http://www.motorsport.com/news/article.asp?ID=169755&FS=ALMS-LEMANS I geuss the only thing that could fade from view faster than Lambos F1 program.... ..................is their ill fated ALMS/FIA Sports Car Program. Maybe AllanLambo will buy the cars and push them onto the track...............course he'd probably feel insecure and lobby ALMS to allow the Murcie to run NOS bottles. Next up Aston Martin......how long will it take the Saleen, Ferrari, and Porsche's to run them out ?? Regards, Jon P. Kofod www.flatoutracing.net
Lack of factory support.... such a shame. Was looking forward to watching the developement of the R-GTs. Hopefully next year. Kenny K.
As a Lamborghini owner you have so much self esteem that you don't need no racing program to back up the heritage of your car. You know that you're king of the road, along with the golden crown and golden chain on the hairy chest.
Well, I suppose it's a Ferrarichat website so some replies are expected. Let us not forget that when the 550 first entered racing under the auspices of Prodrive, Ferrari refused to lift a single finger to help them. In fact they initially refused to allow the cars to even campaign as Ferrari, with the team having to purchase outright two road cars to strip and assess because the company wouldn't even supply basic production data. When the cars were finally successful, then the company launched into a "look how successful we are in the GT class" and then decided to campaign in it themselves. Ferrari were successful in GT racing in spite of themselves. Lambo have probably done a lot more for the development of the Murcie than Ferrari ever did for the Maranello.
The whole situation with the Lamborghini deal in the ALMS was suspect from the beginning. Knowing that in it's first outting at Monza last year in the hands of the two top sports car drivers in the world, Tom Kristensen and Rinaldo Capello, both drivers having a "***** list" so long that they stated that they had to drive the car 110% just to keep up to the back of the field and the entry was scratched due to safety concerns. I had to hold my tongue at the press conference at Sebring this year when Barbour and Krohn announced the program especially when it was mentioned that there would be no title sponsor. Maybe Barbour and Krohn had an master plan to make the prohibitively expensive car to operate competitve against the factory Corvettes? They had good drivers in David Brabham and Peter Kox, the later of which attached his career into the Lamborghini project but as we have seen with the racing version of the Murcialgo, good drivers alone cannot make this car competitive. Thus, no surprise they pulled out siting lack of factory support. The whole story will become public soon enough. In contrast, Aston Martin is coming with the DBR9. There will be no such problems developing the car under the auspices of Prodrive. An indication as to Gaydon's commitment to racing is the fact that 10 examples are being built, the first of which is being tested in private already. See you at Sebring. BHW
I am going from memory with this, but I think your report is slightly inaccurate. I know the Rafanelli 550 was not allowed to have any Ferrari badges. The Prodrive cars--while not supported by Ferrari--had their Ferrari badges. Minor point, mostly insignificant, but wanted to illustrate this discrepancy regardless. The difference between the Krohn-Barbour deal and the Rafanelli & Prodrive Ferrrai deals is Factory support. Rafanelli & Prodrive knew when they began their programs that they were not going to receive factory support. K-B claim that factory support was part of the deal from its inception, but that said support was not forthcoming. Greg A
The facts about the Prodrive and Rafanelli Ferrari 550 GT Maranello deals are partly true, partly not. Having worked with both teams, I may shed some light on this. When the programs began, both Prodrive and Rafanelli took their cars to Fiorano for several days testing under the ausipices of Jean Todt and the Ferrari brass including Luca. Maranello was impressed with the projects of both, giving them their blessings and stated at the time they would offer full support once the programs showed signs of being competitive in the FIA GT and ALMS. Prodrive had an advantage in that they are a huge operation, deep in engineering talent and experience. Rafanelli, on the other hand is a small, family run team which had some decent results in the past and were starting their 550 GT program basically from scratch. Once success came to Prodrive/Care Racing in both the FIA GT, ALMS and 24 Hours of Le Mans the relationship between them and Maranello began to crumble as support did not arrive as promised. And, as has been stated, Ferrari took credit for Prodrive's outstanding GTS win at Le Mans in 2003 even though their support was said to have been "bits and pieces" and Frederic Dor was saddled with the development costs. Rafanelli took another approach, using independent engine builders ending up with Elan to build his engines for 2003. The small team progressed with the Elan power plant but struggled to match the handling and pace of the Prodrive/Care Racing 550 GT Maranellos even though Tomas Enge related that the Elan V12 was more powerful than the Prodrive engine. Most of Rafanelli's problems were tire related. When he switched to Pirelli for 2003, development of "those round black things from Italy" (as Rafanelli himself referred to them as) came to a stand still. And, as Rafanelli famously said, "What good is power if you are spinning your tires in fifth gear?". In the end, Rafanelli's sponsor, Olive Garden, decided to pull out at the end of 2003 leaving Rafanelli with a hugely expensive car to operate, much less develop, and the car was sold to an Australian touring car team where it now campaigns. A real shame since Rafanelli tried everything in his power to land a deal (chassis, engine, tires, sponsors, etc.) to campaign in 2004 to no avail. So, in the end, purchasing one of the Care Racing Ferrari 550 GT Maranellos would be an expensive proposition at best. Inquiries have revealed there are several to choose from ranging in price from $500,000 to $1.5M for the Le Mans winner and thus far no one has stepped forward. Even with one of these cars, development would be non existant and in the face of the new factory Corvette C6 and Prodrive/Aston Martin DBR9s coming, the Ferraris would be at a distinct disadvantage right out of the gate. BHW
