Will Grand Am slow GTS down or speed DP up?

[H16]

Grand Am is in a bit of a difficult stituation here. At the tests, the GTS/AGT Corvette was second fastest among rumors of sandbagging, while the GT with superior fuel economy only a few seconds behind.

Do you think that Grand Am should slow the GT and GTS cars down or speed the DP up. Personally, I think they should speed the DPs up. It doesn't look good for them to be 10 seconds slower than the old SRP formula. They need to do something, because people will not buy a 400,000 dollar DP when they can buy an old Trans Am car for much less.

[Lee Janotta]

I watched a little footage on Speed of the Pichio going through the infield at Daytona, and it was _so_ horribly slow!

[cybersdorf]

Wait till after the Rolex, they haven't even run their first race yet!

[Speeddemon555]

Those Daytona Prototypes needs to be fast. I saw the only SRP 2 car in the top ten in practice.

[C_g]

It's going to be hard to speed up those DPs, especially when one of the baseline motors is the GT3-R Porsche motor. What they really need are 700hp smallblocks.

[H16]

They could ease up on the rev limit just a little. I believe the Ford is limited to just 7,000. Defenders of Grand Am have turned away the claims of the new chicane taking away two seconds a lap, but if it doesn't thats still eight seconds off the SRP.

[C_g]

Others have said the new chicane is actually faster. Who knows!

I think the GT3-R motor is maxed out at 8600 RPM, so I doubt they'll be able to get much more power out of that thing unless they turbo-charge it, which all of a sudden puts us back into big-league expensive again. Reducing the weight of the cars isn't really feasible either given their construction.

[sgw2]

If the restrictions are not adjusted I think it is highly probable that a Porsche 911 GT3 RS will win the Rolex 24. I think the Petty Orbit and Buckler Racers Group cars are the two to watch. We know they will run -barring an accident- strong for 24 hours. With no super fast SRP cars the GT and GTS cars can race more easily at their pace all the time.

I think a GTS Saleen or Mosler might be the way to go, but I'm not convinced they will run trouble free. The Derhaag Corvette has an excellent driver lineup and more power than a DSP. I do not know how that car or Stu Haynor's car will hold up. But I think they will not let the DPs out of their sight.

Also with probably only half a dozen DPs, and probably only 3-4 running after an 6 hours, I suspect the pace will be pulled down by Brumos, G&W and Multimatic to try and pace each other.

I expect the 3rd GT (GTS) victory in recenet years (Corvette and Viper before). The DPs clearly need to be allowed another 100 BHP.

[LouisTheShark]

Actually the DSP cars a faster than WSC cars on the straights, about 10 MPH. The cornering speed has been reduced by their design and choices of mandated power plants. It will be interesting to see how the LMP cars will affected with 10% reduction in power.

[MulsanneMike]

Dyson's testing at Sebring in the MG with the 10% smaller restrictor seems to indicate that the times are very close. It would appear AER has made up for the top end reductions in improved driveability.

[C_g]

Originally posted by LouisTheShark
Actually the DSP cars a faster than WSC cars on the straights, about 10 MPH.

Really? I find that really hard to believe given a 100hp defecit, slower corner exit speed, and more weight on the part of DPs. Their aerodynamic efficiency can't be *that* much better to allow a greater top speed.

For reference, the Risi Ferrari two years ago was shutting down for turn 1 at 192mph during the race.

[MulsanneMike]

I guess I don't have any recent references for SRPI at Daytona, but in the WSC days (pre-restrictor), I recall hearing 200-205mph for the 333SPs. That would have been in '96. With C_G's 192mph reference from 2000 for a 333SP, I'd be surprised if the DSPs were doing 202+. But ultimately the DSPs are loosing more time in the corners than on the straights so their straight line numbers would be closer to WSC/SRP numbers.

[LouisTheShark]

Last year the top speed at Daytona for SRP cars was around 185 - 189 MPH on the front straight.

[C_g]

So you're saying the DPs are doing 195-199mph? I still find that hard to believe. But I guess we'll find out next weekend!

Does anybody know what the top speeds for the GTS cars were? I've heard that the fastest ones were a bit faster than the Brumos cars on the banking, though were losing out a bit in the corners.

I expect that Mosler to be a rocket ship come race day.

[C_g]

Oh, and the 333 SP top speed was from the 2001 race, the year that McNish and Brabham were in the Risi car. They trimmed the car out for the race that year running pretty low downforce. The rain at night messed up their strategy unfortunately.

[MulsanneMike]

According to the group over a the Grand-Am baord, the top speed for a DP was 185-189 mph for the Fabcar.

[ZXKawboy]

Wow.

The DSP's might look nice, but geez...slow is the word.

Grand Am needs to lighten uo (quite literally!) the DSP's, and allow better engine development, as well as more flexibility for engine choice. Cost controlling is one thing, but at the expense of what is (ostensibly) it's top level of competition? I don't know about the wisdom of that, but I think that only time will tell.

We can also take into account the fact that this is the very first year of DSP's, too. Grand Am may see this happening, and some rules changes might be in the works already. It might also be up to the teams to do some full-time development work. (Remember...these cars were only just finished *weeks* ago. It takes time to develop a good race car)

Also, because it's a fledgling race-class, manufacturers are understandably going to be a little leary of throwing resources at the development of specialized equipment of *any* type, much engine packages that are "tuned" for DSP cars. At least the makers who *have* stepped up are giving decent powerplants, instead of the GTP-Spice days, where it was a "run what ya brung" type of arrangement. (Anybody remember the days of the Olds engines? Or the wild-to-mild Chevy engines?)

The Porsche and Toyota engines are *at least* proven to be reliable over long distances. We can thank the makers for that. Based on that alone, I think it's reasonable to give the class at least this first year. Let them see what they can do...give'em the chance to try. When it's all said and done, *then* make a judgement call on them.

Ya never know...they might surprise you.