What if NASCAR Wins LeMans Next Year?
 

Well, I saw the first news article and thought it was a joke by the sports car folks making fun of the "new" stock car that NASCAR is now racing what with alloy wheels, low profile tires, center lock hubs and even fuel injection controlled engines? Well, I guess it is a NOT a joke and it appears that NASCAR, IMSA, Goodyear and the huge resources of the Hendricks racing organization it will enter a car for the class for experimental cars which isn't used very often. The latest article I read said the car will have a "slightly modified" NASCAR engine but with batteries and electric motors and since they can go well over 220 MPH if rear end and transmission gears are not restricted such as a test that was done at Daytona a while ago so it would seem a 24hour reliability would be the biggest possible issue? Oh yeah, NO shift lever with a nice round ball but electronic paddle shifters!

The testing has been done with Mike Rockenfeller who is a pretty good driver I would say?

Pigs could fly too.

But it is an interesting effort. How fast is a stockcar if you open up the restrictions and add some go-faster parts? We'll find out.

Didn't the Cup cars get up to like 212 decades ago at Talladega before they were restricted? Gonna be a LOT faster than that now ....

I bet they don't ride the wall :D

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1668804939.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1668804939.jpg

Rusty Wallace went 216 at Talladega in 2004. That was for a laptime. I read he actually topped out at 228. Its better to hit the wall from 6" away than 30' away. I think inertia comes into play.

I applaud the effort . That is a well run and funded organization with some smart folks . I wish them well .

Was thinking exactly the same thing

Would love to work on this project, will be a huge learning and fun experience for the folks involved

in 1950 a caddy was 10th over all
entered by https://stevemckelvie.wordpress.com/2012/06/07/briggs-cunningham-and-cadillac-at-le-mans-in-1950/

I actually think a current GT rule car would be faster then a nastycar by the book rule car

Don't laugh...On a road course, those "good ole boys" can turn some impressive lap times.

Here's a little something to chew on while you eat your corn flakes tomorrow morning.

1987, 240mph in a Monte Carlo. (I always thought it was a TBird for some reason)

http://p914-6info.net/PDFs/Porsche%20962%20-%20NASCAR%20shootout.pdf

Here ya go. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...a8d163150d.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...5856d2c229.jpg

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By 1987, NASCAR was running 360 cubic inch small blocks and attaining those speeds. Imagine if they had kept with the 7.0 liter limit, and had continued to run the 426 Hemi, the 427 Rat, and the 429 Cobra Jet. Bobby Isaacs did a flying mile at Bonneville in 1971 in his 1970 championship winning K&K Insurance Dodge Charger Daytona. 216 mph. Granted, he wasn't turning, but this was 17 years before Million Dollar Bill set his record. Imagine if they had stuck with unrestricted big blocks, with today's technology.

Back in the heyday of the big block in NASCAR, 6,500-7,000 rpm was seen as doable for a 500 mile race. We saw small block drag motors, like Grumpy Jenkins's Vega and Bob Glidden's Pinto Pro Stock cars spinning to 7,500-7,800. Now we see NASCAR small blocks going 500 miles at 9,000-9,500 rpm. Imagine if they were big blocks... As an aside, the NHRA has mandated a 10,500 rpm limit on the 500 cubic inch pushrod V-8's used in Pro Stock. Prior to that, the top teams were spinning them up to 12,000 rpm. These ain't yer daddy's pushrod motors anymore...

One of those Daytona Chargers averaged 199 on a lap during testing, in 1969, on 1969 tires.

I seem to recall a Pontiac Tempest giving the Ferraris all they wanted and more back in the 1960's

There is a zero possibility of NASCAR's Garage 56 entry winning overall. First, since there are, essentially, no rules for a Garage 56 car the ACO is not going to allow a car that could compete with the prototypes for an overall win. Also, the car does not have to qualify - it has already been granted a grid spot. In fact, I'm not sure a Garage 56 entry is even eligible to score a podium or win in the unlikely case where it could. I'd rather see Chevrolet/Hendrick take one of their GT3 Camaros and actually compete.

https://youtu.be/Eb-p7SuYQ9A

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Didn't Junior Johnson & a couple buddies take a Ford Galaxie to Le Mans in about 1964? Don't recall if they made the race, but sure scared the locals watching at the edge of the track when it got to the end of the Mulsanne at full blatt.

Hellofa video..thanks for posting.

There have been NASCAR cars at LeMans in the past. Here are two that competed in the Classic this year. I'm not clear on this, but I believe to qualify for the Classic, a car must have history there.

There are a couple of points in this video where one or the other of these cars shows up on the front straight with RSR's in tow, appearing to be holding them up in the last corner. I'm sure they are. But look at how quickly they just walk away from those poor little Porsches once the track opens up. The difference in acceleration is notable. Far heavier cars, for sure, but better than double the horsepower. The same holds true today. These are pretty serious race cars, irrespective of what one might think of the series. I believe a modern NASCAR car would give a modern RSR a run for its money on a track like LeMans, where their outright power and straight-line speed can be exploited.

