Pontiac out of NASCAR was very smart, and then putting the GTO against cars like the Mustang and BMW in Grand Am and other SCCA racing is BETTER!
I hope they do the same with Camaro.

 

They've done well, but they, with a professional driver (Rhys Millen), with their professionally-built much lighter-than-stock GTO, were beaten by an old S13 240SX with WAY less power built by a father-son team and driven by the ~17yo NON-pro driver son at the championship event.

Still, I applaud their effort.

They should've done the Elise vs. C5 Corvette. Similar price and, more importantly, power/weight at least in the same ballpark.

[QUOTE]wouldnt that mean that the corvette and the viper, the only two real american sports cars would smoke pretty much every lightweight car out thier. just a thought. [QUOTE]

Back in the real world, low-powered CStock stock Miatae and MR2s routinely beat higher power/weight F-bodies (FSstock) at autoX events.
Also, check these results of my own hack-built/hack-tuned ~240rwhp street 240Z vs. Viper, Z06, and other heavier MUCH higher-powered cars at high-speed time trials events:
http://www.comscc.org/results/nhis0902.htm
http://www.comscc.org/results/lrp_1102.htm
http://www.comscc.org/results/nhis0902.htm

Besides performance, lightweight is smarter, more efficient, and (most importantly) more FUN. The Z28 is fun in some ways, but even my daily driver beater stock 240SX is more fun at the track (road course that is).

 

But thats what makes drifting so different. The better engineered, faster car will not always win. The person that performs the best in the eyes of the judges will win. Its all about the driver. If you think Rhys in a 470hp GTO getting beat by Gushi in a 350hp S13 is an upset, you should check out some AE86 wins. There have been times when sub 200hp AE86 have beat 400+hp S13/S14. It all depends on how well the drivers drift. Drifting is a sport where the underdog can win. You dont have to have the most expensive, fastest car to be competitive. This is what makes the sport so much fun for me. I can show up at a track event in my total investment $3500 Camaro and know that I have a chance at winning the competition if I can drift better than anyone else. My local scene is very very good so that does not ever happen, but you get the point (2 guys from Hawaii have qualified for D1, talk about skills). And that kid Gushi, hes really good for his age. I was not the least bit supprised that he was able to beat someone like Rhys. Gushi is young but he has been drifting longer than alot of guys in the US. And like I said, its all about the skills. Gushi is now sponsored by Ford, set to drift the new '05 Stang this year and they're paying him $100K a year to drive. He's got skills.

 

Yea, sadly racing is getting more and more boring because the cars are getting more and more equal.

Indy cars used to be the ****, ppl would flock into the Indy 500. Then regulation by regulation they ruined it.

Then as Indy died out NASCAR came in because look, not as many regulations, more fun to watch. Not as much money so dirt track drivers could have a chance... Then as we're seeing now, more regulations and regulations... NASCAR will soon die out too. Watching the Daytona 500 was about as interesting as watching grass grow. Only good part was the last 10sec.

 

Tony George single-handedly killed top-level open-wheel racing in the U.S, not regulations (though some have been questionable over the years). IRL, who give's a rat's ***? CART (formerly IndyCar) was/is by FAR the best top-level auto racing in the world. Yet it's pretty much dead thanks to Mr. George, as well as serious mismanagement over the past few years.

I wouldn't worry about NASCAR. Nobody EVER lost money by targeting the absolute LEAST COMMON DENOMINATOR. How I WISH it would die, I do hate it so...

Anyway, NASCAR has TONS of regulations. It's way more regulated than IRL or CART. And they even CHANGE the regs between races!

 

Road and Track Did witht he Buttopnwillow West Loop. With Millen as the driver.. the C6 vette came out first, then the viper, then the 911 Carrerra S, Boxster S, then the Lotus Elise

The viper lost prescious time in the esses cause of a 2-3 shift it needed.. the top three were all very close.

Interesting, on raw accel speeds, the 911 Carrera S I posted the best straight line accel time (even better than the Viper) They even dyno'd it to make sure it wasn't a ringer, which it wasn't.. they speculated it was well broken in, unlike the other cars.


The Vette got 1st place also as overall sports car, simply because it did everything well, no weakness, and a relatilve low price.

But almost of the editors and R&T staff liked the Carrera S or Boxter the best overall, since they felt the "sharpest". Although the C6 was 2nd in about all of their personal preferences.

The Elise, for this comparo, was just too extreme.. "People don't drive their sports car on the track all the time." Price you pay for having a very small and light car.

They also have an intersting blurb about bumps and damping tests they did.

 

I would've loved to have been in on that test!
My point about the C5 was that it would've had a more similar (though still greatly superior) power/weight ratio to the Lotus than the Viper. C6 blows it away, power/weight wise. In fact, ALL the cars that beat the Elise had more than enough additional power to make up for their additional weight:
C6 ~8.5 lb/hp
Viper ~7.2 lb/hp
Carrera S ~9.5 lb/hp
Boxster S ~10.6 lb/hp
Elise ~11 lb/hp

What I need is a ~260+hp turbo Elise

I was disappointed that the Elise got such poor subjective ratings based on it's stripped-down bare-bones nature. Hell, that's what a sports car is SUPPOSED TO BE. To me, the C6, Viper, 911 are more SUPERcars than elemental sports cars.

I just wish somebody would make a 240hp, 2400 lb., $24,000 rwd sports car. 'Til then, I'll just keep tracking the Z

 

oh yea, i keep on forgetting the C6 got another 50 more hp..

Oh, taking a closer look at the article, it says "All Around Sports Car".. which makes sense why they complained about comfort.

I dunno though what I would pick... Elise or a C6 if it came down to it.. In the end, they are about the same price (original MSRP was like, what $35k? But after the options and dust settled my friend's preorder arrived in his hands closer to $50k total)

They way I see it, IMO, the C6, and the others, can serve as a 2nd car in the garage that you drive daily.. The Elise sounds like it would be a sweet "3rd" car to play with.

 

Abso-freaking-lutely!