Unoffical News of Factory Teams!?

[Garrett]

While I was waiting for the start of PLM on Saturday, I ventured into the vendor village. A guy that I know that has a shop set up was telling me that Porsche ARE going to build an LMP, as well as Mazda! He also stated that Nissan are looking into a return to LM with an LMP too! Though, something he told me that was shocking was that he has a friend who worked for Mercedes on the 98' CLK GTR and 99' CLR and said that Mercedes had built an LMP for LM 2000 and beyond, but pulled out of Le Mans all together due to the CLR!

[FIRE]

There are also rumours in France, see this posting of Fab.

[Muzza]

I have several friends who work at Mercedes engineering departments and according to a few of them that company was considering a long-term involvement with sportscar racing when the CLR debale happened. There was noting set in stone, but the plan was to race the CLR "for a while", as Mercedes believed the car to be competitive (as it seem to be at the tests in Fontana and Magny-Cours).

However, already at the time there were voices within the company recommending to pull the plug on sportscar operations and focus its efforts in Formula 1. Therefore the CLR blow-overs at Le Mans 1999 were not the only reason why Mercedes stepped out of the sportscar arena (I have heard this from good sources at Mercedes time and again); obviously, though, the withdrawn happened in the worst possible manner and some of the involved in the CLR project were reprimended and got a black spot on their "evaluation reports".

Mercedes, as any other manufacturer, has people constantly screening the racing scene and preparing feasibility studies considering alternatives for years to come; after the racing car operation was shutdown the two main scenarios considered were a revival of its efforts in the DTM (which did happen the following year; incidentally, I believe that Mercedes commitment to a DTM comeback only happened after Le Mans 1999) and a return to CART - which almost happened, but failed because the organizers of that series kept on changing their minds about engine regulations. The IRL was also evaluated, but it was not further pursued, I understand.

Regards,


Muzza

[MulsanneMike]

Re Mercedes LMP, for what its worth, at the 1997 Laguna Seca sportscar race a crew memember on the team running the URD chassis indicated to me that Mercedes had built a LMP but shelved it for further investigation. He indicated the cars were just sitting in a warehouse never to be seen. I've never thought much of this comment and still consider it dubious, but you never quite know...

[FIRE]

Originally posted by Muzza
though, the withdrawn happened in the worst possible manner and some of the involved in the CLR project were reprimended and got a black spot on their "evaluation reports".

IMO it was the right decision to withdraw from the LM race.

Originally posted by Muzza
Mercedes, as any other manufacturer, has people constantly screening the racing scene and preparing feasibility studies considering alternatives for years to come; after the racing car operation was shutdown the two main scenarios considered were a revival of its efforts in the DTM (which did happen the following year; incidentally, I believe that Mercedes commitment to a DTM comeback only happened after Le Mans 1999) and a return to CART - which almost happened, but failed because the organizers of that series kept on changing their minds about engine regulations. The IRL was also evaluated, but it was not further pursued, I understand.

Regards,


Muzza

I can imagine Mercedes was not interest to do a sportscar project besides F1 and DTM. I don't think we see Mercedes back at Le Mans in the near future.

[cybersdorf]

Mercedes only got involved in FIA GT when the old DTM went T.U., and perhaps the LM fiasco was the reason Merc then dreamed up the "new DTM". It's easier to play the game when you make the rules.

[FIRE]

Originally posted by cybersdorf
Mercedes only got involved in FIA GT when the old DTM went T.U., and perhaps the LM fiasco was the reason Merc then dreamed up the "new DTM". It's easier to play the game when you make the rules.

[Muzza]

Originally posted by cybersdorf
Mercedes only got involved in FIA GT when the old DTM went T.U., and perhaps the LM fiasco was the reason Merc then dreamed up the "new DTM". It's easier to play the game when you make the rules.

Spot on - and let's not forget that the arrival of the Porsche "911" GT1 and of the Mercedes CLK were fundamental to precipitate the end of the FIA GT Championship.

And now comes Maserati and...

[Fab]

Originally posted by Muzza
And now comes Maserati

Not yet

BTW, that's good to see you back, Muzza !

[Muzza]

Thanks, Fab!

[gwyllion]

Pretty interesting item on lmsr.net

Ford's Director of Racing tells lmsr.net they will launch the race version of the new Mustang (the protoype featured last night on Discovery Channel) soon. It will be readily available to racing customers and they also want to field a works team. The car was developed with help from Multimatic They are in contact with both USA series.

Could this be a GT or GTS?

[Fab]

Unusual look for the LM serie, but I like the car !

[FIRE]

Originally posted by gwyllion
Pretty interesting item on lmsr.net

Could this be a GT or GTS?

I would say it's in the same category as the BMW M3 GTR.... Serious, I would say it's a GT and not a GTS.

[BobN]

That car doesn't look like GT or GTS to me. It looks more Speed GT or Grand-am Cup, ala the Caddy. It may be more in line with the Grand-am's version of SGS/GT class for 2005.

[Mal]

Originally posted by Fab
Unusual look for the LM serie, but I like the car !

Not that unusual as they did race a Saleen mustang a few years ago

[paul-collins]

Grand Am Cup is where the initial car is going. But I would imagine it could almost immediately go to SWC-GT and with some development into ACO-GT.

If I recall correctly, Ford did submit the Mustang for N-GT homologation to the FIA this year. FIA's published list will be updated in November.

[BSchneiderFan]

Originally posted by cybersdorf
Mercedes only got involved in FIA GT when the old DTM went T.U., and perhaps the LM fiasco was the reason Merc then dreamed up the "new DTM". It's easier to play the game when you make the rules.

To be fair, though, Mercedes-Benz were also the only manufacturer willing to participate in the ITC/DTM beyond 1996. It was the withdrawal of Opel and Alfa Romeo that caused the championship to fold, forcing Mercedes to look elsewhere and have to cobble the CLK-GTR together rapidly for the FIA GT Championship.

For what it's worth, at the risk of straying off-topic, I've always thought that what REALLY killed the GT1 incarnation of the GT Championship was the regulations being unduly biased against turbocharged engines; that made Porsche pull out and the thing folded. Remember that in 1997, at least, the Schnizter McLarens were still winning races and Lehto and Soper pushed Schneider hard for the title.