joemoia

IMO, 50% of what De Lorenzo writes is total BS (he once predicted that one of Detroit's Mfrs would leave NASCAR), but he does have the part about new ACO LMP regulations for 2014 right.

http://www.autoextremist.com/fumes1/

Z06_BluByU

wonder if the announcement on the Return of the Viper to ALMS might have influenced their decision to get out of the class....

AU N EGL

Time and Money.

For caddie, unlimited money and buy a good team and prepair cars to race German Touring DTM

Rebadge the Australian Holdens as Caddies for Aussie SuperV8s

travisnd

I'm going to be pissed if I don't get to see a Vette vs. Viper GT battle.

RX-Ben

That makes no sense to me. P racing is about mfgs, not a particular street car model.
Corvette vs Viper vs GT3 vs M3 is ideal.

Zoxxo

They do it for corporate image.

As much as I would love to see GM go after P1 at Le Mans, I won't be holding my breath as the amount of money (very large) and the corporate commitment (long) required just to be a serious contender, much less win, just isn't what American companies are good at. Way too much short term, quarterly earnings report thinking drives these folks to make this work. That's why they like the Corvette and Cadillac GT efforts - they can be approved on a year-to-year basis and the overall costs are a small fraction of the corporate advertising budget. A multi-year assault on Le Mans, on the other hand, and P1 to boot? I'm thinkin' at best.

Z//

Everett Ogilvie

I don't see GM removing Corvette from GT racing. It belongs there way more than Cadillac does. Anyone who read that article as an announcement that Corvette Racing is leaving ALMS needs to step away from the crack pipe.

Now a "Corvette" P1 car? - that would be cool as hell.

joemoia

There were reports back in 2007 that GM was developing a Corvette LMP1 in anticipation of the ACO instituting new "LMP EVO" regs.

http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dl.../1566/almsnews

cebars

What's Fehan's budget now for Corvette Racing....$15-$20 million.

What's Audi's budget now for their LMP1 team. I heard (from inside the audi team) rightly or wrongly that the vehicle development costs alone over $100 million. Obama Motors doesn't have money for the track or the street cars to compete with the Germans in the showroom never mind a LMP1 team.

I don't see how Cadillac can expect to penetrate the Euro market or Chinese market against the offerings of Benz, BMW and Audi. Looked at a C63 AMG...about $65K. IMHO Twice the technology and interior of a CTS-V. So I don't see GM spending alot of money in the DTM. They do not have a competitive market to sell. I drive a CTS.

rocsvette

that's correct, there has been talk for years internally about going to P-class. Note that in Grand Am Corvette is running DP cars. I would not be surprised to see the shift to LMP cars. BTW the ALMS contracts are not year to year but for a set period of time.

jhester

following the 2007 season Corvette was going to move into LMP1 (from GT1), which would allow Riley / LGM to move into GT2 to maintain a stock-appearing Corvette to remain in the ALMS.

The LMP program was in concept stages at Pratt, they have a wind tunnel model that is displayed in their lobby (not similarities to recent Grand Am DP body work)





Final design concept would have looked something like this:



Keep in mind the LMP rules have changed from 2007 to 2012, so the above chassis would be illegal, but I can tell you (from a primary source) that the program was in the early stages of development before the recession hit and GM pulled the plug (then went GT2 racing, against their agreement with Riley + LGM)

Falcon

I think they spent that just on LeMans a year or 2 ago.