The last road going gt and sports cars must have been 1970 after that the non prototypes were group 2 touring cars. The current "road going" cars are not really in that spirit. Even the Viper GTS was not a car for the road, just too difficult to control for day to day use.
The Corvettes, Porsches and the late Ford GTs are also track based IMO.
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In the current circumstances, we need to do all we can to help local businesses. With this in mind I suggest we all schedule our visits to the pub so we can keep the 2m social distancing and whilst there get completely slamied for two hours before handing over to the next shift.
It probably won't stop the virus but nobody would care.
The last road going gt and sports cars must have been 1970 after that the non prototypes were group 2 touring cars. The current "road going" cars are not really in that spirit. Even the Viper GTS was not a car for the road, just too difficult to control for day to day use.
The Corvettes, Porsches and the late Ford GTs are also track based IMO.
I would suggest that the McLaren F1 GTR was fundamentally a road car, the '95 cars in particular. Witness the number of them that are registered for the road such as #06R and #12R.
The name we give to a class is surely not important.
The cars in the GT classes bear only a passing resemblance to what can be bought in a showroom. They're no longer road-going cars.
Equally, what started out in 1949 as prototypes - e.g. pre-production versions of vehicles that might have gone on sale to the public once developed, now have no similarities with production models.
The only thing we can say is that the GT classes are more in line with the original 1923 reasons for the race.
Personally, I like the mix. I already find LMP2 a little boring (they all look the same, just like F1 cars all look the same) and it's good to see a variety of vehicles on the track.
If it came to the crunch, I'd sooner see all GT than all prototypes.
The name we give to a class is surely not important.
The cars in the GT classes bear only a passing resemblance to what can be bought in a showroom. They're no longer road-going cars.
This was my point.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Le Vieux
Equally, what started out in 1949 as prototypes - e.g. pre-production versions of vehicles that might have gone on sale to the public once developed, now have no similarities with production models.
The only thing we can say is that the GT classes are more in line with the original 1923 reasons for the race.
Personally, I like the mix. I already find LMP2 a little boring (they all look the same, just like F1 cars all look the same) and it's good to see a variety of vehicles on the track.
If it came to the crunch, I'd sooner see all GT than all prototypes.
No argument from me. I watched Le Mans a couple of weeks ago and noted the presence of "road going" Porsche 911s. I'm sure they were modified but nonetheless were probably the last time race modified road cars were entered. The McLaren was always homologated for racing and thus needed relatively little modification to race. The Viper was a complete beast in anything but road going trim. I once saw someone with one on a track display at Spa. Must have spun at every corner!
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In the current circumstances, we need to do all we can to help local businesses. With this in mind I suggest we all schedule our visits to the pub so we can keep the 2m social distancing and whilst there get completely slamied for two hours before handing over to the next shift.
It probably won't stop the virus but nobody would care.
No argument from me. I watched Le Mans a couple of weeks ago and noted the presence of "road going" Porsche 911s. I'm sure they were modified but nonetheless were probably the last time race modified road cars were entered. The McLaren was always homologated for racing and thus needed relatively little modification to race. The Viper was a complete beast in anything but road going trim. I once saw someone with one on a track display at Spa. Must have spun at every corner!
Whilst agreeing with the points that you make, the McLaren F1 was never intended to race when first conceived, this was the clear position at the time from Ron Dennis, Gordon Murray and Peter Stevens. Ray Bellm forced their hand in '94 when he declared his intention to enter BPR in '95. They figured that if the car was going to race then they should control the project, and also profit from it. Bellm also recruited Thomas Bscher and Lindsay Owen-Jones to purchase cars, the three F1 GTRs appeared at Jerez in February '95 and the rest is history.
I know the McLaren F1 was a dream of Gordon, creating a car whilst not being restricted by rules. And you have to say he did a good job. Also was a shrewd move by Mr Bellm to race it at Le Mans, as that turned out to be quite successful and added more to the cars legacy. Look forward to more McLaren road cars in the future
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