Who needs F1??

I'm a Porsche owner, and have been since I was born - ok my Dad had one..... They have always been great at sports cars and rally, but not much in open wheeled cars. 1 victory - by luck in F1. Sadly IMSA is not what it used to be. Porsche get routinely beat in WEC races, but Ferrari and Toyota. I'm not diminishing the wins, but IMSA is not really that competitive, compared to WEC, Its like an expensive club racing series. I get that Porsche and F1 are not right for each other. the cost is too high and they really dont have much to gain. Winning the WCC in 84-86 with the TAG Turbo engine shows they can do engines when needed, but sadly they just dont do full open wheel cars well. We'll see how Audi does next year... expecting much. When Porsche won all those LeMans back in the 80's 90's the competition was not huge... mostly other private run 956 - 962's .... Lancia, Jaguar, and Mercedes here and there. When the competition got too heavy and costly they bailed out. YET their reputation is strong.

As a car maker, they are good solid cars. I love my 911.... and most of the other Porsches that I like are old - older... 904, 917, 356.... 550 RSK .... as for the modern cars... 911 variants for me... all the rest... Not so much.

 

How sad, I'd always pictured you to be a real tifosi

 

I grew up in the 50s...all racing was so much simpler in those days. I have an original copy of the bi-weekly newspaper MotoRacing Vol. 3 #17 covering June 13-20, 1958. The big red headline on top is "Scarab Finally Wins!" Below that is the headline "Spin-happy Novices at Santa Barbara" and a photo of an MG-TD doing a 180 spin in front of an Austin Healey. Below that, a Corvette doing the same in front of a Mercedes 300SL gullwing. This was pure racing, hot rodders and gentlemen enthusiasts taking their cars and their fortunes and their personal honor to airports and fairgrounds around the country.

I've had this for years, take it out once a year to read it. I think it is time to find it a new home so that it survives for future enthusiasts to read. Not looking for money, just want to find it a proper home. Any suggestions? The Petersen? Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

That I am as well. I have a 599 too. I've been to both Factories, and know their histories pretty well. Ferrari certainly much better than I do Porsche. BUT - I actually met Prof. Porsche in 1989 and have an autograph picture I got from him at the Factory in Zuffanhausen. Looking at it right now. I got Mr. Ferrari's autograph 3 years earlier, but never met him. I have met Piero 3 times in the past. ( all at F-1 races and just in passing.)

 

Is that the pre cursor to Autoweek?... I cant remember but It was Chris Economaki

 

Chris Economaki was National Speed Sport News.

 

ah yes... forgot.

 

If you didn't hear, 1-2 Ferrari at Spa overall, and 1st and 3rd in GT.

Who needs F1 indeed....

sjd

 

maybe they need to turn the team over to AF Corse....

sjd

 

Interesting article. The BoP rules in the WEC are slightly convoluted and difficult to understand, but this is an eye opener.
Why do the parameters need to be changed all the time? It's not a BoP anymore, more of a "Performance Ballast", which may be the issue.
Why the ACO and IMSA were so eager to create convergence in the first place, which is the root of the problem, IMO.
They could have accepted both categories (LMH and LMDh) without trying to equalise them?
The clause imposed on the teams, forbidding them to discuss the BoP in the WEC, sounds a bit drastic to me, but typical ACO.
LMDh teams and constructors that are not satisfied should withdraw from the WEC and Le Mans and race only in the USA.

 

Toyota and Porsche (and AUDI back when) achieved success against others who only played in WEC, and only with WEC financials.

Ferrari (an historic racing powerhouse) agrees to F1 cost cap and dumps 4 seasons of WEC (2/3rds season of F1) cash into a car and pops right up to the top, using {designers bathed in F1, construction techniques previously exclusive to F1, and aerodynamic tools exclusive to F1} over into WEC effort.

Why is anyone (anyone at all) surprised ?!?!?

 

Evidently, Ferrari F1 background has proven to be an advantage in WEC.
Also, AF Corse has been in endurance for years.

 

F1 was always the Old Man's favorite by far anyway....the glittering prize.

Porsche has "ruined" more than a few divisions over the years by utterly dominating them and eventually either tiring of it or being banned outright. But they haven't answered the question---COULD they do this in F1? Even armed with $400 million per season, Toyota proved that you can't buy success in F1. But I think Porsche could if they entered under the right circumstances, and would love to see them try....

 

There is no sports racer more burned into my memory as a kid than the mighty Lowenbrau 962s, so beautiful.....

I'd gladly take a Dauer street legal version in that livery, please.....

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Unfortunately, most sports racers stopped being beautiful in the 2000s IMO. They look purposeful and menacing, but in an alien spacecraft sort of way, no more classic works of art...

 

The things which aren't quite good enough for F1 seem to be more than sufficient for WEC.
{{Or the failures in their CFD models don't seem to fail as often in closed wheel cars as open wheel cars.}}

 

No, I would challenge that ! Sportscars and endurance are what launched Ferrari after WWII. Enzo Ferrari never forgot that !!

 

I’ll go for the Schuppan 962 CR then… in naked carbon!

 

I wonder how quickly Audi will regret putting so much money into such a boring form of motor sport as F1?

 

And therein lies the problem. Tens of billions of dollars, thousand of employees, and five years....just to hope to win a race. Sports cars or F1 or Indy, there was no difference...The Scarab, the Chaparell, the American Eagle, AJ Foyt, Phil Hill racing everything and anything he could get his hands on (and paying his own travel and hotel bills), James Hunt and Hesketh Racing, Colin Chapman glueing cars together, run what you brung racing. It was this same energy the first time I went to the Monterey Historic Races in 1979 or 80. The sport was a fellowship, not a business. Fast is whatever speed almost puts you into the weeds. I wouldn't pay to see a modern F1 race. But I'd drive all night, flat towing my '58 Spider Veloce to race it at any track that would have us. Until motorsport rediscovers the passions of its roots, it is a cold dead fish...and the smell gets worse every day.