C8 factory race car note
 

The C7 based factory race team has been spectacular since it began, consistently winning Championships in the IMSA GTLM class. Ford pretty much tried to hijack the class by sneaking the new GT in before LeMans in 2018 (it was not even available to the public at the time and should not have qualified to even compete). It is an incredible car however and has done well as has Porsche who have continued to make some pretty big changes in engine placement and aero. BMW and Ferrari aren't to far off the pace either. Our drivers and crew have really risen to the challenge, but it is definitely a struggle to keep up with the new competition running a design that is nearly 6 years old now. Hopefully the C8 race car is in the development stages and will be ready to compete in the 2020 season. I'm sure there will be lots of tweaks required in the first year, but I'm betting it will blow away the competition after some sorting out. Hopefully after the July reveal of the street car, some details will emerge regarding the C8 race car!

Driver has a lot to do with winning.. car is important of course, but a great driver can win most of the time as long as equipment keeps him on the track without breaking down.

In the class that it will run, the Balance of Performance (BOP) adjustments will make sure no one make dominates, no matter how good the car it is (loosely) based on. The name of the game is make them all equal. Corvette Racing has done a great job of managing strategy, minimizing mistakes and great pit work and driving.

I love Corvette Racing...I hope they can get a win this season, have had some bad luck. The C7s are very competitive and have some of the best drivers available. Some C8r data has been released at least some pics anyway. https://jalopnik.com/mid-engine-corv...yet-1828229738

The C7 R just got a BOP adjustment for the race in Canada this weekend.


The only BOP change to the GTLM field. IMSA added 30lbs to slow the C7R down.

Seems anytime the C7R is one of the faster cars they get a BOP to slow them down.

Seems the European cars Porsche & BMW never get a BOP to slow them down.

I think IMSA babies those brands so they don't threaten to leave the series.

Hopefully we can still be competitive even with the added weight.

The problem is that Corvette Racing has Antonio Garcia...who is possibly the best driver in the GTLM field.

And what is probably the finest pit crew and pit chief as well.

The BOP games get tiresome.

It boggles my mind that the Porsches did not get dialed back after 4 wins in a row. When the FGT did that in its inaugural season, they neutered it, and it is now finishing off the podium almost every race.

BOP is a joke. Write the rules, and if one team figures out how to build a better car according to them, they should be rewarded with wins, not DQs because the sanctioning body changed a critical component last minute to make it more fair, that couldn't be properly reengineered at the track.

Competition should be embarassed from time to time, it is what encouages them to get better.

I understand it, and still support it for the sake of keeping GT racing alive, but I also find it a source of frustration because it punishes success. The dilemma is when BOP is not in place, the also-rans quit and you're left with as few as 2 brands left.

That's was the situation in the 00s when the ALMS GT class was in critical condition. It was good for Corvette Racing, and is the primary reason they have more wins than anyone else. For a long period of time, they had essentially zero competition, and the only question in an ALMS GT race was whether #3 or #4 would win. It continued to win more Corvette fans and sold more cars.

No one with Ford or the Ganassi teams will say this publicly, but no doubt one of the reasons Ford is quitting is that they have already proven that they designed and built a superior car if allowed to run at full potential, but they are well aware they will not be allowed to run that way in IMSA or WEC. Thus, their current, BOP-restricted performance in GTLM is doing Ford more harm than good.

There's no good reason to keep shelling out corporate cash for that. All 1350 FGTs already built, or currently scheduled to be built, are already sold. I would have made exactly the same decision as the Ford CEO, even as a road-racing fan.

The GTLM class is really a big money game. Maybe too much money. We sure don’t want to see just 2 Vettes racing around against each other like days of old against NOBODY. I’m fearful that the class as we know it may go away... but if it is ultimately replaced by an expanded GTD class that requires “closer to stock” mechanicals with 4 or more Vettes in it, I’d welcome that.

I agree. Besides the Ford GT40 won Lemans Overall in 1966.... the Multimatic GT only won the GTE pro class in 2016... I’m at a loss to see what Ford got out of the second effort in the eyes of people who really understand the sport. For those who don't follow it, who cared?

I'm all for consolidation of GTLM into what is now GTD, under their rules. I understand the governing body politics would be difficult to pull that off, but I think it would be best for the sport.

The original Ford GT (GT40), in one of several different variations, was first overall in 4 consecutive 24 Hours of Le Mans, 1966-69 before being legislated out of the competition. It was the dominant "prototype" of the day.

Which car is allowed to run at full potential? Surely not the frequently BoP'd vettes? Which gets to the heart of the matter...let em race and stop the insanity called micro-managed BoP.

Very true.
If it only were so easy. :(

The system you are talking about is similar to what F1 currently has.
And that series is REALLY THE JOKE right now.
It's so bad, the biggest drama in the races is typically found in the mid-pack.
For the last 6 (SIX) years, one manufacturer has dominated the 2 championships: Team Championship and Driver's Championship.
Mercedes has won 90% of the races...yup, freekin' 90%!!!!!

How did they do it?
7 years ago the regs were rewritten for a particular type of hybrid powertrain.
Which, on the face of it, isn't such a bad thing.
Where it all went wrong, is Mercedes had been secretly working on such a powerplant for possible future use in road cars.
As it turned out, the top guys on their race team were aware of this and pushed the unsuspecting FIA to adopt their tech for the regs.
IOW, they had a big jump on the rest of the teams, and ever since the other powerplant manufacturers have been playing catch-up.
Right now, there is little doubt Mercedes won't win this year's and next year's championships and because the regs are locked in, the FIA can do nothing about it.
In 2021, new regs. will be adopted and perhaps there will be a chance of less domination.
However, I wouldn't necessarily count on it either.
The politics of F1 is far worse than IMSA.

Or leave. ;) :(

I said I understand the reasons for BOP. You can't have a racing series with a number of different competitive makes without it. A "let 'em race" framework inevitably becomes one car racing an identical team member, which is all the Corvette Racing Team did for several years. They were essentially guaranteed to win every race.

The point I was making is that Ford no longer has any financial motivation to keep funding factory FGT teams They're not trying to sell Ford GTs, they're all sold, and selling FGTs was never the motivation. It was about winning Le Mans on the 50th anniversary of their first in 1966. It was also about a marketing statement of Ford's high-performance expertise with a small turbo engine. Mission accomplished, and no reason to keep spending on the FGT program with no additional return.

Chevrolet has better reasons to keep paying the bills for the Pratt & Miller Corvette Racing Team, as a volume manufacturer, which wants to sell 40K cars a year.

That’s when I enjoyed watching “stock car”, Indianapolis, and SCCA Trans-Am. Run what u brung.

NASCAR - Template car
Indy - one Spec chassis and aero, choice of two engines only
SCCA - $$$$ wins with talented driver over the also rans

Regardless of GTLM I would love to 4 privateer teams running GTD in Corvettes :cheers: