Best Sportscar.

[Speeddemon555]

If I want to pick the best sportscar of all time. I would choose the Audi R8s because of its designs from the aero packages to the drivers and crews to dominate the sportscar scene in Lemans and ALMS. What do you think the best sportscar in history in terms of domination over the competition?

[Lee Janotta]

If we're talking prototypes, it has to be German. Either the Porsche 917, Porsche 956/962, or the Audi R8. Funny how there are probably people who worked on all three projects.

Production cars? It can only be the Porsche 911 series.

[SL]

Prototype has to the the GT40 or 917 and both started the race car turned road car theme. Both you could legally buy and drive. Try going to Audi and asking for a road version of the R8 There are sevearl Ferraris that also fit the bill but they seemed to follow rather than set the trend.

Modern cars, apart from the 911, could be the McLaren / Viper type cars. These seem to have roots in the Vette / Mustang type cars. Also the low cc low weight cars like Lotus.

Perhaps you need to define the catagory a little more.

Simon

[Fab]

The early 90' are often forgotten : the Peugoet wes not so bad at Le Mans, wasn't it ?

But I agree with Simon, Lee and Speeddemon : GT 40, 917, 956/962 and R8 are obviously the natural choices...

For the street cars, I'll go for the 911 too... it cross the time without taking age...

[cybersdorf]

Porsche 936. The works cars were pretty much unbeaten whenever they appeared.

[rdjones]

Depends on which era
50's - Jaguar D-Type
60's - Ford GT40
70's - Porsche 917
80's - Porsche 956/62
90's - Peugeot 905, TWR Porsche WRC
00's - Audi R8

[Speedworx]

90's - Mercedes CLK-LM
00's - Audi R8

[E46]

First Porsche 962C. In second place Toyota GT-One (for me is better car than Audi R8 but they hadn´t luck).

[paulzinho]

Porsche 956/962

Absolutely gorgeous (particularly one named penny and the other Petula! )

Not only that but they were hugely successful for a very long period of time, they appeared and were competitive in both factory and privateer versions to an extent which will be hard to match, name another car where the privateers could race against and beat the factory effort! I want one!

Second goes to the Porsche 917, another stunningly beautiful car which was fast and successful. I want one of these too!

[Mal]

Toyota GT one's failure was not to me just a lack of luck, but a lack of perseverance. The car clearly was fast enough, but if only they hadn,t canned it when they did it could easily have won and gone into the history books.

And I am not convinced that the clk lm will go down as a successful design, good looking though it undoubtably was.

[JAG]

One car that no one has mentioned is the Jaguar XJR-14.
The car was designed by the great Ross Brawn and was four seconds a lap quicker than the opposition at the first race of 1991 WSC, Suzuka.

The car maintained this dominance until the Nurburgring when Peugeot introduced there 1992 car 6 minths early. At this time development on the XJR-14 had ceased as Jaguar were pulling out of the WSC.

The following year it was dominant against the Toyota IMSA GTP car before being penalised with weight penalties that allowed the Toyota to win the championship.

The car then went on to win Le Mans twice in the form of the TWR WSC Porsche.

I liked to see another car that was this domonant against strong opposition, unlike the early years of the 956/962.

[JAG]

And I am not convinced that the clk lm will go down as a successful design, good looking though it undoubtably was.

The CLK-LM won 10 out of 10 FIA GT races and was a match in out and out speed with the Toyota GT-One at LM 98 despite not stretching the rules as much as the GT-One.

[egor]

One car that no one has mentioned is the Jaguar XJR-14.

I think the Jags were brilliant in any of their forms, took the fight to Porsche, and won.

I liked the BRM WSC, nice looking car but unfortunately not a very good race car, not much development and a bit fragile.