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This... Aussie Supercars

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I see this as great publicity for Nascar. This combined with the video game move at Martinsville have people talking about NASCAR that hadn’t even given stock car racing a second thought in years.

In 1970 a 914/6 GT came in sixth overall and first in GT. That very car is on display at the Rev's institute in Florida.

Cars have to be tough to go for 24 hours at Le Mans. Ask Toyota about the pain of breaking just 1/4 of a lap from the finish. From first to an also ran. In 2017 they were leading until the last lap and handed Porsche their 18th Le Mans overall win.

Yes but then there was the 1-2 finish where Toyota was so cocky to bring in both cars for a quick wash and send them back out for a 1-2 photo finish…

Porsche used to do that. They had some victories with huge margins. And they won 19 times so far.

Toyota has been basically unopposed in the top class since Porsche, Audi, and the other top competitors dropped out. We will find out in 2023 who is the fastest and the most reliable. Toyota's guaranteed win days are numbered. They no doubt have a fast car, but no real competition. In 2017 they were clearly faster than Porsche, but it is a 24 hour race, not a 23 hour and 59 minute race.

The 100th anniversary race will be epic with all the big names except Ford returning.

Nascar has everybody talking. I'm pretty sure they were even talking about it on the weather channel this morning.

So the Garage 56 car was a full 10-seconds a lap quicker at VIR than a Cup car. And this was just early testing with lots of changes to come. So what is the point of running this car at Le Mans? The car is in a class of one and is not competing against any other car. The car looks pretty much like the Cup car it is based upon but the similarity ends there. Engine, aero, etc. all different. Is it to give the illusion to the uninformed race fan that a NASCAR Cup car can do respectable laps at Le Mans, when in fact it is not a Cup car at all?

Yea, it is like when Porsche was done with sanctioned racing, and decided to take the limits off of the 919.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porsche_919_Hybrid

They did a lap of the Nürburgring in 5:19.546. That is the overall fastest lap ever, and likely to stand for many years. They are over 40 seconds faster than the closest other car.

As expected, the Garage 56 Camaro is being touted at Le Mans as a NASCAR Cup Car with some minor modifications like headlights and dive planes :rolleyes: :rolleyes: One article I read even said the engine was the same. In practice sessions, the car was something like 2-3 seconds quicker than the fastest GTE cars (essentially, GT2 cars) and this is making headlines as if its some sort of accomplishment :rolleyes: Why? The Garage 56 car has nearly 100 HP more than the Cup car and weighs 500lbs less. Take that car to any NASCAR race and it would lap the field many times over. And the specs between the Garage 56 car and a GTE car are completely different. For one, the GTE cars have 500HP vs 750HP for the Camaro. Of course, none of that is mentioned because this is purely a joint media promotional effort for NASCAR.

Hopefully, the Camaro won't get in the way and take out any of the actual competitors in the race! They've got a trio of good drivers, so presumably they'll each have one eye glued to the mirror for fast closing prototypes.

I don't know the particulars of the G56 car, but it looked cool in practice. It sounded good, handled well and it was fun to see the size difference between it and the Hypercars and LM2's. Jensen seems like he's having fun driving it. It will remain to be seen what the repercussions of the LM project will be. A lot of Nascar fans are still having a great deal of trouble getting to grips with the whole concept of the Next Gen car.

(Sidebar, all those Porsche GTE cars sound great, don't they?)

If you look at other G56 cars it is often a test to see where the rules might go in the future, or, to have some fan enthusiasm over something iconic.

This could be both.

I just hope Johnson does not crash the car. I am a JJ fan but he is just too old to get the job done.

Marshall Pruett interviewed Jenson on the RACER website about the car. It was very insightful on how the car's performance compares to the GTE cars. It's on the RACER youtube channel. They show the car on track with other car and it looks HUGE, The car was on display at the Rolex and I'll post my photos of it tonight.

The Panamerica had Lincolns, Packard's and Hudsons running against Ferraris, etc. What's different?

i think its super cool. exposes both sides to new stuff. garage 56 is fundamentally about fun, exciting and strange. and putting a cup car into le mas is fun, exciting and strange.

Next year let's have them run a winged sprinter!!!

With a 8-speed? Funny to see a push truck out there in the hot pit.

You weren't being silly were you?

Maybe a little bit

Or if they had let Ford run the 429 Cammer.

10,000 page rule books.


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I'd be more tolerant of the so-called 'Cup Car' at Le Mans, if they allowed Hendrick to run the car in all remaining Cup races this year with it's same 750HP and 500lb weight reduction :cool: And there is a zero chance of a new category being added to WEC/Le Mans. With the advent of the new Hypercars, there is no room on track or in the pits. IMSA has already deleted the LMP3 cars for next year to make room.

The GT category will be GT3 cars starting next year in WEC/IMSA/Le Mans. GM will run their Corvette and they could easily build GT3 Camaros if they wanted to actually race on equal footing. The G56 car is 'boob bait for the bubbas' :D