Actually, this is the U.S. manufacturers' dream: a pure branding exercise, with minimal cash outlay. Look at NASCAR, where only the stickers are different, pretty much. Sports car racing is a low-visibility sport, so companies want to get involved for low cash outlays.
Ford and Chevy can stick an engine in a car and get all the publicity they can hope for--and by putting branded bodywork on a spec chassis, they get around the problem of sharing the spotlight with the chassis manufacturer.
Dallara won at Petit, but Coyote definitely won the constructors;' title—but no one anywhere is or ever will talk about that. Chevy won with its "Corvette DP."
The dream of the future for manufacturers is of a huge mass of stupid people glued to their TVs for several hours talking about Chevy and Ford while Riley and Coyote actually fight it out on track.
Yes, DTM and GT500 seem to work; so does NASCAR. So does Aussie V8. That's the problem.
I agree 100 percent: P2 is great now (for what it is) and simply needs a little evolution. Actually, all it really needs is to carry on undisturbed, and in the U.S. where it is the top class, to be opened up a little bit for development in a few limited areas.
The main reason I don't get all excited about those series
Clone cars. Same thing that limited Rolex. But the TUSC?