NASCAR at LeMans

[aaronatstate]

Looks like min weight for a Cup Car is 3300 lbs. without fuel. That'd put it right around 3420 with full fuel, so what Chris said is probably the case. Just a lot less ballast in the LeMans car.

[Jeff V.]

Meanwhile, Formula 1 cars are running half unpainted to save half a pound.

[Chris GTO TT]

Meanwhile, Formula 1 cars are running half unpainted to save half a pound.

Unless something has changed they do that so they can put that pound somewhere else. They still have a minimum weight they have to hit.

[Jeff V.]

I know. I just think it's funny that the margins are sooo much smaller there.

[Chris GTO TT]

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cr3hNNXu ... MyMTA2M2Y=

[ChargerX3]

I can almost fit 2 Cappuccinos in that thing.

[Chris GTO TT]

https://www.thedrive.com/news/nascar-st ... y-gigantic

[aaronatstate]

Sure it’s bigger than prototype cars, but how does it compare in size to the GT cars. Bet he dimensions are much closer.

[Chris GTO TT]

probably much closer in size but still the NASCAR is going to be much bigger and bulkier

[Jeff V.]

Let's see.

NASCAR Next Gen car: 193.4"L x 78.6"W x 50.4" H

2023 Camaro ZL1: 190″ L x 75″ W x 53″ H

Toyota GR010 prototype: 192.9" L x 78.7" W x 45.3" H

LMGTE Corvette C8.R: 182.3" L x 80.7" W x 45.2" H

2023 Corvette Z06: 182.3″ L x 76″ W x 49″ H

All the widths are without mirrors.

So the footprint is about the same as a prototype, but the height is pretty different. It's a lot longer and taller than the C8.R. And like Chris said, it's just a much bulkier design overall. The prototype is basically shrink wrapped around the driver and engine. All the LMGTE cars are smaller sports cars.

[Chris GTO TT]

My take away from those figures is where in the hell did GM/Pratt & Miller remove almost 4" of height from the C8

[aaronatstate]

Also interesting that the NASCAR is basically the same size as a stock Camaro.

[Jeff V.]

My take away from those figures is where in the hell did GM/Pratt & Miller remove almost 4" of height from the C8

Most of the difference is probably ride height.

I just looked it up, and the C7.R was 3.3" lower than a stock Z06.

Also interesting that the NASCAR is basically the same size as a stock Camaro.

I know it's basically just a punchline at this point, but it is sort of supposed to be 'stock car' racing.

It's going to be interesting to see what GM and NASCAR do when GM shitcans the Camaro (again) in 2024. They're going to have to figure out how to brand a Malibu as a race car.

[aaronatstate]

Also interesting that the NASCAR is basically the same size as a stock Camaro.

I know it's basically just a punchline at this point, but it is sort of supposed to be 'stock car' racing.

It's going to be interesting to see what GM and NASCAR do when GM shitcans the Camaro (again) in 2024. They're going to have to figure out how to brand a Malibu as a race car.

They branded the Lumina as a race car at one point so...

And that even assumes the Malibu will be around in 2024/2025 after the Camaro is gone.

I mean Toyota brands the Camry as a race car for NASCAR, but it looks like Chevy is going away from cars just like Ford did. At least Ford kept the Mustang.

[Chris GTO TT]

https://www.nascar.com/news-media/2023/ ... UFTRMdm-bg

I’m looking forward to this!

[Jeff V.]

Corvette Racing is dead after this year.

https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a4411 ... cing-dead/

WEC is moving away from fully factory backed teams for their sport car classes starting in 2024. Looks like GM is going to use this as an excuse to pull out of IMSA too.

They're going to sell Corvette GT3Rs to customer teams now. So there will still be Corvettes racing, but the current GM factory team will be disbanded.

[Chris GTO TT]

wow that is kind of shocking... but it also makes sense as towhy Pratt and Miller suddenly split their Motorsports content off onto seperate social media accounts in the last couple weeks.

[alienviking]

I must admit I don't understand why companies do racing anymore. The old "win on Sunday sell on Monday" hasn't been in effect for 25 years. Sure they learn some stuff about tuning sports cars etc but overall I really don't get why they spend all that money on it.

[Jeff V.]

Mercedes has justified their F1 involvement in terms of learning about thermal efficiency in the combustion engines and energy recovery and deployment in the hybrid systems. Porsche, McLaren and Ferrari's entire corporate identities are based around their racing heritage. GM ran the flat-plane crank V8 in the C8R for a couple years before they finally admitted that it was going into the Z06. All the aero and cooling stuff on my car was derived from the C7R.

I agree it doesn't make as much sense as it once did, but there's still some technological carryover, and there's definite marketing benefits.

[Chris GTO TT]

yeah outside of production based cars, part of why GT3 is so popular, there isn't much technology transfer anymore. It is all just marketing now.