[The Bear]

IMHO

20's: Bentley speed 12
30's: Alfa Romeo 8C2300
40's: Ferrari 166LM
50's: Jaguar D type
60's: Ford GT40
70's: Matra-Simca 670
80's: Porsche 962
90's: Porsche WSC
00's: Audi R8

[Aysedasi]

Originally posted by Mal
Toyota GT one's failure was not to me just a lack of luck, but a lack of perseverance. The car clearly was fast enough, but if only they hadn,t canned it when they did it could easily have won and gone into the history books.

And I am not convinced that the clk lm will go down as a successful design, good looking though it undoubtably was.

Mal, everyone could have guessed that I'd agree with you.

Having said that, rd's list looks pretty close to the mark as far as I'm concerned.

[paul-collins]

Myself having come to sportscars through Can-Am, I know which car I'd pick. Since it ran both enduro and sprint races, it has to be the 917.

(I still prefer the McLaren M8, particularly the early iterations, but it never ran endurance races.)

[AllonFS]

Same threads come around again!

The cars below, as well as being incredibly successful, have also captured the imagination. They seem to represent an era.

20s: Bentley speed 6
50s: Jaguar D type
60s: Ford GT40
70s: Porsche 917
80s: Porsche 956/962

There are others which were as successful or almost as successful, but for me just don't have the extra something. They were magnificent machines, but just don't have the aura that the ones above do. I would include in this list:

30s: Alfa Romeo 8C2300
50s: Ferrari 250P/LM
70s: Matra 670 and Porsche 936
00s: Audi R8

[paulzinho]

That's a very good point Allon, those you mention in the first list are truly special machines, the stuff of legend, the others might be just as successful but they don't seem to capture the same imagination!

[Nordic]

Rather than cars that capture the imagination for me its the eras themselves. the early sixtes to mid 70's work for me,908's 917's 512'2 Martra's, Alfas not to mention the 2 litre stuff, all stuff to make me weak at the Knees.
The Grp 5 cars also capture my imagination 935, M1's, CSL even Zakspeed Capris.
While being possible the best sportsproto the 956/962 leave me a bit cold when compared to a 917 or 908

[paul-collins]

Originally posted by Nordic
Rather than cars that capture the imagination for me its the eras themselves. the early sixtes to mid 70's work for me,908's 917's 512'2 Martra's, Alfas not to mention the 2 litre stuff, all stuff to make me weak at the Knees.

Group 7 baby!

[Dani Filth]

Originally posted by JAG
And I am not convinced that the clk lm will go down as a successful design, good looking though it undoubtably was.

The CLK-LM won 10 out of 10 FIA GT races and was a match in out and out speed with the Toyota GT-One at LM 98 despite not stretching the rules as much as the GT-One.

I will have to disagree .. but if my memories are correct .. in the first races of the 98 season Merc used the CLK GTR with the V12 and smaller chassis ....

[Mal]

Yes and surely the CLK-Lm worked better as an aeroplane

[JAG]

Originally posted by Mal
Yes and surely the CLK-Lm worked better as an aeroplane

That was the CLR from '99. The CLK-LM was from 98 and was an amazing car.

[egor]

But the Merc whether it was a plane or a race car never won the big one! It was a very good car in the FIA GT's.

I think the Mclaren F1 was the car for the nineties, it changed the GT's and without it you would not have seen the Porsche GT1, Merc CLR/CLK, Nissan R390, Toyota GT1, the evolution of the F40, the Viper turned into a race car, And they won Le Mans at the first attempt.

[AllonFS]

Originally posted by Mal
Yes and surely the CLR worked better as an aeroplane

Is it a bird, is it a plane? Oh sh*t it's a low flying Merc, INCOMING!

(Sorry about that, it is Friday. Actually I'm so happy we can all laugh about this, it so nearly could have been a tragedy. It was my first race and I wonder if I would feel the same about Le Mans now if Webber or Dumbreck had been killed that year. Mercedes really should stick to building safe road cars, like the original A Class!)

The weekend can't come quickly enough!