The future of GT racing...

Just been listening to Radio Le Mans 'Midweek Motorsport' (season 8, epidode 6, from about 20 mins in), where they started to talk about the new BMW Z4 GTE (which is really a GT3 car with mods).

Should the GT class at ALMS/WEC/Le Mans (or other events with ACO rules) remain a 'production based formula' or should the GT class become a 'run what you brung' - aka purpose built racing cars like the '98 Porsche 911 GT1 that was essentially a sophisticated sports prototype with a 911 silhouette body.

Thoughts? (Also, should the DPs come to Le Mans and form a new GT1 category, since they have production based silhouette bodies?)

ermmm, GTE isn't changing, and DP's aren't roadcars (save the corvette). DP's are only a second or so faster than GTE's atm. And the new ALMS/Grand-am series next year see's them getting homolagated with P2 and the DeltaWing...somehow.

I thought that the GTE regs were changing in 2014/15 - what could be a problem for GTE are the sheer number of GT3 cars in championships like the Blanichpain Enduro series - GT3 cars are less expensive than GTE cars too.

If the DPs are combined with P2s and the DeltaWing, I suspect that the championship could use balance of performance to keep them all together pace-wise. And I thought that the 'Wing was being entered as a P1 car for Sebring?

it is this year, but they are going to somehow combine them all next year.

2014/15 GTE (GT2) spec will slowly die out like GT1 did...and GTE will be GT3 spec.
LMP1 will be going that way tooo as its only factory teams and teams with a cheque book the size of new york to afford it.

if LMP1 is populated enough, its fine by me. LMP2 is brilliant and I love the GTE cars, but agreed that even those are somewhat Factory-oriented, at least in GTE Pro.

GTE should remain Production based, whether it is GT2 or GT3. The merger carries over the GrandAm GT class which is a hodgepodge of Production cars and Silhouettes that have been "performance equalized", or neutered so to speak.

LMP1 is on the way out due to economic reasons. It was a good idea a dozen or so years back when the rulebook was written: "cost effective prototypes featuring the latest in technological advances", but what the ACO failed to understand is that "the latest in technical advances" are ungodly expensive.

If technical advances are that expensive, should the LMP and GT categories have seperate classes that cater for different levels of budget?

For instance:

LMP1 becomes a ring-fenced works-only category with unlimited budget.

LMP2 becomes a privateers only category with budget caps to a) allow more entrants and b) to stop works teams from infiltrating a really competitive class and reduce the risk of manufacturers killing the category by escalating costs.

The experimental (Garage 56) cars could be incorporated into the P2 class.

The same goes for GT: allow the works and works-supported teams to innovate with GT prototypes/silhouettes (with monetary ringfencing) but let the true privateers race with more production-based GT cars (using budget caps to keep spending under control)