Cowardly Competition ruins Corvette GT1 Program

[Spiffu]

Won Sebring multiple times, won Le mans multiple times. (just not that past two times)

[79TA]

Originally Posted by Woohoo "Cowardly competition"? Are you serious? Porsche has 16 overall wins at Le Mans. Ferrari is the most sucessful team in F1 history. GM has a few class wins at Le Mans. I don't know...

Are you serious? I don't remember F1 being mentioned in this thread although I do have my doubts about how relevant ultra light open wheel cars are to the world today. Sports car endurance racing is the topic here . . .

Ferrari can't seem to be bothered to seriously compete in sports car racing anymore. Why Porsche is content to be the big fish in the small GT2 pond is beyond me. We're talking about current times, not the past where Ferrari's lost to the likes of GT40's and Cobras.

[Spiffu]

Porsche overall is the most winning est mark in motorsports history if you're taking all forms of racing it has participated in. And by a wide margin.

Over 28,000 victories in over five decades.

[SHIZL]

hopefully it gets saved somehow love that class, would prefer gt1,gt2 over p1,p2 classes anyday

[79TA]

Originally Posted by Spiffu Porsche overall is the most winning est mark in motorsports history if you're taking all forms of racing it has participated in. And by a wide margin. Over 28,000 victories in over five decades.

Yep. I think their win in the Dakar back in the day was pretty awesome. It just makes it that much more surprising that they wouldn't step up to GT1. Granted, their Penske P2 cars often give the P1 cars in ALMS a run for their money when the restrictions are right.

[Woohoo]

Originally Posted by 79TA Are you serious? I don't remember F1 being mentioned in this thread although I do have my doubts about how relevant ultra light open wheel cars are to the world today. Sports car endurance racing is the topic here . . . Ferrari can't seem to be bothered to seriously compete in sports car racing anymore. Why Porsche is content to be the big fish in the small GT2 pond is beyond me. We're talking about current times, not the past where Ferrari's lost to the likes of GT40's and Cobras.

So how many overall wins does Ferrari have in Le Mans?
How many for GM? BTW what happened to their LMP1 program

Until you call everyone that doesn't race in a GT class cowards,maybe you should look at what they achieved in the past,what they are doing now and compare that to a GT class.

[79TA]

awwww, boooo hoooo. Ferrari has 9, all well in the past when there were no large North American manufacturer efforts at LeMans. I thought I made it clear that we were talking about modern times. Is that all Ferrari fans can do is reference F1 and the past? Ferrari hasn't had an overall LeMans win since 1965 and that streak of "dominance" was brought to an end by an angry whim of Mr. Ford.

I very much respect various manufacturers for what they have accomplished in the past, but Ferrari rests on its laurels far too much these days considering how highly regarded they are. These prestigious histories make it more surprising that such manufacturers are unwilling to compete at the highest level of GT racing, especially when lowly GM is the only one to compete against in ALMS GT1. They obviously want to be a part of it given their GT2 entries, but they want nothing to do with the 'vettes. I've got to give Prodrive hand for not backing down and getting their reliability up to where they could take back to back GT1 wins at the 24 Hours of LeMans.


GM's LMP1 program was a long shot to begin with and didn't have enough success to continue against the stiff Audi competition. Also, consider GM, along with other major automakers, is in a tight spot financially so it's hard enough for them to support a GT1 team. I'm not calling Audi cowardly at all, rather this is mostly directed towards Porsche and Ferrari, both of which have the resources, history, and prestige that would suggest they dominate GT1. Instead, they are happy to beat up on the small upstart teams like the LG Corvette, Primetime Viper and the Drayson Aston Martin.

[HeilSvenska]

Originally Posted by 79TA GM's LMP1 program was a long shot to begin with and didn't have enough success to continue against the stiff Audi competition.

Maybe Ferrari thought that it just didn't have what it takes to face the stiff Corvette competition and quit.

Originally Posted by 79TA Instead, they are happy to beat up on the small upstart teams like the LG Corvette, Primetime Viper and the Drayson Aston Martin.

Ferrari and Porsche have been in GT2 class years before these teams joined. But I see what you mean. Ferrari and Porsche easily have enough resources for full fledged GT1 programs, yet somehow they must consider it less cost-effective.

I really don't know what to make of it. Maserati's ruling FIA series in Europe, but isn't allowed in ACO races. Aston Martin's factory team is extremely competitive, but they only run at Le Mans, presumably due to cost. Corvettes are dominant everywhere as always. I'd be sad to see GT1 class go, but as long as manufacturers still participate, I won't be too disappointed. I wonder what kind of effect this will have on FIA's GT1 class as well.

[79TA]

It wasn't that long ago that Ferrari 550's were competing in GT1 classes.

[silentm]

i'm not sure if it was a 575 or a 550 that competed at the Brno race just a couple of weeks ago