Quote:
|
Originally Posted by prototype
As a fan I really like the way the coupes look. But it concerns me that the ACO constantly change the rules. I think this really discourages development of new cars because manufacturers don't want to spend R&D money on a car that is ruled obsolete in 2 or 3 years.
|
I think I'm a little bit more of an optimist. Five years is about right for the life cycle of a car. Looking back the 956/962 was no longer absolutely bleeding edge by 1987. The MGs that Highcroft and Autocon are running this year first showed up in 2001 and I think we'd all agree they're no longer right at the front. sure the R8 is, as ever, the exception to this but that just makes it even more of an exceptional car (and it wasn't pushed as hard by the presence of other major manufacturers).
The ACO is also pretty good at slowly phasing in these sort of rules. That's why they're looking at 2010 for the coupe only restriction. It basically means that if I was starting an LMP project now and wanted to go down the open car route I could legitimately think about having a car that could have a gestation year in 07, be fully competitive in 08/09, and I could either sell it on to a grandfathered series (JLMC for example), convert it to LMP2, put a coupe body onto it, or regard it as having done a decent job and put it in the museum.
The other key which tips this into the "good idea" category for me is that it puts some clear daylight between LMP1 and 2, which we haven't really had for a very long time. If they were proposing that barchettas would disappear entirely from Le Mans then I would be very sad - diversity is what make Le Mans great - but they're still there in LMP2 as a perfectly valid proposition.