WEC | Gordon Murray Evaluating Hypercar Entry

[Cristian Haba]

Mclaren F1 V2.0

The master is back at it again. You can literally trace the roots of the concept art to the F1. I for one am very excited. The F1 was for me the most amazing car, pure unobtanium. Performance that's still very much relevant today, from 1994. Insane. It won LeMans. Insane. Mr Bean had one. Insane.

For the F1 V2.0 (T50) to be as monumental will be hard. If Murray really has free reigns, and proper financial backing I dont expect the car to disappoint at all. And it will be quite fun to see it line up at LeMans, aaannnd win?

Other than Porsche GT cars, this is the only new thing I'm excited for.

 

[Alex Townsend]

Seems you also miss his point. No problem with prototypes being greatest performing racecars no one can afford nor drive, but pretending that hypercar prototypes are somewhat relatable to road cars that one theoretically can drive, is a compromise between both. Prototypes aren't no-compromise downforce cars anymore, while still the idea of driving such cars on the roads is not realistic at all, well, maybe apart from Saudi Arabia deserts.
It... its a bit like if you replace true athletes with steroid-boosted talk show stars to perform athletic sports, because unlike athletes they are more relatable to people, because they are also "cute" and "funny". Yet making total frankensteins of those performers so no one would relate or even talk to them in real life anymore.

Why not just name this class as GT1 for example, and leave prototypes do their prototype thing?

I really don't get what you're saying at all. Especially with the steroid boosted Frankenstein talk show athlete metaphor, it doesn't make sense to me.
And where does it say that
they're pretending that these cars are anything other than what they are? They're Race cars... in a new class of top level Endurance racing.
Hypercars are supposed to be track day cars, to be driven on race tracks, plus some are road legal and can be driven on the road.
Theoretically being able to drive the cars on the roads or not makes not one iota of difference in a racing scenario.
If the racing is good and can increase viewers then seriously, who cares?
The LMP1/2 can theoretically be driven on the roads too, wouldn't legal but you could.

 

[KittX]

Hypercars are supposed to be track day cars, to be driven on race tracks, plus some are road legal and can be driven on the road.

Well, exactly that. They are trackday cars, not racecars.
Manufacturers like Ford or Jaguar are very interested in this hypercar class, because it means they can produce a "road" car that will be promoted by participation in top class in endurance races. For some corporates i guess, it has no point having the car participating or winning in GTE/GT3 classes, if there is a better class above them. But they arent interesting in producing a car that they couldnt sell, either.
So that means the whole idea behind the car must be focused on being road-worthy first, and race-worthy second.
Personally I am not 100% up for seeing such compromised cars replacing prototypes that were built for racing and had no no other purpose, nor any 'glamour' attached to them.
I see where people are coming from, I hope racing will be good... but i'll miss the no-nonsense prototypes. Like that little Mazda DPi that could.