Quote:
Originally Posted by lan4
Agree with comments about M6 not being competitive and political nature of the BoP in IMSA. Not sure how long BMW is going to be content with press releases patting themselves on the back for showing up, and talking about the fact that they ran an "art" car, didn't have the pace of the other cars, blah, blah, blah. Not sure where the art was/is.
Went to Lime Rock and Watkins Glen last year, and frankly the M6 GTLM is borderline ugly (the street M6 is a beautiful car, the racing version looks all wrong in my opinion), and doesn't sound good either. It's a BIG car in person.
The Z4 GTLM didn't win that much (well it did win more than the M6), but I think it captured more attention with radically good racing car looks, and just the fantastic sound of the s65 (especially in person). Just don't know what BMW was thinking in choosing to race a beautiful cruising car like the M6.
My suggestions:
1. Run 3 cars for the 6, 12 and 24 hour races like Ford is doing with the GT, more likely to have a finishing car. I'm sure BMW can afford it for the North American market.
2. Replace the M6 with an M3 or M4. or maybe the M2. Smaller cross section, and Ford and Porsche are running 6 cylinders, why can't BMW?
3. Leverage the sponsorship money they are putting into IMSA with some politics in terms of M6 aero, boost, fuel capacity, SOMETHING to go a little faster before this season is over.
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The 2-series is racing in the CTSC series, so we won't see it in WTSC, and there's zero chance we'll see it in GTE/GTLM. That's reserved for a brand's top marquee vehicles. No way BMW is fielding an entry-level car in that class.
The M6's biggest design issue is its bulky appearance. When you walk the grid and look at a car like the C7.R, the fenders flare out wildly, much like the Z4 GTLM. The M6 just kind of looks like a refrigerator box on wheels. The aero at the front is broken up mostly by large black panels. and the sides are very slab-like, with a consistent sill-height all the way down the waistline.
IMO, the M6 GT3/GTLM was an attempt to revitalize the iconography of the 3.5 CSL's Gr.5 glory days. You can see the design language in the way the front fenders are boxed out at the rear. Unfortunately, it hasn't worked out all that well for BMW, but I still think it's hard to blame the car.
It is naive to believe that the base road car has much to do with competitiveness of a GT3 or GTLM car. The cars are developed from the ground up to meet a performance envelope. From there, it's 100% about the BoP ebb and flow.
If BMW RLL are making any mistakes, it is that they are not playing enough games. They're showing up and running hard like they're supposed to, and IMSA certainly hasn't rewarded them for it. Chip Ganassi's teams were unquestionably sand-bagging leading up to Le Mans, and IMSA has done very little to slow them down. Every time they do something, CGR pulls another rabbit out of their hat and find more pace. Gee, I wonder what the deal is there?
I talked to Steve Dickson (BMW RLL General manager) for a while at the BMW tent, and the frustration is palpable. He was very gracious, and obviously loves motorsport, but the jilted feelings are starting to leak through in any conversation you have with BMW RLL team members. In between jokes about how crashy the Porsche Motorsport drivers were last year, there was a lot of "I get it, but com'on" feeling about the way IMSA is balancing the GTLM class. With Ford's return, the GTLM field got a much needed injection of diversity, but BMW RLL still would like an opportunity to be competitive, and I get the sense they don't feel like they are being given that shot.