Where's Dallara?

[skycafe]

Originally Posted by Fogelhund

We really need some developed chassis, such as the Porsche 962, 955, Spyder etc. that can be purchased at a price that they can be sold in numbers, and be competitive.

When you mention 955, do you mean 956 or 935?

Porsche is a good example in that they were offering a developed machine that could be purchased turn-key. You do have to admit that the early competition these cars in GTP faced were kit cars (for the most part- and yes you had G 44 and TWR and Nissan and Toyota coming along after that), with teams having to integrate power systems to chassis, and that competition suffered somewhat for it. Still, it was a great period because it was so dynamic. At points if you looked at an IMSA grid you would have seen several 962's, but were each developed differently.

At some point the 962 was a fixed target not capable of dramatic gains and that was exploited by Nissan and then Toyota.

Customer cars were always part of the sportscar tradition-Ferrari did the same with the 333SP. Going back, you had Testa Rossa's and GTO's, and 275LM, and Porsche the RS, RSK thru 904 to the 917 (the 936 I think was the only one never available for purchase).

It seems sometimes changing the rule set has an open door effect, and other times it does not (Group C versus the 3 litre era). I am of the opinion that limiting capacity, number of cylinders and configuration is not the way to go in sportscar racing because then you force any manufacturer wanting to participate into this arena where they start well behind someone else with an established program. Looking at the business aspect, it makes no sense to get involved as it becomes a spending war and you start well behind your opponent and the return doesn't match the investment. That would holds true if you are a manufacturer or a private team buying equipment.

So, in a competitive market how to you create an environment to give ROI to sportscars and how to you created a level field to have several companies offer car options for purchase?