Motorsport Off Topic Thread

Alibaba99 · 11 Jun 2019 at 12:25

Flibster said:
The A1GP cars were properly quick race cars. Was a great series, some great drivers and races. Shame they went to Ferrari roadcar derived engines and then folded.

Some driver called Nico Hulkenberg did quite well in the 2nd season as well.

Flibster · 11 Jun 2019 at 21:23

Alibaba99 said:
Some driver called Nico Hulkenberg did quite well in the 2nd season as well.

And whatever happened to him? Just vanished.

GravyMonster · 11 Jun 2019 at 21:33

Never to be seen on a podium again.

SoliD · 13 Jun 2019 at 20:55

Spunkey said:
Never to be seen on a podium again.

Just at le mans.

an0nym0us · 14 Jun 2019 at 01:08

CaptainRAVE said:
I was right about the fastest lap award. What a complete waste of time. A car in the top 10 with a pitstop gap pits, puts on new tyres, sets the fastest time - hardly exciting and since there are battles going on elsewhere we don't even see it.

I assume you're referring to F1. Agreed, I don't think it's a good way of adding any excitement to the race. If I recall correctly, the 2019 fastest laps have only been set by a driver from one of the top 3 teams. Maybe Liberty Media was trying to make a clearer distinction between F1 and F1.5? Gasly is trying hard to blur the line though.

KiNgPiN83 · 14 Jun 2019 at 12:28

What do you lot think of these new WEC regulations for the replacements to the LMP1 prototypes?

Story:
https://www.fiawec.com/en/news/new-2020-hypercar-regulations-approved/6186

Breakdown/TLDR version with pictures:
https://assets.lemans.org/explorer/pdf/courses/2018/fia-wec/fia-wec-regulations-2020.pdf

I think it could be pretty cool having manufacturers hyper cars out there battling it out. Of course it relies on them actually competing/allowing their cars to be purchased to compete.. Has to be ultimate bragging rights though? So hopefully lots of manufacturers get involved.

Marvin · 14 Jun 2019 at 13:45

It looks promising, but I suppose the proof of the pudding will be in how many teams get involved, and how competitive it is. The intentions all seem pretty good though so I'm hopeful.

KiNgPiN83 · 14 Jun 2019 at 14:05

Marvin said:
It looks promising, but I suppose the proof of the pudding will be in how many teams get involved, and how competitive it is. The intentions all seem pretty good though so I'm hopeful.

Yeah, i'm guessing they went and spoke to various marques to gauge interest so hopefully that was positive. Got to be better than one team vanishing off into the distance i guess?

Flibster · 14 Jun 2019 at 15:02

So it's pretty much the modern version of the old GT1.

Fair enough. I can live with that.

SoliD · 14 Jun 2019 at 15:55

Sounds like an interesting step and back to GT1 days, hopefully we'll see some road going maniacs to go with them, although I'm trying to work out what benefit there is to making one if you don't need to!

GravyMonster · 14 Jun 2019 at 16:09

The 180Kg engine weight limit seems quite restrictive. The minimum car weight of 1040Kg also seems to make these cars a bit on the 'lardy' side. I still miss the days of big displacement in tiny cars

Hopefully there's enough manufacturer interest and the racing is good enough to make up for it.

poosemon · 14 Jun 2019 at 16:22

Are the other levels being tweaked i.e LMP2 or is this just top class?

Hoping GTE Pro isnt meddled with too much as reliably offers fantastic racing in the endurance races!

KiNgPiN83 · 14 Jun 2019 at 17:37

I think I’m right in saying this will be LMP1. At least that’s what I got from the pdf?? I didn’t see anything else about the others being changed. Although I didn’t look to be fair...

Aston Martin have already signed up with the Valkyrie apparently. :cool:

KiNgPiN83 · 15 Jun 2019 at 22:01

Zak Brown has been talking about a McLaren entry to WEC too. (That that with a massive pinch of salt though I guess. They should probably pick a formula and be good at it rather than being meh at loads.)

GravyMonster · 19 Jun 2019 at 16:17

Toyota's Hypercar testing mule:

KiNgPiN83 · 19 Jun 2019 at 19:01

Just read about them. So that’s Aston, Toyota and maybe/maybe not McLaren.

Alibaba99 · 20 Jun 2019 at 21:27

I think the Glickenhaus is confirmed as well. Then there is 4 others which are on the maybe list which includes McLaren.

KiNgPiN83 · 22 Jun 2019 at 19:25

It could be really good! Despite losing BMW and Ford.

Emlyn_Dewar · 23 Jun 2019 at 03:47

Watching the Nurburgring 24hr when I can at the moment. Love when it gets to the very early morning hours, and the sky starts to move on from black.
Wish I was there this year!

Edit: They just got the Manta back out!

Emlyn_Dewar · 23 Jun 2019 at 16:18

Consistent great TV from this. Imagine a world where F1 even came close.