Vitaphone invitation, should the Mazza be at LM?

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by Nordic

...In recent years it has gone its seperate ways when it felt the health of Sportscar racing was being harmed by the FIA's focus on F1.

I agree with most of your points, except the F1 bit. This is a red herring. In the same way that someone might think that the 24 hours is the only thing the ACO do people think F1 is the only thing the FIA do. I am not saying that the FIA are doing everything right with FIA GT, but the existence of F1 is not the reason for any errors.

[kingkai]

Yes when people hear of FIA, they think F1 (maby WTCC) and not FIA-GT. Same with ACO -> LM, but a lot of DAKAR watchers wouldnot link DAKAR to the ACO either.

[FIRE]

Originally Posted by kingkai

Yes when people hear of FIA, they think F1 (maby WTCC) and not FIA-GT. Same with ACO -> LM, but a lot of DAKAR watchers wouldnot link DAKAR to the ACO either.

Dakar (and cycling event Tour de France) is ASO (Amaury Sport Organisation, www.aso.fr)

[Nordic]

Originally Posted by AdamAshmore

I agree with most of your points, except the F1 bit. This is a red herring. In the same way that someone might think that the 24 hours is the only thing the ACO do people think F1 is the only thing the FIA do. I am not saying that the FIA are doing everything right with FIA GT, but the existence of F1 is not the reason for any errors.

Your right, today the situation is much better and for much of the time European Sportscar racing was safe in the FIA's hands as it was in CSI before.

However there was a period when this was not the case. Most people feel that the FIA favored F1 at the expense of GT's and Grp C during the early 90's, some even believe BE had a hand guiding Max Mosely's erratic rule changes and fines dished out to teams during that time.

This lead to the end of the Grp C era. It did not recover until the BPR series, which morphed into an FIA run series until that too fell apart. There does seem to be a trend here as the current apparent growth of the non FIA LMs at the expense of the FIA GT indicates.

The amount of teams competeing is always directly linked to the amount of money available, and the early 90's were not a happy time for car makers, Maybe BE sensed this and wished to protect his investment in F1 and realised that the small amout of money available would be better going into F1 to create one strong series rather than have several international ones limping along.

Very simplistic I know, but sometimes imho that is the case.

[chewymonster]

Originally Posted by Bob Riebe

Then ***** at the ACO.
They say GT1 is based on street cars with prod. STREET car based existence, and homologation requirements.
How much of the STREET car is used, is entirely up to the manufacturer.


GT1 is based on street cars, if you don't like it, as I said ***** at the ACO
Bob

The MC 12 is an akward street car. It is about 20+ inches longer than the Ferrari Enzo (its cousin) it is a 200 inch long sports car. Ever heard of a 200 inch long sports car? It is obvious it was made for racing first.

[kingkai]

Originally Posted by FIRE

Dakar (and cycling event Tour de France) is ASO (Amaury Sport Organisation, www.aso.fr)

My bad, I'm very sorry about this

[mirkob]

last Saturday (for the Ferrari F1 Shell adv), Bertolini told me that Bartels asked him to keep free for Le Mans days; not sure about the F430....
Andrea should be very happy to join the 24h with the MC12 GT1 (...) agaist the AMs and Corvettes.

Pics and video of Saturday in Rome:

www.racingworld.it/f1



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmMsAsmrqdY

[gwyllion]

Wildest speculation ever:

There was also an interesting theory regarding the Le Mans invitation to the FIA GT Champions, Vitaphone Racing; the story was that they will take up their opportunity with a Michelin-shod Pescarolo……sounds a little far out but I was assured that this is happening.

source: http://www.sportscarpros.com/notes-f...re/default.htm

[Adam43]

Wild indeed.

The suggest there is that you can not only take up a spot with a different car, but also in a different class!

[mariantic]

Originally Posted by AdamAshmore

Wild indeed.

The suggest there is that you can not only take up a spot with a different car, but also in a different class!

This came from an interview with Michael Bartels in Autosport about 2 weeks ago. He made it clear that Vitaphone had turned down the GT1 invite but that the ACO had said it would look favourably on an entry in another class.

GT2 & LMP1 were mentioned with a Ferrari 430 specified in the former. SportscarPro added the Pescarolo bit a day or so later.

This could of course refer to the second works car with Harold Primat. There are few other options, it isn't Rollcentre or Lister and the other 2 Pescarolo tubs are being used to build LMP2s for Kruse & Saulnier. Of course the Kruse car could just as easily be LMP1 and the German connection is there...

Mariantic

[Adam43]

Agreed, they may look at entering a different class, but that would be just a normal entry not the place they won with the FIA GT. IIRC the previous suggestion was a 430(?). They would be considered favourably because they have proved themselves to be a good team, albeit with a different car.

[gwyllion]

Vitaphone abandon entry plans - Autosport

source: http://www.mariantic.co.uk/lmp/lemans07.asp