Riley & Scott MK XI Toyota DP?

[H16]

I was under the impression that the new Daytona Prototype for R&S would be similar to the Ford Focus built by Multimatic, a works car and then offered to customers.

However, from what I hear, they won't build one until someone buys one. This from a car that was supposed to be a Celica.

Something else that seemed strange to me was the "available to a variety of power plants" thing. Seeing a Toyota-BMW...err...BMW-Toyota would be confusing and bring up more problems like the Porsche fiasco with Fabcar and Brumos.

There seemed to be a lot of questions regarding this project, but I don't think we will be seeing one of these soon. ALMS for R&S only?

[Aysedasi]

I fear that interest in the Daytone-thingies has waned even more after Daytona.......

[H16]

Well, while they were there, MOST of the drivers were touting the old "new direction, lower costs" thing, but if you read between David Brabham's commments, "unfortunatly...this is a new class". He was sounding like he was saying they didn't have time to prepare, but the way he said it made me think of what he may be really feeling.

The reaction from the fans has been bad, but I thought the R&S Toyota deal was pretty solid at least for the "factory" car. Instead, it looks like Toyota are sucking up to ISC and Toyota decals are adorned on the third Fabcar.

Even the Multimatic seems to have been dummed down some, the Ford racing colors that appeared on the 67 winning GT40 are gone and clear white with smaller Ford branding appeared on the car. And of course, everyone knows of the Porsche/Fabcar-Fabcar/Porsche-Fabcar Powered and simply nothing else by Porsche stituation.

On the bright spot, I hear that the Crawford is the best looking of the bunch, not that it would take a lot. The Fabcar looks like a non-production style GTS car, the Ford looks like a brick, and the Doran appears to have the largest problem with the big greenhouses. The Pichicio seems to be innovative regarding the rules, but after Boris Said's continuing (I count three times at least during the 24) rambling of "the future of road racing in America is this class", I have hard things to say about it.

[cybersdorf]

The Ford-Multimatic is called a Ford because it has a Ford engine. Since it doesn't actually look like a Focus you can run it with a different engine (and according road car headlights) as well. Just as there is a Porsche-Fabcar and a Toyota-Fabcar.

[H16]

Yes but Ford hired Multimatic to build the car for them and to be powered by the engine as a "Focus", though it was rarely referred to as that during the 24 so I think that might be dropped like the "stock mirrors" rule.

My question was, if the R&S is badged as a Toyota, like a PR from Grand Am indicated, and if it is available to all powerplants, like a PR from R&S indicated, then you could see Porsche-Toyotas, or BMW-Toyotas, or whatever. I don't think Ford would like or allow anyone to use another engine in the Multimatic chassis.

I think this may have brought on the Porsche question too. Porsche seemed ok until the third car was announced as a Toyota-Fabcar and the fourth, so far unclaimed and kept by the company, was rumored to have Dodge power. Then, the Porsche Brumos and Porsche-Fabcar with Porsche headlights, Brumos's history with Hurley with Porsche, the the mirrors among other things, just seemed to make it too much "Porsche". I think the Toyota Fabcar and the Dodge Fabcar really is what got them upset, and another stituation even worse could arise if R&S EVER ACTUALLY SELL a car with an engine other than a Toyota.

Basically, the concept, drawn on a napkin, has a lot of grey areas which could make a lot of people upset. Not to mention spending 400,000 dollars on a car with a restricted stock engine and near spec construction and limited aero packages, which are hardly faster than a GT and don't, unless rules are lifted somewhat, have the potenial to gain a lot of speed (maybe two seconds at the most, but the Fabcar contiously has gotten slower).

It was an answer to a question that no one asked. Sorry if this has drifted somewhat off topic, I am just watching my tape of the 24 and it brought out some emotions in me.

[cybersdorf]

Originally posted by H16
[B]My question was, if the R&S is badged as a Toyota, like a PR from Grand Am indicated, and if it is available to all powerplants, like a PR from R&S indicated, then you could see Porsche-Toyotas, or BMW-Toyotas, or whatever.

Well, no. The chassis is still a Multimatic. This cas is badged as a Ford because of the deal with Ford. A chassis for somebody else would simply be a Multimatic. The engine manufacturer has to be named before the chassis manufacturer. So it would be an XYZ-Multimatic, not an XYZ-Ford.

I don't think Ford would like or allow anyone to use another engine in the Multimatic chassis.

So then in this case it won't happen anyway.