The future of Corvette

[arakis]

Originally Posted by kyoung

I’m not too concerned; I think the Corvettes will have more than enough power to stay competitive without waivers here or there. Although the recent rule changes do show the sanctioning bodies wish for the death of the large displacement 2 valve engines.

I am not so sure, right now they have a minimal addvantige, and not in hp but probably in torque, and if that is canceled, i wouldnt be suprised if they become underpowered.

If you look at the last season ALMS, corvettes were not the fastest cars, bmw's and Risi were usualy the fastest cars on track. Were corvettes absolutley shied was Le Mans, and even there risi was right behind on pace. any negative influence to next season compared to the last would not go good with them.

[kyoung]

I guess we will find out at Sebring.

[arakis]

I think they will have their old restrictors at sebring, either by ACO suplimentig their regulations, or by ACO or IMSA granting them a waiver. because it would be sucide for ALMS to put corvettes at an disadantige

[kyoung]

The January 21, 2011 IMSA bulletin I posted above puts them at 27.9; you looking for excuses already?

[arakis]

Originally Posted by kyoung

The January 21, 2011 IMSA bulletin I posted above puts them at 27.9; you looking for excuses already?

exuses, if you are implying, because I am a ferrari fan, I can tell you i don't care weather they have 28.6 or 27.9 since last years car 430 proved to be more then match for the corvette wining more races and generaly being faster! I am just sad as the show wont be the same, with them at an disadvantige.

[dxk1]

Corvette are only sending the Larbe Corvette to Le Mans for the test days and are sending Gavin, Milner & Beretta to do the set up work for all three cars for the race.

DK

[Victor_RO]

Originally Posted by dxk1

Corvette are only sending the Larbe Corvette to Le Mans for the test days and are sending Gavin, Milner & Beretta to do the set up work for all three cars for the race.

DK

How does that work in terms of the driver classification? It breaks all the rules of GTE-Am.

[arakis]

Originally Posted by Victor_RO

How does that work in terms of the driver classification? It breaks all the rules of GTE-Am.

testing is not coverd by driver restrictions

[MitchZ06]

Plus I thought Larbre would be running two cars for Le Mans?

[AGD]

The other Larbre entry is a Porsche GT-Am.

[David]

100% !!!! Corvette won every class in which they were entered in the 2011 Le Mans 24 hour race. Congratulations!!

[DavyC412]

Originally Posted by David

*pictures removed*

100% !!!! Corvette won every class in which they were entered in the 2011 Le Mans 24 hour race. Congratulations!!

yeah, that was good stuff for sure. i went to sleep for 3 hours only to find the leading 74 corvette pretty much out of the race, and i thought it was over for corvettes chances to win gtpro, im really glad they won. hopefully this is a sign that corvette is coming back and coming back strong

[Dyson Mazda]

yeah, that was good stuff for sure. i went to sleep for 3 hours only to find the leading 74 corvette pretty much out of the race, and i thought it was over for corvettes chances to win gtpro, im really glad they won. hopefully this is a sign that corvette is coming back and coming back strong

I have a feeling they might be looking at ILMC, but yeah when Mr. Fehan has to go talk to GM this year he will have a big grin on his face.

[FordCosworthPanoz]

I think there is zero doubt that Corvette is looking at a factory World Endurance Championship program in 2012, whether or not its an addition or instead of their ALMS program is a different story I guess.

Congrats to Corvette Racing, they were the class of the field and Doug Fehan, Dan Binks ect deserve it for all their hard work. Want to congratulate Tommy Milner on his first Le Mans win as well as Beretta and Garcia. Larbre did a great job as well, excellent team. I remember when they outqualified all the factory aston martins for pole while they were running the Aston Martin GT1.

[arakis]

congrats to the vcorvette team, they did an excelent job, and were clearly the best cars out there, and deserved the win

[joeb]

I was really impressed with the Labre car. They have had anything but smooth sailing in the previous races. This was great for them, and for Corvette in the ILMC!

[dxk1]

Originally Posted by Dyson Mazda

I have a feeling they might be looking at ILMC, but yeah when Mr. Fehan has to go talk to GM this year he will have a big grin on his face.

What would be nice would be for them to build 2 (or more) new cars and enter the ILMC with them and set up a privateer (or more than one) with the old cars for next year to run in the ALMS.

DK

[Gingers4Justice]

Will this WEC effort deffinitely be in GTE or are we making assumptions here?

[JHamilton]

Originally Posted by FordCosworthPanoz

I think there is zero doubt that Corvette is looking at a factory World Endurance Championship program in 2012, whether or not its an addition or instead of their ALMS program is a different story I guess.

I don't think they ever would. It doesn't make business sense for GM, only P&M. The ALMS events sell cars, the European events might help sell race cars.

[AGD]

Originally Posted by dxk1

What would be nice would be for them to build 2 (or more) new cars and enter the ILMC with them and set up a privateer (or more than one) with the old cars for next year to run in the ALMS.

I think it makes sense for P&M to run the ALMS and have someone else (RML maybe, perhaps Larbre) run the cars overseas aside from Le Mans perhaps. I don't think it is ideal to run a WEC team out of the US. Even Level 5 has a shop in the UK for their ILMC effort.

Originally Posted by JHamilton

I don't think they ever would. It doesn't make business sense for GM, only P&M. The ALMS events sell cars, the European events might help sell race cars.

Chevrolet is trying to establish their brand in Europe. I saw quite a few of Chevrolet Europe ads featuring the Corvette and Camaro while watching Eurosport's LM coverage. China, obviously, is an important market for GM.

[JHamilton]

Originally Posted by AGD

I think it makes sense for P&M to run the ALMS and have someone else (RML maybe, perhaps Larbre) run the cars overseas aside from Le Mans perhaps. I don't think it is ideal to run a WEC team out of the US. Even Level 5 has a shop in the UK for their ILMC effort.



Chevrolet is trying to establish their brand in Europe. I saw quite a few of Chevrolet Europe ads featuring the Corvette and Camaro while watching Eurosport's LM coverage. China, obviously, is an important market for GM.

To your first point, I agree. A customer car makes sense. I don't think you will see P&M run anywhere other than LM. They have had a difficult enough time justifying the program anyway. There are only two GM factory efforts left and the only reason Corvette is one of them is because of all the Corvette fans that show up in the US.

[AGD]

Originally Posted by JHamilton

There are only two GM factory efforts left and the only reason Corvette is one of them is because of all the Corvette fans that show up in the US.

GM does seem to be upping their US racing profile once again. The Cadillac factory team is back in the World Challenge and they are going back to the IRL next year. Of course, I don't know how much money is actually going into the IRL program and I doubt the Cadillac program costs major bucks.

Doesn't the Compuware guy provide a major part of the Corvette racing team budget? I wonder where he wants to race.

[JAG]

One of the bosses of GM was in the Eurosport booth, he said they're interested in the WEC and want to race in places like China but had got no further than a brief look at the proposals. He also talked about the Chevy WTCC program and the visit to Infinion.

[The Badger]

What was I yacking off about a few days ago ..... something about I didnt think Corvette could do it

They impressed me too .

[NelisB]

Would be great to see P&M supply more c6r's for racing in europe and possibly the ILMC/WEC next year. I think american manufacturers should be in international endurance racing as much as I think there should be European and Japanese manufacturers. If you commit to a World championship series that is apparently on the up again, seeing they are going from ILMC to WEC next year, being there would only attract more manufacturers and thus create good racing and a nice competitive atmosphere to develop new techniques.