Stephane Ratel in this weeks Autosport

[paul-collins]

Evil, good point. All you can do at that point is manage the competition - either explicitly and rationally, as Speed World Challenge or FIA (GT and SCC) do, or in a reactionary way (like some believe the ACO did for Saleen and BMW, or NASCAR does all the time).

[FIRE]

Originally posted by Wally (Evo.1)
917archive.com.

Thanks for this link.
What a coincidence! Today I bought a car magazine with an article about the 917/10 (chassis 001) of Willi Kauhsen.

[Wally (Evo.1)]

Originally posted by FIRE
Thanks for this link.

No problem. 962.com also has a good 917 section, also listed by chassis no., but not quite as good as 917archive, IMHO.

[skycafe]

Going back to mention of production totals for the 917 and 512, wasn't the Lola T70 allowed in based on the concept of being able to convert all the chassis that has been built and delivered over proceeding years?

The reason that production quantity seems to be a challenge to enforce is that it does make it very difficult for a smaller company to compete. Saleen just delivered their 25th production car--how long did it take for them to reach that point? Production quantity can't be your only factor for deciding who's in and who's out. Wasn't the 917 considered to be a 'production' car, and actually able to be street registered? Someone in the Martini Rossi family had one on the streets in Europe, but it had been registered in the state of Alabama, USA, because they were extremly lax at the time. Didn't the 917 and 512 also have to have the facility to car a spare tire and a parcel--giving illusion to the fact that they were prototypes of actual road vehicles?

[917Addicted]

Sorry if I recall this discussion (I know there's another thread for this).

I don't like the idea of giving Supercars a chance of winning overall only because Audi has been dominating LM and ALMS. Why? The fact is, if the big companies are allowed to win with a GTSupercar instead of a LMP, then they will build a supercarcar instead of the LMP.

The thing is, if you allow Maserati/Porsche GT/SLR McLaren (how the hell this car is capable of facing a MaseratiEnzo or a CarreraGT is way beyound me :confused: ) the chance of victory at LM against a full LMP, how can you not allow Audi to build a similar car? I mean, they've won in the past 4 years (sorry, but for me the Bentley is no more than an Audi, or a VW, or a Seat, or a Skoda.......) because they were the ones willing to spent the most money.

Why??? Maybe because they think that's a good investment (ok, this is my economic part of the brain speaking). And if they continue to think likewise, then in 2 or 3 years we could see a supercar from Audi dominating LM/ALMS/LMES as now because they will be the ones spending more money (I know, spending more money is not sufficient, although it is necessary).

Maybe I'm naive saying this. I only hope that the next years are better in terms of Sportscars in Europe (and in America BTW)

[Fab]

Nothing to do with the trhead, but I didn't want to open another one, and this one seems to be the most appropriate : Christophe Bouchut was hnoured by the [URL=http://www.bouchut.com/CHIRAC--BOUCHUT.jpg)Prez[/URL], due to his three championship titles...

Do you have some with Tony Blair or Georges Bush, just for fun ? For those who find it weird, you have to understand that french people have not a lot of occasions to rejoy of good sports results : that's why the Prez use to meet the world winners at the Elysées...

[Fab]

The main question here may be : when will we have an real Audi challenger ? As, well, let's say : Porsche, Toyota, Nissan (no chance for those ones, they're pennyless)... mmm ?

[cybersdorf]

[i](like some believe the ACO did for Saleen and BMW...) [/B]

Question: what is reactionary about enforcing the regulations for a change? That's like calling a previously corrupt government that is trying to clean up its act "reactionary". You will agree that neither the BMW nor the Saleen met the homologation requirements; esp. the BMW was the one illegal car too many (BMW never even intended to meet the homologation requirements). Tough luck.

[Fab]

Originally posted by cybersdorf
BMW never even intended to meet the homologation requirements

The - almost former - Chairman of ACO (Michel Cosson), was especially harsh with BMW about this in his last interview; he's used very "hard words" to qualified how BMW tried to play with ACO's regulations. I'm not taking the defense of ACO on this point, but BMW seems to be hard to support on this very thing...

Who could explain BMW behavior here ? I'm surprised that a factory who involved itself a lot in the late 90' and even won the race could neglect LM race at this point... or did I miss something ?

[paul-collins]

Originally posted by cybersdorf
Question: what is reactionary about enforcing the regulations for a change? That's like calling a previously corrupt government that is trying to clean up its act "reactionary".

That's why I said "some believe." And these people (I can think of two that are vociferous and with whom you're well-acquainted) will bang on ad infinitum about the unfairness of the ruling against BMW.

Personally, I tend to believe the version of the story that paints the ACO in a reformist light over the tale that paints them as reactionaries.