Sportscar/GT (and Le Mans) Rumours and Repetition

[TzeiTzei]

Originally Posted by Acid09

Why did he even bring up Le Mans?

Haven't seen the original article, but maybe he was asked about it?

As Volvo doesn't really have much racing pedigree, they are probably looking at their racing efforts simply from a financial point of view. LMP1 is expensive and gets very little publicity.

edit: now that I actually read the article properly I don't find anything wrong with what the Volvo guy said.

[TF110]

Touring cars is a good place for them imo. And they have lots of success in that area (scandanavia especially).

[GT6]

It would be interesting to see Geely a chinesse company entering mainstream racing rather than local touring car races but as already said i can't see it happening and also Volvo are not able to generate the income to fund a large scale racing programme so again i think it is very unlikely

[Deleted]

Originally Posted by deggis

What comes to that Volvo comment, the sense of butthurtness here is tangible because you don't want to read between the lines of that comment.

Yeah right, what lines? That it isn't their market area or make sense for them in the first place? Maybe not (except if they brought out some waiverwagon-GTE or rebranded P2 engine or whatever) but I think there are better words to describe manufacturers participating LM than 'dumb'. The money and press figures also don't make sense.

'Volvo Formula E' sounds just about as absurd, but because of the cheap spec nature of it's easier.

[Deleted]

According to Dagys some really good NA news are about to be announced today. Goodwin added 'potentially' & 'deals not done' to that, which was kinda amusing coming from him as he has often made same sort of half promises for the future.

But in any case, it's probably not LMP1s at Sebring etc given the timing, more likely IMSA than WEC news - they'd surely hinted at it @ Detroit powerpoint presentation instead...

[BullMan]

Originally Posted by Chiana

According to Dagys some really good NA news are about to be announced today. Goodwin added 'potentially' & 'deals not done' to that, which was kinda amusing coming from him as he has often made same sort of half promises for the future.

But in any case, it's probably not LMP1s at Sebring etc given the timing, more likely IMSA than WEC news - they'd surely hinted at it @ Detroit powerpoint presentation instead...

I'm hoping it's streaming for the full season for everyone, but I've learned in the past it's usually not anything of note.

[deggis]

Originally Posted by Chiana

Yeah right, what lines? That it isn't their market area or make sense for them in the first place? Maybe not (except if they brought out some waiverwagon-GTE or rebranded P2 engine or whatever) but I think there are better words to describe manufacturers participating LM than 'dumb'. The money and press figures also don't make sense.

He probably pulled that budget out of his butt (but real figure being much higher, so...) and the style is exaggarating and even humorous, but imho valid point that it is two weeks in a year and then almost nothing in the mainstream media. I don't think he even mean this purely from Volvo's POV but generally. Is some of the current manufacturers overly happy how much (little) press WEC is getting, upward trend or not?

[Coach Ep]

Originally Posted by Chiana

According to Dagys some really good NA news are about to be announced today. Goodwin added 'potentially' & 'deals not done' to that, which was kinda amusing coming from him as he has often made same sort of half promises for the future.

But in any case, it's probably not LMP1s at Sebring etc given the timing, more likely IMSA than WEC news - they'd surely hinted at it @ Detroit powerpoint presentation instead...

Sounds like the Andretti-Nissan deal for PWC will be announced (after all the signatures will go on paper this morning?):

Originally Posted by DSC

We’ve already written about the prospect of Nissan joining the Pirelli World Challenge grid, that programme is now very close to formal confirmation for a full season, multi-car effort with an as yet unannounced team.

Basically some sort of confirmation of something we already knew - or saw coming our way, not really news. Just another example of modern, online marketing (crafted to perfection at the Nissan Marketing Academy!)

[Mal]

Looks like this is it:

http://sportscar365.com/industry/mot...north-america/

[Speed-King]

Originally Posted by BullMan

I'm hoping it's streaming for the full season for everyone, but I've learned in the past it's usually not anything of note.

Motors TV to North America....

[Coach Ep]

Didn't see that coming but a very welcome development!

[MagVanisher]

So it's a TV channel coming to North America, huh? Well, let's hope that they will have other forms of motorsport such as DTM and V8 Supercars!

[Deleted]

So the NA viewers are finally gonna witness the epic SD blur-vision of Motors. Trying to identify car from horse...

Originally Posted by deggis

He probably pulled that budget out of his butt (but real figure being much higher, so...) and the style is exaggarating and even humorous, but imho valid point that it is two weeks in a year and then almost nothing in the mainstream media. I don't think he even mean this purely from Volvo's POV but generally. Is some of the current manufacturers overly happy how much (little) press WEC is getting, upward trend or not?

Real figure much higher? Yeah in factory P1 sure, but that's assuming you're not only solely doing that one week in June like he leads you to believe in those quotes. Then in the other classes the price tag drops dramatically whether full season or not. Selling customers cars can work too. If you choose to go into rebadging deals you don't even need to do anything. He could just call Kolles today and say "hey Colin I heard you had a car in the highest class in that French race or something, how about I drop you couple of grands in mail and you paint that thing of yours with our intials, righto gotta go water is boiling". So I don't think he's actually made himself familiar with the format at all, because he doesn't care. Which is okay but then why make such remarks.

