19 Jul 2017, 00:18 (Ref:3752645)
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#5009
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Race Official
Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 15,555
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Quote:
Originally Posted by carbsmith
The rules have been skewed towards turbocharging ever since there's been turbocharging. NA cars have won Le Mans overall only 7 times since 1976 and last in 1999, and that includes 3 of the biggest fluke wins in the history of the race (Rondeau, Mazda, and McLaren) and 2 3.5L Group C years. Only Jaguar and BMW really beat turbo cars head to head.
Basically the only competitive NA option for endurance racing was a huge V12 so you didn't have to rev it hard or have a lot of vibration, and those are way too bulky in a modern car. 3-4L NA V8s were ideal from a chassis design and power delivery standpoint and some of those cars were super fast in sprint races on smaller tracks but they were rarely a factor in longer races. With the WEC schedule they wouldn't be as popular even under the old rules.
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A normally aspirated car came awfully close this year, just not in P1. [emoji6]
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