Ferrari - Ford GT - Porsche - Vette

Multiple Fords, Porsches, Corvettes, and one lone 488. I know who the real winner is... They even had to trot out Tony Kanaan to emphasize the legality of the GTs.

 

Competizioni GT was there... incl CM, and Mr Felisa aswell.

No factory support in terms of money or manpower? All 3 Pilots belongs to Ferrari Spa

 

In making a dish of eggs and ham, the chicken got involved; the pig was committed. Is Ferrari a chicken or a pig?


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Is that friggin' mid-engined 911 available from a dealer? Nope. And, just for the record, the Ford GT was racing in IMSA 11 months BEFORE the first one was sold for road use. So it'd a fair question to ask: Is this a GT class or a prototype class?
Please also notice that the Ford GTs made significantly fewer pit stops than the other GT class cars. Hmmmmmm ...

 

I don't remember the FGT in ALMS prior to the Robertson's which was from about 2008 or 9 for just 3 or 4 years (I think it ran out of eligibility due to it's age). Was it a furrin' team?

 

I suppose that for Ferrari, GT racing is another source of income and they´re not going to spend more than what they´re getting with the sale of cars to private teams.

In the end, why they should bother?: it´s all about BOP these days.

 

Indeed.
If we ever see real racing again (which I doubt ) I'd love to see Ferrari really get back in sports/protos.....if, if, if, ad infiniti.

 

10 million may be a little high for the race car. Tough to work out as both road and race car was made at same time.

Actually, in the contract--there was no money allocated to MTC for the design of the race car. Al the money was for the street car. MTC "designed" the race car for "free".

And I would be the happiest guy on earth if Ferrari gave up F1 and went and ran LMP.
Way more interesting and really plays to Ferrari's race history so much.

They should do a LM-GTE car on the 488, an LMP2 customer car-hire Dallara (or me!!)to do that car with the 488 motor and have the factory do an LMP1 Hybrid. Heck-Also do an LMP1 customer package based on the LMP2 car.

Perfect ladder for a team. LM-GTE then LMP2, then LMP1 privateer. And factory does LMP Hybrid.

Now that would be assume!

 

I hate to start this as it sounds like sour grapes (and is), but the GT class is just silly. Ford GT....how many are on the road in the hands of CUSTOMERS? Porsche RSR....how many are on the road in the hands of CUSTOMERS?
I guess after the 2016 LeMans BOP fiasco, we should have known what was coming.
If it's in the GT class, shouldn't a street version be available to buy? Guess not.

 

"Start this"? Take a number and get in the back of the line (that is so long you can't see...)

It's all about rolling billboards and (artificially) close "racing" for the uninitiated. No more superior engineering dominating. No more waiting for that one really close(edit: REAL) race once in a blue moon.

 

**** it. Let's race. You me, first one wins. No excuses, no bull****, let's get it on. Second place is for *******.



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Ferrari is fortunate that "superior engineering" isn't dominating in IMSA and WEC.

 

how come nobody was complaining when BMW ran a hardtop Z4 with a V8 for a few years in ALMS/IMSA? that was road car unobtanium, too.

 

Superior engineering did win out. That would be the Ford GT...

It is simply a better engineered and designed car than the Ferrari. MTC tore apart the 458 Speciale and learned it's DNA form top to bottom. Huge amount of baseline work and reverse engineering to understand the car. It was and is a great car. As i have mentioned-MTC/Ford came to the conclusion it was the best sports car in the world and the one we had to beat. We also knew very early on that Ferrari was doing a turbo successor-and we actually believed Ferrari was going to do a turbocharged engine with an electrically powered driven supercharger added on. Supercharger for low end-then it is disconnected as turbos take over. (The way of the future). So if anything we gave Ferrari too much credit as to what their 458 replacement would be. Honestly we were a bit disappointed in the 488 when it came out. Not because it was bad-not at all-but because it was not as big a step over the 458 as we expected.

