Build Your Own Race Team!

[weeks]

Say one day you got a check in the mail for $50 Million Dollars American. And with the check was a letter telling you to start a race team. What would you choose for a car? How many of them? Who would drive it? And where would you race?
Here are my picks:

Car: Lister Storm LMP (only one)

Drivers: Jimmy Vasser, Max Papis, David Brabham

Where: Full ALMS schedual and Le Mans

[19dodge]

that would cost alot less than 50 million. if i was to do this for 50 mil i would go with:

2 Oreca Dallaras:

Allan McNish, Yannick Dalmas, Johnny Hebert, Frank Biela, Tom Kristensen, J.J. Lehto

Full ALMS + LM

1 Saleen S7R:

Terry Borcheller, Jean-Marc Gounon and Tommy Erdos

[GTRMagic]

Nah, a pair of GT3 Works Porsches for the enduro season, i.e. Daytona, Spa, Nurburgring, Le Mans etc etc

Works Drivers

then spend the rest on a beach house in Bermuda

[BSchneiderFan]

I don't know if this would come in at $50,000,000, but I'll try:

2 x Riley & Scott Mk. IIICs

2 x 6-litre BMW V12s

I'd do the Le Mans Tournament, Sebring, Le Mans and the Petit, if possible, with:

#1 Lehto/Kristensen/Kox
#2 McNish/Schneider/Herbert

What do you mean??? Of course these guys would leave their lucrative works deals to race for me!

[SALEEN S7R]

Im not sure if Id have enough cash for this but Id enter.

2 x Factotry Saleen S7R's #1.Gavin/Borcheller/Enge #2.Kristensen/M.Schummacher/Beila.

2 x Ferrari 360 Modena's. #3.Ortelli/Massen/Pescatori #4.Bourdais/Minassian/Leib.

Id race them in FIA GT, Spa 24hrs, Nurburgring 24hrs Bathurst, Le Mans 24hrs etc etc.

[ss_collins]

A one off special, prototype, race at Daytona 24, Spa 24, Nurburgring 24, Le Mans, Monza and in the British Empire Trophy as well as a few selected special sprint and hillclimb events.

[ss_collins]

drivers - best of british / european

[Waco Racer]

I would get the Cadillacs out of storage, spend some money on engine development, and study the possibilities of putting a roof on them. I would run the ALMS, the LeMans tounament, and LeMans. In one car Bill Auberlen, Terry Borcheller, and Butch Leitzinger. In the other one, JJ Lehto, Allan McNish, and Andy Wallace.

[Cynic]

I'm a sucker for punishment, so I'd go for an all British Gt/GTO assault:

1 x Morgan Aero 8
1 x TVR T400R
1 x Lister Storm

Drivers -
Lee Caroline, Ben Samuelson, Peter Wheeler(TVR)
Perry Mcarthy, Richard Stanton, Shane Lynch (Morgan)
Mike Jordan, Jamie Campbell-Walter, Oliver Gavin (Lister)

Events - Le Mans 24hr, Nurburgring 24hr, British GT , Spa etc

[Es Nes]

drivers -
car 1 - jj letho, tom krisentson, and allan mcnish
car 2 - beila, pirro, and guy smith

car - a gt-one with a bored/stroked to 3999ccs (4ls) and a gear box made by the same group that made the R8s gearbox. giving it paddle shifters, strenght, and quick change abilities.

primary spouncers - michelin, infenion, and champion

where to race - alms and lemans tournement (if schduel allows). at lemans and the other 2 big races (if afordable) wed have a 3rd car with jan magenson, david brabham, and johnny herbert.

[Tim Northcutt]

$50 million is a TON of money to do this...so I'm going BIG....It'll take that to compete with VAG....I could build at 3-year plan with that kind of money, though, with obvious sponsor chasing to ensure it would be solid.....

I've mentioned this in other threads....

Here it is:

My first call would be to Dan Gurney to run my racing operation, or I'd be the money man for All-American Racing...

I'd let him pick the designer of the new prototype, but my goals or priorities would be:

Two top of the line LMP1 class cars built out of Zylon composite (I'll need to use it to save weight over carbon, but retain the stength, because)...

Powered a Hybrid-Electric/Combustion system that would utilize race-built Chrysler Hemis (5.7L. upped to 6.0 L.) or a Race Built 6.0 L Ford Triton V-10 - aluminum blocked of course (5.4 L upped to 6.0 L) or 6.0 L Ford Quad-Cam V-8 (the 4.6 L upped to 6.0 l) as the combustion side that would be supplemented by a Zytek magnetic Generator with a Lithium Polymer battery system...

Look at how the Panoz Q9 was set up...I'll have the money to R&D that approach but apply it to a mid or rear engined car, and I'll Test, Test, Test and dow wahtever computer mapping we'd need until we get it right...

My Drivers (Preliminary thoughts):

One Car: Robby Gordon, Alex Barron, Alex Gurney

Other Car: Scott Sharp, Richie Hearn, Townsend Bell

Each team will have a seasoned road/endurance racer vets (Gordon & Sharp) as the lead driver, a solid road racer with much under-appreciated skills who deserves a good, well-funded, operation to let their skills shine (Barron & Hearn), and two young guys with tallent who could learn a lot from their two other teammates to become "future endurance stars" in their own right down the road (Gurney & Bell)...

