GM Not Interested

[racinthestreets]

Taken From The Seattle Times regarding GM leaving the IRL after 2005

Duchardt said GM was not interested in joining the Champ Car World Series, which has Ford as its lone engine supplier.

I hope they reevaluate and maybe decide to jump in. I am a proponent of competetion to push the series forward.

[Kicking-back]

ChampCar bosses want to keep a single engine supplier.

It keeps costs down and keeps stability in the series.

[mountainstar]

It's been rumoured for a while that if Kalkhoven bought cosworth that there would be an offer to GM to co-badge the new champ car engine. We'll see.

[Brian W Keske]

GM is moving away from 'open wheel' because it is not a good return on their investmant (that is what they are saying). If TG and the Indy 500 does not make sense, I really don't see what CCWS has to offer them right now.....unless, of course KK would pay them to badge an engine, and I find that very doubtful.

NASCAR with Chevy and Pontiac, and Grand AM with Pontiac seems to be their focus. They have just announced a new GTO program for GARRA's GT class next year.

They also have the Corvette program in ALMS, and Caddy program in Speed World Challange. Both seem very successful for them as well.

[Snrub]

In terms of CC engines Ford essentially pays to have their name associated with them. Theoretically some other company might be interested in doing the same. A GM brand would make some sense because they wouldn't have to worry about other companies comming along and out spending them. How many millions do they spend gambling for success in both ALMS and World Challange compared to a sure thing for perhaps the same cost in CC?

[Brian W Keske]

Good questions Snrub.

As we are not privy to these board room meetings, they must be looking at ROI reports and comparing various series. It looks like they (GM) feel 'open wheel' formula style racing in the USA is not meeting their expecatations w/the IRL, and do not feel CCWS would be any better. Perhaps worse.

We don't know if they are looking for sales/financing vs. 'general' name exposure/recognition.

The ALMS and World Speed Challange makes sense to me, but GARRA? Who is watching? On TV, or at the track, the audiance numbers are dismal.

[Flatspot]

Putting your product (engine, tires, oil, or otherwise) in a race car only pays if you are winning, at least on a fairly regular basis. You then have to spend money to make it. If you compare the alternatives of where GM can spend it's money to get a return it's pretty easy to see that open wheel racing is not the place to be unless you have a deal like Ford with Champ Car and you can't be beat.

There has been continual talk on the forums about 90% of the fans anymore are just casual fans. If that is the case, which it probably is, you can reach most of those casual fans by running ads about your cars during the races instaed of actually racing them and get a lot bigger bang for the buck because the casual fans don't realize or care if your engine is in the car that won or lost. This holds true for just about any formula raced in North America except NASCAR.

Couple all of that with the circumstances of shareholder returns (bad, bad, bad, for motorsport) and the choice for GM becomes simple.

[esorniloc]

For how long is the contract for Cosworth to supply engines?

[racinthestreets]

I think it is for this year only. No renewal that I know of.

[drewdawg727]

Originally posted by Kicking-back
ChampCar bosses want to keep a single engine supplier.

It keeps costs down and keeps stability in the series.

Now that's a little stupid....there needs to be SOME sort of competition with engines and chassis'...otherwise races will be decided on who shifts the best and who can take the shortest line around the track

[Omega99]

In other words, the best driver...

[macdaddy]

Can't argue with that, Omega!

[Snrub]

...drewdawg was that a sarcastic comment? Don't we want the best driver to win, rather then the best equipment?

Brian, you're most likely correct. As you suggest I suspect they like the tie in to their product lines. They probably think that people buy Cavaliers and Malibus because people have a favorable impression of an unrealted shadow body Corvette. I think that impression is true when we are talking about Cadys. Realistically I think GM's problem is that their brand images stink (and rightfully so). Everyone knows the Corvette is an anomoly for GM. For GM to improve public preception, they need to have highest level succes because people don't pay nearly as much attention to the GTS Corvette as the Audi R8. A gaurenteed competitive CC engine deal is perfect from that perspective.

As for Grand Am support, I think GM made the right call. The series might have some serious problems, but considering it's growth rate, competitive racing amd low-cost, I don't think it will be a problem long term. Besides, when was the last time you saw a GM branded race engine have more power then a Toyota?

[esorniloc]

Originally posted by racinthestreets
I think it is for this year only. No renewal that I know of.

If they are going to change the formula for 06, they need to make some annoucement soon and not do a U-turn like they did in 01/02 for the 03 rules.

[Flatspot]

I think a lot of that will depend on who ends up with Cosworth Racing. In reading between the lines on a lot of things I have the impression that the engine formula is stable through the '06 season. No guarantee, just an implied desire. I'll see if I can find some links.

[racinthestreets]

Seems like I remember about March or April that Ford declined to renew the contract. The question is does the current contract run through 2005?

[Flatspot]

Excert from AutoWeek article
Cosworth services Champ Car’s engines and provides engineering support under a contract that runs through 2005, but the series actually owns the Cosworth V8s, which in turn are leased to the teams. John Lopes, Champ Car’s senior vice presidentof operations, said the series has an ample supply of fresh engines (about 100).

Here's the Link

[Snrub]

Originally posted by racinthestreets
Seems like I remember about March or April that Ford declined to renew the contract. The question is does the current contract run through 2005?

I don't know, but I don't think many of us are too worried about Ford in '05. When they announced they were shutting Jaguar F1 down they said they were staying committed to their american racing efforts.

[Amar7605]

I personally feel that having GM in Champ Cars would be an overall good thing because of the potential competition between them and Ford. Champ Cars can definitely market that. And I think that it'll make for a very interesting series.

It's like the bitter competition between Honda and Toyota, only that the average North American doesn't know how deep their competitive natures are. But people here definitely know how competitive GM and Ford are with each other.

To me it seems pretty ovbious!

[mountainstar]

And now that GM is globalizing the chevrolet brand it's a prime time to jump in. Ford already said earlier this year that they would welcome another manufacturer in champcar.

[macdaddy]

ChampCar, on the other hand, said the exact opposite in a recent interview with AutoSport. Tres Hombres don't seem overly keen on engine competition in the short term.

[Dov]

Didn't Chevy say recently that they weren't interested in joining another OW series :confused:

[macdaddy]

Yes. Very recently.
The thread seems to be aptly named.