Quote:
Originally Posted by Purist
Mt. Lynx, I can't get behind the standardized acceleration thing, or mandated uniform top speed. Such limits will make passing within the class EXTREMELY difficult, and at Le Mans, it will be worse, because the slipstream will become far less effective. At the end of those 5 long straights, you'll just hit a brick wall trying to pass anybody.
The cars are similar enough in their various performance characteristics already, in no small part because the weight differential between the heaviest and lightest cars in class is a fraction of what it once was in GT racing. At one time, you could have had a variation of something like 900-3000lb between all the various production cars running at Le Mans.
Also, that 4.0-litre Porsche, I think, you'd have a hard time balancing that against the Corvette with the sort of system you're talking about, because that 5.5-litre V8 (or what should be a superchargeed, 6.2-litre lump coming from the C6 ZR1) has so much more torque than the Porsche Flat-6, and makes both its power and torque at much lower revs. In addition, if everyone is making roughly 600hp, any existing BMW model is sunk. The Aston Martin Vantage might be in some difficulties too. The Porsche 911 isn't bad aerodynamically, but if you take away other advantages it might have, that car may well be fundamentally uncompetitive in your system. If you try to be equitable to keep the smaller engines in the game, I think you'll choke off the Viper, and possibly the Corvette, too much for there to be a point in running those cars. The Viper presents the difficulty of dealing with immense torque and balancing that as well.
BoP seems about the only way to really cover the wide range of vehicles we have in this single GT class. As much as I might not like the tinkering, what we're getting, in the ALMS at least, has so far been incredible. So, practically speaking, I'd rather not screw with a good thing.
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Standardized top speed is already in place. I figured a limited accel would equalize torque curves and make BoP less of an issue.
Downforce measure would be easy using sensors though. Flat out in a straight line and then look at the telemetry.
I fail to see how the cars could be a limitation in my proposal. What I want is equal footing, exciting racing and good appeal to as many as possible.
Let's face it, average Joe don't care, and usually don't know about any BoP or waivers. They see things they recognize and like it for that. Granted, many sportscars fans are tech nerds or brand specific nerds or both, but I doubt that the nerds are a majority when it comes to audience attendance, be it live or via TV.
This is partly why I want a rule set that is somewhat invisible, and doesn't take a thousand waivers or BoP:ing all year long.