With $50 million, I'll outbuy Richard Childress and Kelley Racing to get the "Lead Drivers" listed above....

We'll run ALMS, LM, and the LM Tourney races as schedule allows, with focus on whatever gets us automatic bids to LM as the priority...

When we're not racing, we'll be testing and devloping the power system and the chassis....

I'll also need some of that extra $$$ (but it wouldn't be that expensive really) to hook up with established IRL teams to get Robby and Scott for sure, and possibly Alex and Richie, hooked up for Indy 500 rides....all four already have it as a big priority as part of their careers, but doing the Indy thing alone, or on the side would never work...cheaper to do it this way, and would keep my drivers happy...

Bottom Line: We'll do some serious kicking of some VAG Butt....

[gttouring]

I'd get Jan Magnussen, Ron Fellows, Biela, Bordais- build up 2 JGTC Turbo 4 Supra and prep it for Lemans- and ALMS, and the Lemans tourney
run the GT orGTS-
Of course a LMP program might work well with the Caddies adn some engine work, same driver set up but I'd add Jimmy Vasser and Mark Webber for the enduros

[weeks]

I have revised my list. $50 Million is a whole lot of money and my initial choice was a little "light". So here are my updated choices:

My cars would be 4 MG-Xpower SV, all painted black with flourescent green flames With a mix of CART, Sportscar, F3000 drivers and me of course
Then I would spend the rest of my money making sure those slow Porsches stay out of our way

[FastJoel31]

I would commission Lola to build me a car. The, I would hire Jan Lammers, Jon Field, and David Brabham to drive it. Powered by a Judd GV5, the car would rival Audis and Bentleys alike. Sponsors? Perhaps Verizon Wireless and IBM.

[Tim Northcutt]

Give me some serious Detroit Torque and Horsepower!!!!!!

Maybe I sell the deal to Ford as a "Gurney Returns to LM -- Powered by Ford" with the fire breathing V-10 or the bored and stroked Quad-Cam V-8...they could build one helluva marketing campaing around that for Ford..and target the gearheads who buy cars in the States...

but the thought of a Hemi at LM is too good to look past....

[JAG]

$50m, Audi would kill for that budget!

Right, were do I start.

2 x new Lola LMGTP with turbocharged 4l Jaguar V8s.

2 x new 2004/5 Jaguar XKR-R GTS developed by Prodrive or RML

2 x Aston Martin GT

Team Boss' Tom Walkinshaw and Martin Brundle

[pirenzo]

Hmm, lemme see, oh yes:

2xAudi R8 '02(Brundle/Mcarthy/Salo:Van De Poele/???/???)
1xPorsche GT3(???/???/???)

ALMS/Le Mans Tournament

[pirenzo]

Actually on second thoughts:
same series.

But, my own car.

Called a Pirenzo of course

So, it'd be 1 Pirenzo PD7, BMW(a couple of their older 3 litre F1 units, modified for endurance racing, probably impossible) power. Sponsership from Sony, plus also Maynards Wine Gums
Michelin tires, and Marc Gene, Eric Van De Poele, and Alex Yoong (solely for his Malaysian backing)

[Mike Wazowski]

Arrows F1 is up for auction next week...
Tom Walkinshaw would be employed as my Tea Boy. But only if the deposit required for F1 was dropped.
Realistically (???) if $50M was available to me, I'd buy Brand Motorsports F3000 team, or set up a new F3000 team (approx $5M with F1 standard workshop, trucks, trailers & equipment). Included would be a couple of older F3000 cars as testing mules. The remaining $45M would be placed into a high interest account, or property in order to provide an income of approx $4M a year, which would allow me to find those drivers who have the talent, but have not had the opportunity (for opportunity read money) to show their talent. Coz we all know there has to be someone out there who has not been discovered yet...

[Garrett]

I would run the old 2000 Porsche LMPs as GTP factor cars, the ones that were supposed to run LM in 2000, do some engine work with the new Porsche V-10, some aerodynamic work, get every thing up and going, then win Sebring, Petit Le Mans, and every other ALMS race that there was to win and also try to beat Porsche's winning record streak of 7 years at Le Mans. Drivers would be me, of course, tom krisentson, allan mcnish, frank biela, stephan ortelli, and Yannick Dalmas.

[Jack Man]

I'd spend the first 10 buck and call Mr Joest.

[krt917]

Nice thread!

I'd go for:
2x newly developed Aston Martin Vanquish (or even DB7 GTs)
Herbert, Brundle, Lehto, Cambell-Walter, Kristensen, Brabham
(and maybe MS, just to see how good he'd be)
FIA GT sereies, ALMS campaign, Le Mans

If I had any money left over I'd then go to Porsche and get them to build me a closed Prototype - it's about time Porsche came back into the top flight of Sportscar racing.

[BSchneiderFan]

I've been thinking, and if there were a bit left over, I'd try to wangle Fina sponsorship for a third, all-Belgian car for the enduros, crewed by Theys, Saelens and van Hooydonk.

[BSchneiderFan]

Oh, and if I were commissioning my own prototype, I'd want Gordon Murray to pen it.

[pirenzo]

No, i'd want to pen my own car...