It happens. Deal with it. Ferrari has made good, bad and great cars. They don't always hit a home run.

The Ford Gt took every rule (all legal) and every idea about what makes a race car work and pushed them to the limit. We learned a huge amount about what really matters in a race car. And found out there are whole areas of race car design that people don't understand 100% (and we don't understand 100%-not that arrogant!) and if these areas are optimized then the car will just be plan better. And we know that these areas have not been exploited by Ferrari, Porsche, Corvette, etc. Or not anywhere to the same degree we did with the Ford. And those things simply make the car a better race car.

The biggest advantage Ford had (And I will admit it was a big advantage) was in being to design the road and race car at the same time, and have Ford understand why the race car side of the car needed to transfer into the street car-and not the other way around.

Car is fully US and Euro and China legal. The fact that MTC has taken a while to produce the street car has nothing to do with car design and everything to do with just how hard it is to set up a brand new mfg facility from "nothing". So the car is late but the car you can now take delivery on is just as was designed and the race car is based 100% on that street car. No funny business there.

As far as the ACO letting it race,etc. You are complaining to the wrong people in the wrong venue. Nobody reading this has any control on the ACO. Any beef anybody has should be with them. But not Ford or MTC. They did exactly what all car mfg's have done all the time. Anybody think Ferrari has never tried to push ACO one way or another? Please--They are the experts at that. Enzo tried to take the mickey out of ACO rules more often than any car mfg around. Remember the 250 LM? The 512S? Those cars never met the ACO rules-ever.

 

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A) People were complaining; myself included. But,

B) If I recall correctly (and by that opening it's obvious that I am not sure), The rules allowed for engines in other vehicles by that manufacturer to be transplanted to the race vehicle.

 

Le Mans will be tough for Ferrari and Porsche.
If Fords enters again 4 GTLM cars I do not think the others competitors have a chance.
Ford GT is like Audi LMP1??
Most probably they (aco) will BoP the Fords a bit more then in 2016.

 

Brian, respectfully, I think that´s not the point, everybody knows that without BOP the Ford could beat everybody easily. Just like the Dauer 962 was a better race car than the McLaren F1, but it was totally against the spirit of the rules.

And, again respectfully, I think you´re abusing of your bragging rights. The Ford is a prototype with a lot of factory money and support: anything worse than winning would an embarrassment. I remember that you made the same when you were racing an Audi against Domes and Lolas: no disrespect, but winning with that car was relatively easy.

Just let´s put things into perspective.

 

People were complaining, just like when they moved the gearbox of the M3 to the rear axle.

But we shouldn´t be surprised: this crap always has happened in endurance racing. Then endurance fanboys get amazed when championships collapse from time to time and can´t understand why Formula 1 is more popular.

 

The Fords are a fraud, this is more politics then racing..the victory at Le mans was another steal ..money buys a lot of things, and The Aco as been bought by Ford more then once.....

 

the rules allowed the Ford GT and mid engined RSR, too

 

+1000!

 

This is the GTE/ GTLM rules :
TenTenths Motorsport Forum

Porsche can re-positioned the engine because the 911 is produced in more or 2500 examples for year.
with the Ford GT the problem is the car start to race before the street car is available, but the car is legal now.

 

OK, you guys win. Ford was stupid to have spent all that money on this project. This piece of artwork, a game changing, engineering and design marvel should have never seen the light of day. Instead to keep all the low-tech brand loyal fanboys happy, they instead should have played fair and just run the Mustang GT 350. Then spent a fraction of the money lobbying to have everyone else BOP'd down to their lap times. Maybe next year BMW will run a 7 series with a set of clubs and trophies in the trunk for everyone.

If you think this is silly you should read some of the things being said on the Corvette sites. They actually believe that the only reason their front engine dinosaur didn't sweep again this year was because the Ford had more power.....

Just to be clear, I like, own and enjoy many different car brands not just Fords.