 3 seconds: 2026 has been pretty crazy in terms of body shell releases for the touring car market and especially when it comes to body shells that are useful for the
0:12 / 12 seconds: modified class. A couple of rule changes and generally a more competitive environment for the the touring car body
0:19 / 19 seconds: shell market has led to several body shell releases. Whereas in the past few years, we were all used to running the
0:28 / 28 seconds: let's say the Twister or the Special for a very long time. Those were the the most used bodies and nothing else really came close to those in terms of
0:36 / 36 seconds: performance. But lately, we've had a few releases. It started in the year with um body shell from Lens Bodies called theChapter 2: Ghibli 30:44 / 44 seconds: Gibli 3, which looks like this. If you're familiar with the extreme special, you'll notice that this is very similar to the extreme special, but it's
0:53 / 53 seconds: a little different. It has a couple of features which uh make makes it sometimes better than the special. And
1:00 / 1 minute: the main reason is that it's lighter, um not as heavy as the Spiella, which makes it more nimble, more reactive, and frees
1:08 / 1 minute, 8 seconds: the car up on high grip surfaces especially. So, my go-to choice still to this day for high grip asphalt and
1:17 / 1 minute, 17 seconds: carpet racing from modified is the Gibli tree.
1:21 / 1 minute, 21 seconds: And just as an example, the recent inofficial world's warm-up at the huge RC which was held in Bangkok saw both
1:28 / 1 minute, 28 seconds: the winner in modified and stock use this particular body shell. Uh so for huge RC indoor asphalt high grip venue,
1:36 / 1 minute, 36 seconds: Giblree was an excellent choice. And uh this particular one here I have paired
1:43 / 1 minute, 43 seconds: with a twister wing in the rear which to me that gives the most uh rear grip and the Gibl tree. Yeah. At the end of
1:52 / 1 minute, 52 seconds: the carpet season and also during the asphalt season it's been very popular but during the summer a couple of other bodies came out which I'm going to talk
1:59 / 1 minute, 59 seconds: about now. So when we compare these three bodies, uh the Gibli tree of these three, it has the least amount of
2:06 / 2 minutes, 6 seconds: downforce overall downforce and it's also the most let's say traditional body shell. Uh it's most similar to the body
2:13 / 2 minutes, 13 seconds: shells we're used to running for the last few years in a touring car.Chapter 3: Zenith2:18 / 2 minutes, 18 seconds: We move on to the next one is called the Extreme Senif, which came out during the summer. And the Senif was the winner of
2:26 / 2 minutes, 26 seconds: the last two ETSs rounds on asphalt, but not necessarily because it's the best body right now. I think it's perhaps a
2:34 / 2 minutes, 34 seconds: result of the Avalon Vortex being banned at ETSs now. But the Senith definitely for many tracks is faster than the Gibli
2:42 / 2 minutes, 42 seconds: 3 or the Speciial for the reason that it has more front downforce. It has more front down force because you can see quite clearly here at the front. It has
2:50 / 2 minutes, 50 seconds: these pretty cool um let's say wings added to the front of the body shell here. And also it has a very aggressive
2:58 / 2 minutes, 58 seconds: um lines here on the doors which makes it difficult to paint but obviously adds a lot of down force to the the side of
3:05 / 3 minutes, 5 seconds: the body shell. And the extreme senive I would say is something in between these two body shells. Uh the Avalon and the
3:13 / 3 minutes, 13 seconds: Gibli tree in terms of down forces something in between. and it has a lot of front downforce which means that it's more difficult to drive than the Gibli
3:21 / 3 minutes, 21 seconds: tree or the Special Island cuz it has more front end is a bit more pointy to drive let's say uh of course also because we mounted
3:28 / 3 minutes, 28 seconds: very far forward as you can see here as we do with most touring car body shells now and this one paired with a special wing
3:38 / 3 minutes, 38 seconds: has been the choice for the top drivers at the ETS from modified outdoors last couple of races And of course, as
3:46 / 3 minutes, 46 seconds: always, we run uh stiffeners inside of the body shell. These are uh the spider stiffeners from Innovate and also rare
3:55 / 3 minutes, 55 seconds: anti-tax cuz we always try to run the ultra light body shells which make them very flimsy, not so rigid, and for that reason, you need to reinforce them.
