z06brah

I know this is a chevy forum so I won't get a lot of unbiased opinions but I was just curious as to what you all think of audi as a competitor to the vette. a friend of mine won't stop bringing up the fact that audi has won le mans several times while chevy has won zero. I tried to do a search but I couldn't find anything on it. does anyone have a link to the actual statistics. why is it that audi has won more. it pisses me off when he says that vettes are huge inefficient engines wrapped in plastic only good for straightline performance. I like audis for their comfort and luxury but I never thought of them as being true sports cars. can someone school me please. I need to put this guy in his place

02MillenniumVette

No. Completely different classes.

TruUndrtkr

Time to check my crack house..

z06brah

so they compete in different classes? hah this isn't surprising I just didn't know what to say when he was saying how audi won so much and hevy hasnt

AC54ME

mneblett

Gross example of apples and oranges.

The fact that the Audi R8s absolutely dominate the top class at LeMans (essentially F1 technology prototype racecars with bodywork) has **absolutely nothing** to do with their street cars.

The fact that the Audi R8s absolutely dominate the top class at LeMans has **absoultely nothing** to do with a completely separate class that the prototypes don't race against. The C5s and C6s run in GT-1, a class (nominally) based on production (street) cars -- Corvettes, Aston-Martins -- where the Corvettes have been so dominant, the rule makers have saddled them with severe weight and power penalties in order to keep the other guys interested in competing.

The question for this guy is, if Audis are so good, why won't they show their faces in GT-1, and go head-to-head against the Corvettes??

BTW, all of this is *completely* irrelevant to street cars -- if he thinks the Corvette can only go in a straight line, challenge him to a track day and see if he's willing to find out what a Corvette can do. Mustangs go fast in a strainght line -- Corvettes go fast in a straight line AND around corners!

02MillenniumVette

Most or all of the Audis are in the prototype class. Corvette is in GT1. Corvette has dominated their class since the C5-R came in it.

jbondfl

Ask him to show you a photo of his prize winning Audi. It is in the LMP1 class (prototype!!, helloooo).

The Corvette still took 4th place overall at LeMans ahead of one LMP1 class and ALL LMP2 (also prototype) cars.

Tell him it would be like the corvette racing the VW Rabbit

max'svette

Depending on the audi. That new R8 is kind of comparable.. but it costs over 100k... Maybe with the SS. But for the most part apples to oranges.

I can tell you one thing though. Audis have NICE interiors.

Tom/99

micro

Tell him the following:

1. Audi has a huge budget for the R10.

"It is said that Audi's factory-backed R10 program – which extends to the 24 Hours of Le Mans – has an annual budget of $15 million. [Michael] Lewis' San Diego-based Autocon Motorsports has a budget of $1.2 million."

- http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports...s19motors.html

Autocon's new LMP with a 5.0 liter Judd V-10: http://www.autoconmotorsports.com/ne....php?NewsID=42

2. Super Light Cars (SLC), a subcompany of ATR Group, builds the Audi R10's chassis in Italy.

http://www.atrgroup.it/eng/index.htm

3. No car manufacturer-backed teams races at Le Mans in the top prototype class from 2000-2006 except for Bentley (from 2001-2003, owned by VW) and Panoz until 2002 (they actually beat the Audi R8 in ALMS 5 times from 2000-2002).

Factory-backed teams often have more resources and the $$$ to pay drivers, teams, racecar builders (like Lola), and racecar engine builders (like Mazda/AER with their new engine http://www.aerltd.com/news.html#news1), and pay the rental fees for extensive testing at tracks.

4. The new Corvette Z06 uses carbon fiber in the front fenders, magnesium for the roof, aluminum for its chassis (instead of steel), a dry-sump oil lubrication system (like on racecars), a transmission oil cooler, etc. It is fast all the way around.

5. The new Audi R8 roadcar is actually a reworked Lamborghini Gallardo.

None of the LMP2 teams (all privateer ones, iirc) last year had the budget and resources of the factory Corvette Racing team. The C6.R shares little with a production C6 (frame, engine block, a few other things).

That's not true. The Viper GTS-Rs were the reason that Chevrolet had Pratt & Miller widen the C5-Rs by around 3 inches and had Katech build a 7.0 liter V-8 instead of a 6.0 liter V-8 that had used until the summer of 2001.

The Viper GTS-Rs were more production-based than those 7.0 liter C5-Rs and C6.Rs.

Also, the Prodrive-built Ferrari 550 Maranellos won the last five races of the 2003 ALMS season. Chevrolet won the championship by just one point.

1996 24 Hours of Le Mans



That was last year when IMSA did that in ALMS.

There are just three series in Europe that still have a GT1 class (FIA GT, Le Mans Series, and French GT.

Why doesn't Chevrolet have Pratt & Miller build Corvettes for the GT2 class and sell them to customers?

http://www.prattmiller.com/

bondmid003

They do sort of, Z06Rs are run in Fia GT3. Technically Chevrolet doesn't build them for that purpose but folks like Callaway do the rest of the work. Under ALMS rules and I'm pretty sure FIA GT as well, a GT2 car MUST begin its life on the production line while a GT1 car doesn't. So the only Corvette you could ever see in GT2 would be a Z06R because a C6R certainly doesn't meet the above criteria

dietrich

So you want Audi to drop down from top class? Why do corvette not go up classes and take on Audi? Audi are prove they are "so good" by win everything at top level! Why would they move to lower class?

Also corvettes in GT1 class are really nothing like production cars. GT2 is much closer to production than GT1.

bondmid003

I don't think he realized that Audi runs in a completely different class than Corvette. That said Corvette cannot 'move up' to take on Audi. Corvette is in the top GT class while Audi is in the top Prototype class. The two are completely incompatible