Porsche, Ferrari, BMW, Mercedes, Lamborghini, and Jaguar are without a doubt some of the greatest names in sports car racing history.
So then why do they shy away from the ultimate in sports car competition, GT1 racing?
The answer is "competition".
Is losing to Corvette for them just too intimidating to consider?
We think YES.
Every few years we hear rumors that one of these marquees is going to enter GT1 racing - (the last being Porsche).
The reality is that racing against the Corvettes around the clock at gruelingly competitive tracks like Le Mans, Sebring, and Road Atlanta is a formidable challenge and a "brand-image risky" undertaking (Corvette dominates the GT1 class, winning 5 of the last 6 Le Mans races.)
All these marquees have a heritage of racing performance. Many have even been to Le Mans in their earlier years, but history is one thing, and going up against today's mighty C6.R is another.
...And as they say in racing: "The older I get, the faster I used to be!" |
With all due respect to all of you, you may be over looking a few key points. The first being is that many of the European sport car brands did not race GT1 in the US, but did in the FIA GT races in Europe and are very competitive with the Corvette's racing there. Also to race in GT1 and go against Corvette Racing, it meant having a team based in the US to run the ALMS races. That would be very expensive for a European team to do. There was simply no one in the US interested in fielding a team at the cost that it was to have a GT1 team in ALMS. They really need to be factory backed, and again we are back to the European's fielding a team thousands of miles from home base. Remember what Aston Martin did a few years ago when they decided to run the car in ALMS, they took the Championship.
The second point is ACO in doing away with the GT1 class in Europe and going to a base GT class. ALMS did away with it after Long Beach (actually did away with it in 2008) and only allowed CR to run in it so they could go to LeMans in the GT1 class.
I am a diehard Corvette Racing fan and I show my Jake on my C5 proudly, but I think moving to GT2 was a great move. Now you have the Porsche’s, Ferrari’s, Jaguar and even a Ford GT40 (sometimes) all going at it head to head. So it is not the super hot technical advanced GT1 category, but it is American muscle against European top brand names.
--- TR6speed from Florida on 06.14.2010 at 8:52PM