Nations Power

[pach233]

Just wondering what country evryone thinks is currently the most prominent and succesful in sports car racing. Sort of like a power rankings but for countries, both in cars and teams. For Cars we have:

France - Peugot, Pescarolo and Courage all contenders in the top class. Courage also strong in P2. Not much in the GTs though.

England- Zytek, Lola, Creation provide very strong cars in P1. Lola and Radical in P2. In GT1 Aston Martin has had sucess. Judd and AER engines have ruled Privateer engine choices.

United States- Not much happening on the American protoype scene. Corvettes have had sucess both in America and Europe and Saleens mostly in Europe in GT1. Panoz cars gaining momentum in GT2.

Italy- No Italian protoype sucess as of late but Maserati has basically dominated FIA GT and the F430 was probably the strongest GT2 car last year.

Germany- Audi domination in P1, Porsche contention in both P2 and GT2. Lack of BMW and Mercedes support hurts.

Japan- Dome now racing in both P1 and P2. Mugen engine for Swiss Spirit last year, Should the Acura program be considered Japanes or American??

Teams:

France, Pescarolo Courage, Peugot, Bruneu, Barazi, Larbre, Oreca, Belmondo, Luc Alphand, Matmut

England -Creation, Zytek, Lister, Chaimberlian, RML, Rollcentre, Prodrive, LNT, Chad, Bruichladdich, Cirtek, Ecosse

United States- Dyson, Champion, Corvette(P&M), PWL, Autocon, Highcroft, Penske, AGR, PTG, Tafel, Lizards, Intersport, Binnie, Risi

Italy- GPC, Autorlando, AF Corse, BMS, Ebimotors

Germany- Joest, Pheonix, Vitaphone, Zakspeed

I'm sure I've missed a whole lot of quality cars and teams I just wanted a general idea. How would you rank these major players in the world of sportscar racing?

[ss_collins]

Italy -don't forget ATR
England - fair few Hewland/Xtrac boxes out there, plenty of engines, chassis, teams
Japan - Not a lot of the Acura project comes out of Japan, chassis are French and English, engines are built in the US I believe.

Germany - Audi chassis are built in Italy, don't know about Porsche

Top dog for me - England.

[AU N EGL]

Many Prototypes in the US racing in Grand AM

Chase Competition Engineering LLC
420 Decatur Street
Richmond, VA 23224
Website: www.chasecompetition.com

Crawford Race Cars
Denver, NC 28037
Website:www.crawfordcomposites.com

Doran Designs
Lebanon, OH 45036
Website: www.doranracing.com

FABCAR
Carmel, IN 46032
Website: www.fabcar-usa.com

Multimatic
Markham, ON L3R 5E5 Canada
Website: multimaticmotorsports.com

Riley Technologies
Speedway, IN 46224
Website: www.rileytech.com

Italy
Picchio
64010 Ancarano (TE), Italy
Website: www.picchio.com

Source: http://www.grand-am.com/DaytonaProto...uctorsPage.asp

[HORNDAWG]

Why I aughta.......

L.P.

[The Real DMN]

Radical must do well based on the fact they have a series where everyone races Radicals.

[pach233]

Yeah, obviously I was talking about the 3 major international sports car racing series. No need to bring second tier national series into the discussion.

That being said, I'd agree that the British are probably to dog right now.

[cptkablamo]

Someone's travelling down a dangerous road...lets say ACO/FIA series...

Pilbeam is UK, isn't it (I stand to be corrected), Lucchini - Italy, WR - France and Norma - on their way back to the front

[ss_collins]

Pilbeam is indeed english.

Can I point out that Monaco has and LMP manufacturer - the Lavaggi!

[WouterM]

Originally Posted by ss_collins

Pilbeam is indeed english.

Can I point out that Monaco has and LMP manufacturer - the Lavaggi!

And once you've seen it, it's hard to forget.

[ss_collins]

Will it get into LM though? its got good media value.

[AU N EGL]

Originally Posted by WouterM

And once you've seen it, it's hard to forget.

http://www.lavaggi.org/english/index.htm
Good Looking car


Off their wed site:
"REGOLAMENTO - Un'occhiata al regolamento -

La categoria delle vetture sport prototipo e'divisa in due classi:

LMP1 6.000 cc atm.4.000 cc turbo 5.500 cc Diesel

900 KG Ruote da 16,0" larghezza 28,5" diametro,freni 380 mm

_________________

LMP2 3.400 cc atm./ max 8 cilindri 2.000 cc turbo / max 6 cilindri 4.000 cc atm. soltanto motori GT

750KG ,ruote 14,0" larghezza 28,0" ,freni diametro 355 mm"

[ss_collins]

Interesting looking but not to my taste - however its an interesting project.

[Tom908V12]

Go Peugeot, so GO FRANCE !!!!

[EuropaBambaataa]

I'd have to say Spain is gaining some momentum on the organiser front. Jesus Pareja's GT Sport created the best national championship with so many Italian teams coming over to race in Spain, and the International GT Open had grids with twice the size of FIA GT on its first year. I believe if Pareja asked the FIA to support his series instead of Ratel's, they would do so.

[old man]

Originally Posted by ss_collins

Pilbeam is indeed english.

Can I point out that Monaco has and LMP manufacturer - the Lavaggi!

And JMB in teams

[Francesco]

yeah JMB is now much more Monaco based than it was in the past as now the support of Giesse group is gone to Coppi...

the best italian team are for sure BMS (by far the biggest), GPC and Autorlando... other teams which are not bad at all are Playteam, Villorba, Racing Box, AF Corse, EdilCris which is very new but already quite competitive...

other good prototypes are from Picchio (very good engineering but with a poor organisation), Lucchini, Tampolli, Dallara

[dj choc ice]

dallara no longer race in sportscar's, not unless they make a new LMP car.

the old dallara LMP was a good competitive privateer LMP1 car and had good results in 2005 and in 2004 and 2002.

[AU N EGL]

Originally Posted by dj choc ice

dallara no longer race in sportscar's, not unless they make a new LMP car.

Dosn't Dallara build the Audi R8 and R10 chassies& bodies for Audi ??

[FIRE]

Originally Posted by AU N EGL

Dosn't Dallara build the Audi R8 and R10 chassies& bodies for Audi ??

No, it's Italian company ATR Group.
http://www.atrgroup.it/eng/clienti.htm

IMO ATR is one of the most important powers in sportscar racing.

[AU N EGL]

Originally Posted by FIRE

No, it's Italian company ATR Group.
http://www.atrgroup.it/eng/clienti.htm

IMO ATR is one of the most important powers in sportscar racing.

Ok I knew Audi did not make the chassies and they were made in Italy.

ATR has an impressive list of chassies.

[Bramzel]

Usually I'm not that much of a chauvinist, but I have to name some dutch and belgian efforts as well here

Netherlands - Spyker Squadron, Racing for Holland, Carsport Holland

Belgium - Gillet Vertigo, GLPK, PSI Experience

Maybe not a lot on count, but especially Spyker/RfH/GLPK Carsport and PSI should be considered quite serious teams.

[cptkablamo]

Maybe not alot on the car count but the teams are well run and bring a very important group of fans with them...

As for the GT Open and the FIA I think one of the reasons why it has been so successful so early is the lack of FIA input...I reckon if the FIA got into it like they have with the FIA GT, there would be so many more political problems...