As one of the biggest fans and supporters of the GT1 class, I believe you are seeing the end of an era.
1) There are 4 Saleen's in the FIA GT (3 in GT1, 1 in G2)
Since its likely you haven't seen the Tourist Trophy FIA GT race from Silverstone last month, its likely you have not seen EXCELLENT GT1 racing.
Europe has largely followed Mr Ratel's vision of GT racing with proposed move the current GT2 cars up to GT1 level, basically an evolution not a revolution like Grand Am. From there bump up GT3 cars to "Professional" level racing.
ACO is mainly concerned with Prototypes and has only stated it would like to reduce the cost of production based racing car, they have no outlined how they plan to accomplish that.
GT1 cars have always been expensive to build and run; mainly the domain of specialty manufactures and OEM's with rich sportscar racing backgrounds.
GM has recently pulled the plug on any EVO or P1 program that Pratt & Miller had in mind.
Corvette racing has a decision to make, but they won't have to make it until 2010. Likely they'll stay in GT's with a GT2 as you know it now based car.
Lexus while known has a luxo manufacture in competition with Benz and BMW, has finally realized they need some performance cars in their lineup to compete with the M division and AMG division. The LF-A is Lexus' "Halo" sportscar, but Toyota is likely to return with a hybrid/kers based car.
With the Japanese manufacturers in mind, none of them offer a car that would be a serious challenge to either the Corvette or the Aston Martin. The Nissan Z would be hopelessly underpowered; Lexus is mostly a personal/luxury division of Toyota. I'd be quicker to believe you'd see them in GT2. Mazda's RX8 would be a natural and the Nissan would have a better chance. And forget about the GT-R and its all-wheel-drive. It won't happen.
The new Lexus LF-1, the Nissan GT-R and the upcoming Acura NSX (V10) replacement would all be suitable for GT1. At least two of those cars have been considered to be GT1 entries, though the GT-R was shelved by Nissan (nothing to do with the all-wheel drive).
Granted, but we're looking at a series that needs help now, not in another year or so. There was some talk - and I think it could be confirmed - that Risi had hoped to run a Ferrari 599 GTB in GT1, but Maranello didn't like the idea and put the lid on it.
So what is the real story behind the long Aston absence this year? Shouldn't the car have been repaired and back on track by now?!
I'm not saying they're going to win agains the vettes, but I'd still like to see SOME competition.
As someone noted, the EVO class will come on line in the next 2 years or so and that will be where the GT1 class truly moves. I think that this is the correct solution to the problem. Why spend so much money making a fire breathing GT1 car, when it has no chance at an overall win? Spending the same amount of money to compete for the overall works, as well as spending less money to be a part of a production class like GT2. GT1 as it lives and breathes today was moribund from the day of its conception. In the late 90's the GT1 class had the Panoz roadster and the Porsche 911Evo or whatever it was called. Those cars were able to mix it up with the WSC cars. As the classes changed, the P1's became more powerful and the GT1's became less. This led to a great rivalry between Viper and Corvette, but outside of that the class didn't have anything to offer. This soon became Vette/Saleen and then Vette/Ferrari and then Vette/Aston Martin, always pretty much a 2 on 2 fight between factories. It has never offered anything to privateers, and the ROI has been low to the point that outside of Pratt and Miller/GM, no other group has wanted to compete for more than a year or two. I would love to see the day where there are present day P2's in both open and closed cockpit configurations and closed top EVO's competing for overall, and a thriving GT2 as it exists today competing for top production class. You will have exotic looking prototypes competing against production looking race cars with names like Audi, Peugeot, GM, Porsche, Aston Martin, Acura, and Mazda all squaring off, perhaps having two of each car class so that they are not left at a disadvantage, then you have all the regulars in GT2, which has now become the class to be in for close competition.
I personally don't like pushing the GT2 class basically because the differences in HP. Today's sportcar has about 500-650 HP and the GT2 class is limited to only 500 HP. Where does that leave cars like the Z06, Viper, or GT-R (which claim to have 480 HP but has been dynoed to run over 500 HP)? If they would push the HP numbers on the GT2 car then maybe you'll see my stamp of approval.
