HereGarage 56's Le Mans-Bound NASCAR Camaro Is Officially Here

it’s been a while

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Saw that...that's badass

 

Jenson Button did a run, got out... "How can something with so much power have so little grip?"

sjd

 

It's back to basics for Jenson, racing as we should have left it: no downforce !

 

And no paddle shift

 

Are they going to have pneumatic air jacks at LeMans or are they still going to have someone running around with a floor jack during pit stops?

 

I read somewhere they intended to be really "NASCAR authentic" and use floor jacks. To be seen ...

 

apparently they're going to keep the floor jack

https://www.nascar.com/news-media/2023/02/02/garage-56-testing-2023-daytona-day-2-recap/

weird but OK

 

NASCAR: "We are going to Le Mans! Please take us serious..."

Also NASCAR: "We get a discount at Harbor Freight"

 

At Le Mans, I would be more worried about how the brakes are going to stand up than the jack !!!

 

First Ive heard of this, what a cool idea. I look forward to seeing how it goes.

 

LOL

reasonable concern

I hope this does well. I wouldn't be opposed to IMSA running a NASCAR class at Daytona with a bunch of Cup guys. that could be fun. would be similar to the old GTO class (which was basically Trans Am cars with headlights)

 

I like the idea as long as we aren't still turning away legit entries. GTP, LMP2, GTD (combine the classes since it doesn't make any difference), and then Cup.

If you could have one prototype class, one GT class and the Cup class it would be so much easier for fans to follow. I follow this stuff really closely and go to multiple events each year. I still am having trouble remembering which cars are in GTD vs GTD Pro. Doesn't help that a few cars have flipped back and forth.

 

Here's how it looked in 1976:

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Are we taking odds on how many seconds it will be off the pace?

BHW

 

at COTA, a GTE car does a 2:02 and a Cup car does a 2:13, so extrapolate from there.

the hybrid prototypes will use it as a chicane

 

Yes it will be a mobile chicane and it's rythm will be very disruptive not to say potentially lethal.

It will be like a cow on ice getting in the way everywhere but the straights where it will have a decent top speed BUT will brake a mile before the others, very dangerous.

I recall when I raced In the Esso Formula Ford series in England in 1988 an open test day on the Silverstone club circuit.

That was the only time we ran with BTCC British Touring cars. Well these fat old English Nascar equivalent had us by 50kph on the straights 250 vs 200....but braked ages before we did.

The first one who passed me on the back straight immediately moved in front of me AND, to my huge surprise, dropped the anchors the very next second shooting exhaust flames at my visor while I tried everything to avoid slamming into him....of course being several times lighter I had much better brakes but for an instant I was just one meter behind his flame throwers...

It is the same problem when Radicals etc are mixed with GT cars during track days. These rhythm differences are potentially lethal.

I just hope this weird experiment does not backfire. Don't be surprised if it gets excluded after a few hours after a deluge of complaints by teams.

 

Le Mans has always mixed different categories with huge performance differences. There are in fact several races in the Race.
Drivers are briefed about the risks and encouraged to adapt their driving to the challenge.
I believe the skills of newcomers are tested, which didn't happened before when most of the participants were amateurs.
The Garage 56 NASCAR Camaro driven by 3 professionals can't be more dangerous than some of the cars seen in the past .
In the 60s, the 7L Ford MKII where topping above 220mph in traffic among cars only capable of half their speed.
Mario Andretti explained it in a commentary, refering to his experience in 1966, where he found himself during the night threading his way among the field and "up to his arse in Alfa (Tubolare), Triumph (Spitfire !), Austin Healey Sprite and other small stuff" and trying not to bump into them"[sic].
I liked the 2 NASCAR cars I saw in 1976, and I remember what attraction they were.
The same can happend with the Camaro this year. I wish them well.

 

IIRC, if the car does not lap within a certain percentage, they'll black flag it.

They should have done this with Michael Waltrip a few years ago when he was driving a Ferrari
in GTAM and his lap times were 19 seconds off the class leader. It was anyone's guess why
they didn't call him in as it was obvious he was in way over his head and as Marc points out,
potentially lethal.

BHW

 

Given the driver lineup I

I think I read that the Camaro is lapping Daytona faster than the GT3 spec cars so I would guess that puts it about in line with the GTE cars. How they make their lap times will be very different and I can see that catching some people out.

 

I had heard "1:46s" for the Camaro; GTD fast lap was 1:46 flat. so, up to a second off pace (1:46.99 would be in the 1:46s )

in 2019, last "real" year of GTE (GTLM) at Daytona with the Fords and BMW/Porsche/Chevy/Ferrari full or factory supported teams, GTD was about 3 seconds slower than GTE.

so you would expect a 4 second lap time gap at Daytona. with a lap time a bit more than twice as long at LeMans (2022 GTE Pro pole time was 3:49), you would expect an ~8 second gap to GTE. then there's a 25 second gap from Hypercar (last year) to GTE Pro

what I haven't seen is what spec the motor will be run in...NASCAR mode (~670 hp), BOP'd down, de-restricted up...

 

I cannot see what the fuss is about regarding a NASCAR Camaro racing at Le Mans. Yes the car will be slower and have longer braking zones than the Hypercars, for sure, but already the GTE have those. It has been like that for years, and no one called it lethal.
In fact, some of the incidents in recent years have been caused by LMP drivers under-estimating the speed of slower cars.

 

*cough* McNish *cough*

as stated above, I like it. it's different (though not unprecedented). I'm actually more concerned about JJ's general lack of talent than the car being too slow.

 

Spot on !!!

Also like the LMP2 guy who sent the Risi car in the guardrail by swerving under its nose under braking at Mulsane.