micro

http://www.the-paddock.net/content/view/240817/49/

Contact@the-paddock.net

63Corvette

Well, I like it............but then I'm prejudiced.

73-84 IMSA Widebody

I doubt you will get many naysayers in this forum.........

parkerracing

If they adopt the FIA proposal to get rid of GT2 in favor of GT1 here, they will be importing alot of Pagoni Zonta's to fill the field.

AU N EGL

Voted.

I spend some time on the 10-10ths forum, assoicated with the paddock.net. Interesting group of ppl over there. Seams they would rather discuss the past sports car racing then the current.

Solofast

Maybe that's because it was a lot more interesting and relavent then....

Look at it this way, the GT cars had to be pretty much based on available cars, yea, stripped and gutted and hopped up, but a Camaro was still based on a Camaro, you could relate to that...

Prototypes were a class of cars that "could" go into production...

Webster defines the term Prototype: A first full-scale and usually functional form of a new type or design of a construction,

In that regard, a prototype had to be a functional ROADGOING car, but not yet into production, but a design that COULD function on the public roads if so desired.... The prototypes had to have room for a suitcase, a spare tire and two real people... You could, if you were adventurous actually drive even some pretty radical prototypes on the street, they had ground clearance and all the necesary road equipment. I recall seeing a Ford GT Mk4 in the paddock at the 24hrs of Daytona that had been driven up from Miami in about 71 or so, obsolete because of the rule change to "sports cars" of which you had to make 50 of to qualify, but a sweet ride on the road by then.... At Sebring, the teams were set up in the auto dealers garages in town, and DROVE to back and forth to the track for practice and back to the garage in the evening, can you even imagine that today!!!!! In short, they were potentially real cars, just not in production.

I bet an Audi R8 couldn't get out of my driveway without getting high centered... People aren't watching because the technology for going fast has divorced itself from what you want in a real car to the point that it has little or no relavence today... The Audi's are closer to a wide F1 car with fenders, than a street car. Would you buy a car that has no windshield and you had to wear a helmet for weather protection and drive it on the street? I don't think so... The Daytona prototypes were a step in the right direction, but are still pretty much pure race cars, and not prototypes for anything...

Recall that the idea for prototypes came about to renew flagging interest in sports car racing, which at the time was starting to get hammered by Grand Prix in Europe, and open wheel racing in the states. Entries were down due to rising costs for homologation, and the idea was to rekindle interest by allowing the manufacturers to make a few cars that were more racing racing oriented, and therefore had fewer potential buyers, rather than have the burden of making 50 cars for homologation in the sports car class. It worked pretty well and we had a golden age of prototypes from the mid-60's to the mid 70's, and then it pretty much was gone.

If they went back to a set of rules that forced the cars to be more road going (real ground clearance, room for two people, not one person and a fire bottle, reasonable maximum width, full windshield or a closed car, and some luggage space), I think that folks would find it a lot more interesting and it could become a lot more popular. Until then it is just another racing series and it isn't going to supplant NASCAR or any other form of racing...

robvuk

xsiveone

I don't know.. They could make a road going car out of something like an Audi R8/10 if they wanted to. I was just watching Victory By Design - Porsche where Porsche built some road going 962's. The Audi has a provision for two seats and it has lights. It wouldn't be tough to add turn signals and a license plate. It may not be street legal here in the land of the free, but it probably would be legal in Europe. After all, the Radical is street legal in the UK.

xsiveone

Here's your road going Prototype.

http://www.supercars.net/cars/1732.html



So.. Technically, they could make a street car out of any of these Prototypes if they really wanted to.

Solofast

The 962 was about the last prototype that you could run on the road. Porsche and some others converted some to street cars and that was likely a wild ride..

While technically you could drive an R8/10 on the street because it has headlights and tail lights you could do the same with an Indy car, but that doesn't make it any more streetable. The R8/10 are a long way from being a resonalbe street car, they have no windshield (God forbid that they create some drag and lift), no ground clearance, no suspension travel, no place for a second person to sit, there is a fire bottle and data systems in the "passenger" seat. Watch them bounce around Sebring, they are so stiff that the only spring effect is the tires.... They are simply single seat race cars with a wide body and fenders, and if that is what the rules allow, that is what people are going to show up to race with because it is faster. While they are likey "street legal" the are way too impractical for anybody to want to drive on the street, even once. Like I said, you would get high centered on a speed bump, with one of those...

Take away the wings and the low ground clearance and the tunnels. That will kill most of the downforce. It would slow the cars down and make it a lot safer. If you don't have big downforce you don't need huge springs, so you get closer to a reasonable ride rate. Give them a reasonable sized normally aspriated engine, no turbos and a realistic minimum weight, like 2,000 lbs, and lots of people would want something like that for a track day car or a killer Sunday driver...

micro

Doesn't anyone remember how the GT1 class died in the late 90s because of the costs?

xsiveone

Where would you put lights and a license plate on an Indy Car?

You could easily put a windshield on an Audi R10 if you wanted to. Yes, more drag, but it would make it street legal. Or.. You can just wear glasses when driving it.

I personally like the way things are. Yes, the Prototypes don't really resemble a road going car, but I don't mind that. I like that they can stretch the boundaries of the car and even though the shape of the Prototypes don't translate into road going cars, I'm sure a lot of the technology will filter its way into production cars at some point. Wish the same could be said about NASCAR. They sure are developing the crap out of a carburetor, aren't they? Maybe that's why the US automakers are behind in technology? The foreign constructors are doing R&D in sports cars (with the exception of the Corvette) and F1 and we're doing it in NASCAR.

micro

Well, Ford has unleashed the new FR500GT which might race in Rolex GT.

http://www.fast-autos.net/vehicles/F...tang_FR500-GT/

Saleen S7Rs are raced around the world.

The Viper Comp Coupe was revised for the 05 season, but its rumored that McLaren is working with the 2008 Viper.

http://www.world-challenge.com/news/story.php?ID=75

xsiveone

Grand Am and DP's aren't real sports cars though.

BrianCunningham

Europe has different rules for road going cars.
Did you know that a Radical is a street legal car in England?


actually there's a guy in Houston commuting to work in an old IndyCar powered by a motorcycle engine.


The closed prototypes are closer to road cars


Ferrari Enzo is pretty close to the closed prototypes


They're looking for ways to slow them down, they could raise the ride height, would kill most of the ground effects. and might make for closer racing. This would be nice for the GT cars as well, since the body work would be streetable.

xsiveone

That FR500GT is nice. I wonder how much it weighs?

95jersey

can you say...CAN/AM?

micro

3,100, but a Viper Comp Coupe weighs 3,000 pounds (more in SWC spec).

xsiveone

Yeah.. I saw the spec sheet after I posted the message. 3,100 lbs isn't bad. I thought that it might be 3,500 lbs or something.

micro

The only LMP in 06 that had a link to a road car is the British Lister Storm LMP Hybrid which used a 6.0 liter LS1 with 530 hp. Lister won't race the car next year though.

http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/frame...hp&carnum=2770



P1s will be close-cockpit by 2010.

http://www.google.com/translate?u=ht...d=2216&thold=0