In terms of mainstream media only taking notice only for short period, of course he's right on that. However, that is still infinitely more he's ever gonna get with his niche touring cars wherever they race. And Formula E? About as unheard championship as WEC is. So in commiting to this sport it might just be mainstream fame for 24 hours + one 30 second clip in evening's sport news or whererever, but unless Volvo goes F1 or NASCAR, wherever else will you find the same? Therefore, the whole mainstream media should be axed away from the whole discussion and just concentrate on racing fans in the first place.

Volvo is not associated with sportscars, but nor are they with single seaters. So if Volvo goes Formula E and it's spec cars (yeah there's gonna be variation in some of the components I believe but hardly anything substantial), does electric single seater car improve marketing any more than hybrid LMP1 car / conventional LMP2 car with some mild association or plain rebranding / waiver equipped production GTE car? Okay FE has the eco-friendly imago, but ACO has also gone to that direction with things like Green X and Garage 56 etc, so if one really wanted to play that game in their marketing with sportscars they could. Also the market and technology for electric cars is still in it's infancy.

Yes I've been one of the most local critics of WEC and still am, but no matter what ACO does - wrong or right - for general public that is still just one event "and some others". Because this is niche form of sport. So with WEC, even if it was the most amazing thing on Earth with Sebrings and whatever, it's still gonna be just some series in the background of Le Mans. ACO's job shouldn't be try to reach Billy Bobs on street, not in numbers at least, but make it known inside the racing world and grow the appeal for manufacturers and customers.

[David Land]

I will take SD WEC racing over risking viruses to find a nice stream online.

This is amazing news... you Europeans don't really realize how starved for racing we Americans really are.

[DistortedSmile]

It's also coming to Latin America

[pablocomics]

Originally Posted by DistortedSmile

It's also coming to Latin America

I hope that this will help to have more contents in spanish Current spanish broadcasters are really good but they just cover the primetime live events (Australian V8 supercars, WEC, ALMS, Nascar, F3, LOORS, motocross and a few more)

[Coach Ep]

Originally Posted by David Land

I will take SD WEC racing over risking viruses to find a nice stream online.

This is amazing news... you Europeans don't really realize how starved for racing we Americans really are.

Just a few (even if you go with the average Sebring/Petit crowd) - but I'm with you!

[GT6]

Originally Posted by David Land

I will take SD WEC racing over risking viruses to find a nice stream online.

This is amazing news... you Europeans don't really realize how starved for racing we Americans really are.

it will be interesting to see if the extra coverage of sportscar racing this brings will result in an increase in the number of fresh faces at the ten tenths meeting this year at Le Mans, the number of american visitors has grown in the last few years and it will be good to see a few more in the next few years

[PorscheFanNo1]

Originally Posted by Pandemonium

So... it seams that Volvo is battling Mercedes to see wich one of the two is the dumbest.
http://www.crash.net/crash/news/2130...a-e-entry.html

Also, I already tweeted them about the Fia Wec and laughing at them pretty much. I mean if the most succesfull car companies are at the WEC it is becuase of its value.

That Alain Visser guy doesnt seem to be the brightest in the class. Shame a guy like that can ruin the image of a whole company.

[Simmi]

Originally Posted by GT6

it will be interesting to see if the extra coverage of sportscar racing this brings will result in an increase in the number of fresh faces at the ten tenths meeting this year at Le Mans, the number of american visitors has grown in the last few years and it will be good to see a few more in the next few years

I'd guess that if the channel does get into US households we wouldn't see the effects until 2016. By the time Silverstone rolls around in mid-April I'm guessing it's a bit late in the day to arrange a transatlantic trip.

2016 should also (fingers crossed) see the return of Ford so could be a good year for American attendees.

[pederb]

Just because its introduced in the US, does not mean that any of the major cable tv will pick it up, so it could be there but nobody is distributing it

[NaBUru38]

Originally Posted by Chiana

Actually in the RLM F1 season review of which I somehow managed to catch a glimpse Hindy&Daman said that some manufacturer/manufacturers may have considered running third car for full season because of Adrian's proposed cash. So that describtion would fit all works teams

If that's true, holy cow!

[Deleted]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

If that's true, holy cow!

Operative word being 'may'...

[ATLFalconsFAN]

Originally Posted by GT6

it will be interesting to see if the extra coverage of sportscar racing this brings will result in an increase in the number of fresh faces at the ten tenths meeting this year at Le Mans, the number of american visitors has grown in the last few years and it will be good to see a few more in the next few years

Part of me hopes not, I like being special and am not particularly fond of the average American. However, it wouldn't be a bad thing to see the sport grow.

[seanyb505]

Originally Posted by ATLFalconsFAN

Part of me hopes not, I like being special and am not particularly fond of the average American. However, it wouldn't be a bad thing to see the sport grow.

Wow, just wow.

Oh you're special alright!

This could be big if there was an option to stream, with decent features, for a smaller fee. I don't see the sport growing significantly because people who purchase the Extra Gold Platinum Diamond I'm-a-cable-exec-anyway are no where near as common as people who don't want to pay more for the top tiers, or want to get out of cable packages altogether.