ALMS and 3 glasses of wine in

[Ketchup345]

I'm watching this weekend's ALMS race (Petit Le Mans from Road Atlanta), 3 glasses of wine in (it was split into 2 recordings, saw part 1 yesterday), with 100 laps to go, and a few laps ago I had issues telling the red open cockpit Audis from the blue closed cockpit Peugeots. Fail. Pathetic. :no:

[Outrider]

So then... the solution is more wine?

[Ketchup345]

Yes, yes it is. Going to get #4 now.

Anyone else see that race? The last lap was insane for the GT class.

[Palle]

Haven't seen it, I'm an F1 guy myself. Maybe I should switch to what you're watching, this season has been shit.

[Ketchup345]

Haven't seen it, I'm an F1 guy myself. Maybe I should switch to what you're watching, this season has been shit.I prefer the Rolex Grand-Am series (I'm a Mazda fan I guess, and with the domination RX-8s had this year, it made me happy). Also, I prefer watching cars that look like what is available , the GT class, so I do watch ALMS/LMS also. So far I can't get into Australian V8 Supercars, and German Touring cars are pretty boring too. British Touring Cars (BTCC) aren't bad though from the very few I've seen.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XovOG2VyAgA
What it means: 2 Corners worth of fuel- seconds in the pits on the last pit stop, caused Ferrari to drop from 1st to 3rd for GT manufacturer championship.

[Palle]

So... did I see that right? There are multiple auto classes on the same course simultaneously?

[Ketchup345]

Yes, multiple classes at once.

Grand Am is simple-
Prototype: Four chassis only manufacturers, and different engine manufacturers. Engines this year were made by Chevy, BMW, Ford, and. Porsche.
Gran Touring (GT): Corvettes, Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars, BMW M6 (think M3 or M5 next year though), modified (different frame type I think) Camaros, and Mazda RX-8s with the different frames and race motors (3 rotor as opposed to the 2 you can walk to a dealership and buy).

In Grand Am, it is pretty much accepted that Prototypes will always be faster than GT cars (unless they do some crazy future rule change).


LMS takes those and further divides them. I'm not entirely sure how that is determined. But my thinking is they need to divide P1 (top prototype class) up into diesel and petrol classes due to how much the diesels dominate any petrol competitors.

LMS may have soem GT cars faster than some Prototypes, or close to it.


Video of a race ending ALMS crash for the 2nd to last race of the season (the race was cut 45 minutes short):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9A6hzPYxxHk

[HAYABUSA-FMW-]

Forgot to wear

some-a-deez

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31OQQFjsNyL._SS400_.jpg


Now in modular style?

-

Wait til Christmas maybe, since in the same product preview pics:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31%2B6ZFR2-tL._SS400_.jpg

[Palle]

Huh, that crash illustrated precisely what I was thinking about having these machines of such varied capabilities racing at the same time: "seems dangerous".

I'll have to look into it some more.

[Ketchup345]

Huh, that crash illustrated precisely what I was thinking about having these machines of such varied capabilities racing at the same time: "seems dangerous".

I'll have to look into it some more.Definitely give both LMS/ALMS and Grand Am a try. There is a lot of action, the lower class traffic makes the higher classes more interesting. Yes, there are occasional accidents between the 2 classes, but usually about the same amount as between cars of the same class (you don't need to try to block cars from a different class, just your own).

I forgot to mention, they both have a share of longendurance races. Grand Am does the 24 Hours of Daytona (1/2 the oval plus part of the inside with corners), and 5-6 Hours elsewhere. ALMS has the 10 hours (or 1000 miles, whichever first, usually miles) of Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, and many teams from ALMS go to the big LMS race- the 24 Hours of Daytona.

The GT cars get yellow headlights, Prototypes get the white/blue for both series.

[HAYABUSA-FMW-]

Huh, that crash illustrated precisely what I was thinking about having these machines of such varied capabilities racing at the same time: "seems dangerous".

I'll have to look into it some more.
I have watched such a race before, TeeVee'in. Corvette behind 911, behind supercar + racing Gran TurNISMO extras so they always win. Or there's only one of those million dollar babies, so the crew on location will cut to that car ahead of the entire pack.

Gotta be the Real Gran Turismo, open class, or Nissan only race Nissan Cube on same track as GTR, any year, lets gooo! Lapped 50 times, or more. Gonna need 25 drivers for that cube...