I agree. I think I am in favor of merging GT1 and GT2. I don't know how it would work though. While there are no GT1s here, as someone pointed out there are enough in the LMS in europe, and with the ALMS being very le mans centric, how would auto qualifiers be dealt, etc?
There you go. What works in Europe doesn't always work here. What is good for the 24 is not so much here. Makes me wish something like the FIA or Super GT would truly become a World Championship with events on both sides of the globe. Think about it, the ALMS has how many races? The LMES? Combine the two , toss in a couple rounds in Asia, and you'd be in the ballpark of F1 in number of events. Some US events may be lost, preferably street course, but the quality of the races should be vastly improved.
All things considered, I don't really see a Ferrari F430 GT outrunning a current Corvette C6. I'm sure the more powerful cars will have to be restricted. Either that, or make the current GT2 machines to keep pace with the current GT1's. That's my only concern with merging GT1 with GT2. Combine them now, and it will just be the Corvettes blowing everyone out of the water unless one or both of them crash out or have some on-the-side issues. That even includes the F430 GTs raced by Houston's own (yes, I'm a Houston native) Risi Competizione.
All things considered, I don't really see a Ferrari F430 GT outrunning a current Corvette C6. I'm sure the more powerful cars will have to be restricted. Either that, or make the current GT2 machines to keep pace with the current GT1's. That's my only concern with merging GT1 with GT2. Combine them now, and it will just be the Corvettes blowing everyone out of the water unless one or both of them crash out or have some on-the-side issues. That even includes the F430 GTs raced by Houston's own (yes, I'm a Houston native) Risi Competizione.
What are we really merging anyway? I think the idea would be that the GT1 teams like Pratt/Miller Corvette and Pro-Drive Aston Martin would build EVO cars and the GT1 spec class would be abandoned and the GT2's would just become GT. Besides there are already GT2 class Vette's and Aston's out there. Whats the difference anyway, we are talking about tube framed cars anyway.
I really like GT-1 and hate to see it get pushed out by the others. Sounds like a dumb thing to say, But imho, the GT is the primo car on the track. Am I really that far behind the times?
What are we really merging anyway? I think the idea would be that the GT1 teams like Pratt/Miller Corvette and Pro-Drive Aston Martin would build EVO cars and the GT1 spec class would be abandoned and the GT2's would just become GT. Besides there are already GT2 class Vette's and Aston's out there. Whats the difference anyway, we are talking about tube framed cars anyway.
I think the main differences betweein GT1 and GT2 are the amounts of money involved, top speed, and HP. As I said though the modern Viper has over 600 HP and in GT2 that's too much and for many thats too large of an advantage when matched to the Ferraris and Porsches. The Viper Competition Coupe used in the ALMS GT2 is a late model based on the old Viper but how about the new Viper and its next generation? How about supercars like Lamborghini or the Corvette ZR1 - where would they fit on the grid since the Lamos are classed at GT1 in Europe and the ZR1 has 600+...
My point. There is a need for differences in the GT series.
A united GT series well resemble that of the Rolex Series - which if great in itself - but not if you're planning to running more then 600+ HP.
Haven't we done this before, with the GT 1 class of the late 1990s? Remember the MB blow over at Le Mans? Remember the extreme costs associated with those exotics? Now it is completely different with a new name and all... yeah right. Same thing different decade.
How about supercars like Lamborghini or the Corvette ZR1 - where would they fit on the grid since the Lamos are classed at GT1 in Europe and the ZR1 has 600+...
Any and all cars are classified by where their manufacturer homologates them. Any car currently in GT1, could be rehomologated for GT2. Of course, that would require a completely newly designed race car, adhering to the class rules. Power is balanced through restrictors.
I really like GT-1 and hate to see it get pushed out by the others. Sounds like a dumb thing to say, But imho, the GT is the primo car on the track. Am I really that far behind the times?