4:06 / 4 minutes, 6 seconds: Um let's move on to the final and perhaps most interesting body shell. It's the, let's say, famousChapter 4: Vortex4:15 / 4 minutes, 15 seconds: or infamous Avalon Vortex that came out, I would say quite early in the year, but
4:22 / 4 minutes, 22 seconds: it wasn't really used uh for modified racing until May at ETS in Aldororn. It became the most uh commonly used body
4:30 / 4 minutes, 30 seconds: shell at that race. And as you can see on the shape of this body shell, it's very aerodynamically efficient, aggressive looking. And this
4:40 / 4 minutes, 40 seconds: is the first body shell on the market that's um basically taking into account the new
4:46 / 4 minutes, 46 seconds: effort rules which allows the rear wing to be higher than the roof. So on this body shell, if you use a traditional
4:53 / 4 minutes, 53 seconds: wing or the supplied wing, the wing will be a lot higher than the roof. In this case, um I would say that
5:02 / 5 minutes, 2 seconds: the wing sits probably up to 15 mm higher than the wing on let's say a Gibli tree. And this is one of the
5:09 / 5 minutes, 9 seconds: reasons why this body shell works so uh extremely well for modified racing outdoors. Has a lot of downforce uh both
5:17 / 5 minutes, 17 seconds: front and rear downforce. I would say for high grip uh it's a little hard to drive probably has too much front end for high grip tracks. But for low to
5:25 / 5 minutes, 25 seconds: medium grip asphalt tracks is a very popular choice. And because the wing is so high has a lot of of downforce.
5:34 / 5 minutes, 34 seconds: But keep in mind then that if you're at an event where they still measure the
5:42 / 5 minutes, 42 seconds: the wing height towards the roof, if the wing is not allowed to be taller than the roof, then uh the Avalon body will not be as efficient, will not be as as
5:50 / 5 minutes, 50 seconds: good to drive cuz either you have to cut down this wing a lot to make it really tiny, which then defeats the purpose of the body shell almost cuz you'll have
5:58 / 5 minutes, 58 seconds: very little rear down force or you can use some of these aftermarket wings that been released now. We have this one from
6:06 / 6 minutes, 6 seconds: US company called Leadfinger which that wing is is basically shaped to sit
6:14 / 6 minutes, 14 seconds: on these standoffs but low enough so that it is below the roof but the same size as a typical wing let's say. So
6:23 / 6 minutes, 23 seconds: this body shell for those kind of rules with an optional wing can be an option.
6:29 / 6 minutes, 29 seconds: I personally didn't have that much success with that configuration yet, but um
6:37 / 6 minutes, 37 seconds: the Avalon, especially for races where they don't check the wing height, extremely
6:44 / 6 minutes, 44 seconds: efficient um a lot of grip. There's been some concerns about the front to rear uh balance of the body that on high on not high grip on high speed outward tracks.
6:56 / 6 minutes, 56 seconds: Uh especially in sweeping corners for example, it can be a bit front end dominance. So it can be um the case that
7:04 / 7 minutes, 4 seconds: you actually lose the rear in high speed because it has so much front end grip and for that reason bit unstable and sometimes it can lead to uh you losing control of the car at high speed.
7:14 / 7 minutes, 14 seconds: Personally, I've seen this happen as well. But generally, the advantages of uh the high downforce, the high grip,
7:21 / 7 minutes, 21 seconds: the high uh amount of front grip of the body shell outweighs that, let's say, danger of using it for high speed, low to medium grip tracks.
7:32 / 7 minutes, 32 seconds: So, the Avalon Vortex, very impressive indeed. Um, it's the most extreme body shell we've seen until now. I don't have
7:41 / 7 minutes, 41 seconds: experience from running it on carpet yet. All all my um my talks and theory in this video is based on asphalt
7:50 / 7 minutes, 50 seconds: running, but I'm very curious to put these these shells to to test on carpet as well. I mean, like I said earlier, the Gibly tree is a very solid choice
7:58 / 7 minutes, 58 seconds: for carpet, but I can see the Avalon being an option for carpet racing as well, especially if the grip isn't too high.
8:07 / 8 minutes, 7 seconds: So, probably you're going to ask, what about the the actual speed of the body shells? like how fast do they go around the track?
8:15 / 8 minutes, 15 seconds: And as an example, uh I can show you the lap times of these three body shells uh from my local trackChapter 5: Laptime comparison8:23 / 8 minutes, 23 seconds: um the Monsanto track in Lisbon, Portugal, because I have experience on running all these body shells at a track
8:31 / 8 minutes, 31 seconds: on different days during different conditions. And um for example, the layout that we currently run on at
8:37 / 8 minutes, 37 seconds: Monsanto, it's a technical um asphalt layout, but still has couple of fast sweeping corners. The Avalon is
8:46 / 8 minutes, 46 seconds: by far the fastest. It had a fastest lap of 49, an average lap of um uh 53. So, of
8:56 / 8 minutes, 56 seconds: course, the hot lap's always going to be quite a lot faster than the average lap for modified outdoors, but um this one
9:03 / 9 minutes, 3 seconds: particularly goes very fast um cuz you're a you're able to stay on the throttle more in the high-speed
9:10 / 9 minutes, 10 seconds: sections. The infield I would say is very similar between the three body shells. But if we then take for example
9:17 / 9 minutes, 17 seconds: the extreme senate which is the slowest body shot at my home track.
9:22 / 9 minutes, 22 seconds: It only did a best lap of 154 and the average was only uh 156.
9:28 / 9 minutes, 28 seconds: Of course not terribly inconsistent. But the main problem with this B shell on my home track is that the rear is simply too
9:36 / 9 minutes, 36 seconds: loose. Has too much front grip and I'm not able to be confident with it.
9:41 / 9 minutes, 41 seconds: Especially in high speeded corners. Easy to lose the rear. you're not able to really stay on the throttle as much as you can with the other two body shows.
9:49 / 9 minutes, 49 seconds: So, the second fastest body shell is the traditional uh lens body Gibby tree
9:56 / 9 minutes, 56 seconds: has a hot lap of 153 and average lap of 155. So, um fast but pretty consistent as well. Not that much slower than the
10:04 / 10 minutes, 4 seconds: Avalon in all reality except for the hot lap. And the Gibli tree is a very solid choice at my home track cuz the rear is always very planted, very predictable. I
10:12 / 10 minutes, 12 seconds: know where the car is going to go. I can um use more steering lock and send the car hard into corners without really losing the rear. So, it's the most
10:21 / 10 minutes, 21 seconds: comfortable to drive for that reason, especially when the grip is on the lower side. This seems to be a solid choice for my home track. And I mean, the
10:29 / 10 minutes, 29 seconds: Avalon, no doubt, it's always going to be fast for low to medium grip, but don't rule out the Gibly 3.
10:38 / 10 minutes, 38 seconds: And the Senif, I think, is more of a medium to high grip uh kind of shell, especially for tight and twisty tracks
10:47 / 10 minutes, 47 seconds: with not so many uh sections where you need to stay hard on the throttle. So, it definitely is um front end dominant
10:56 / 10 minutes, 56 seconds: body shell, but has a bit less overall downforce than the Avalon Vortex.Chapter 6: Conclusion11:02 / 11 minutes, 2 seconds: So, I hope this video wasn't too confusing. I did um attach my lap times of these three shells which I've I've
11:11 / 11 minutes, 11 seconds: done at my home track just as a reference. I mean all tracks are different. You're going to have different results on different tracks.
11:18 / 11 minutes, 18 seconds: It's just a general guideline what to expect for a modified outdoors on medium grip track with a mix of fast and slow corners.
11:30 / 11 minutes, 30 seconds: So I hope that you enjoyed my review of these three body shells. uh the details that I went through as well. And um I'm
11:38 / 11 minutes, 38 seconds: curious to hear your feedback. Let me know what you think about these body shells and what's your preference and um perhaps you'd like to discuss as well.
11:48 / 11 minutes, 48 seconds: Um what's the future of touring car body shells? Um what are we going to do moving forward? I personally not a big
11:55 / 11 minutes, 55 seconds: fan of scale realism. I think that doesn't really belong in uh in modified touring car racing
12:04 / 12 minutes, 4 seconds: and performance should always come first. I mean you can argue whether this looks realistic or not. I mean obviously it does not look like a full scale car
12:13 / 12 minutes, 13 seconds: at all but it works very well on the track and I I personally kind of like the look of these shells. They look very
12:20 / 12 minutes, 20 seconds: aggressive. Um they look racy to me. Um just my opinion. the ultral light thing.
12:27 / 12 minutes, 27 seconds: Yeah, it's um it's complicated because the boiler shells don't last long these days. And as you may have seen
12:35 / 12 minutes, 35 seconds: at big events, top drivers usually run spray bombs like single color body shells for the reason that they don't want to waste time for their painter to
12:43 / 12 minutes, 43 seconds: paint a body shell that will last at most one event or or even less sometimes. So the ultra light weight
12:51 / 12 minutes, 51 seconds: thing is very is tricky. I'm not a huge fan. we need to prepare so many body shells every year that we just go through. Um but again, racers want
13:00 / 13 minutes: performance and now we're in a situation where performance is is um is very high and the lifetime of the shells is short.
13:10 / 13 minutes, 10 seconds: So we just have to ask ourselves um what's what's the solution going forward or do we want a solution? Do we just want to keep it as it is and u keep
13:20 / 13 minutes, 20 seconds: racing with these ultra light high downforce shells? So, thanks for watching the video and uh uh subscribe,
13:27 / 13 minutes, 27 seconds: ask any questions in the in the comments if you have any. Uh send me a message if if you'd like. And um yeah, keep on racing. See you guys. Bye-bye.
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