NASCAR Hendricks Camaro at Le Mans

[Vette Interested]

I figured the brakes would be an issue but the weather was the real equalizer for many.

[dcbingaman]

But it’s interesting that a beast that big can handle well enough to be as faster or faster than the GTE cars. I’m guessing as the race progresses, brakes could very well be an issue but we shall see. It’s creating a lot of interest which is exactly what the parties involved we’re hoping for.

Just goes to show, once again, the horsepower is King, and the best way to make horsepower is with displacement. Everything else is secondary. The chassis was good enough, but the big unrestricted V-8 was the difference maker. Imagine what a C8.R could do with an unrestricted LT6.

[Foosh]

I figured the brakes would be an issue but the weather was the real equalizer for many.

The brake change was not the big time killer. It was a transmission problem, which required dropping the transmission. A lot of other competitors had drivetrain problems and retired, so that was not just a Cup Car weakness for this race.

The Le Mans NASCAR Camaro was about 500 lbs. lighter than the Cup Car, and they ran carbon ceramic discs. Everyone in a 24 Hour race has to complete at least one brake change, and they have assembled components ready to bolt on and hook up. That can be relatively quick.

[Foosh]

Just goes to show, once again, the horsepower is King, and the best way to make horsepower is with displacement. Everything else is secondary. The chassis was good enough, but the big unrestricted V-8 was the difference maker. Imagine what a C8.R could do with an unrestricted LT6.

Every other competitor could say the same thing. They are all capable of producing the same or more "unrestricted LT6" power, and it no longer requires big displacement to be capable of running a 24-hour race. That might have been true once upon a time, but no longer.

[Vette Interested]

Actually the brakes were a big time killer at the time. Not as much as the transmission but according to ESPN news service, they reported that the No. 24 Camaro might actually beat the entire 21-car GTE AM field. “The time to fix the brakes took that off the table, and it felt like a disappointment for all that NASCAR had accomplished”. They later had the transmission issue that added to their issues. Overall, a great effort by the Hendrick team.

[dcbingaman]

Every other competitor could say the same thing. They are all capable of producing the same or more "unrestricted LT6" power, and it no longer requires big displacement to be capable of running a 24-hour race. That might have been true once upon a time, but no longer.

Every other competitor DID say the same thing once upon a time, it was called Can-Am. That era gave us the McLaren M8, the Porsche 917-30, and the UOP Shadow. Today's cars are a BIT faster than those brutes, but not by much. Give me Denny Hulme and Mark Donahue in one of those monsters any day for pure entertainment value. The problem, of course, is $$$ and the literal size of racetracks. Can-Am proved that TOO MUCH can be TOO MUCH, as opposed to NEVER ENOUGH when it comes to safety, cost and competition. The BoP is largely to insure that you don't have one competitor dominate like they did in Can-Am and what we saw with McLaren, Mercedes and now Red Bull in F1.

From a pure engineering standpoint, horsepower is defined by airflow - how much you can burn to drive the wheel shafts. Engine weight goes up by the square of area, but HORSEPOWER goes up linearly with airflow, which goes up by the CUBE of area. What that means, is displacement - literally the volume of air an engine can process instantaneously, is THE most important factor in any engine power-to-weight ratio. Bigger engines are more efficient. That is why EACH B747 engine engulfs over 1500 Lbm / Sec of airflow. There is no other way to get such a thing across the Atlantic with 400 passengers - certainly not with turbocharged 3-liter V-8's or V-12's driving props.

[Foosh]

Yes, once upon a time, but that's now ancient history. Everyone is restricted in class racing, and the NASCAR Camaro at Le Mans was just a demonstration project meant to build fan interest. There are no lessons to be learned from that.

You could have done the same demonstration project and power with a twin-turbo 3.8 Boxer engine or V6. Today's twin turbo Porsche 992 Turbo S (3.7L) street machine, is producing the same power as the LT6 in the street Z06, but the racing GT3 RS Porsche is limited to about 500HP just like the C8R.

I do know as an airline guy that 747s are now obsolete in favor of more efficient twins.

[Foosh]

Actually the brakes were a big time killer at the time. Not as much as the transmission but according to ESPN news service, they reported that the No. 24 Camaro might actually beat the entire 21-car GTE AM field. “The time to fix the brakes took that off the table, and it felt like a disappointment for all that NASCAR had accomplished”. They later had the transmission issue that added to their issues. Overall, a great effort by the Hendrick team.

So, if it was reported upon, I missed it and can't find any info on it, but did the Hendricks team have to do more than one brake change? Everyone in a 24-hour race plans on at least one brake change, as the Corvette Racing Team is very familiar with and always plans for. I certainly would have expected that the Hendricks team did their research and understood that. If they gambled on being able get by without a brake change by running CCBs, then they gambled big time and lost.

I did see one article referring to an "unplanned" brake change. That could have just been inaccurate reporting. If they had to do a 2nd brake change, you may have a point.

However, they lost way more time due to the transmission problem.

[Vette Interested]

So, if it was reported upon I missed it and can't find reporting on it, but did the Hendricks team have to do more than one brake change? Everyone in a 24-hour race plans on at least one brake change. I'm sure they did their research and understood that, but I did see one article referring to an "unplanned" brake change. If that was a 2nd brake change you may have a point.

However, they lost way more time due to the transmission problem.

Of course they lost MUCH more time with the transmission change but the initial brake issue is what initially caused them to fall behind the GTE AM field. As far as how many brake changes they did I do not know.

[Foosh]

So, they would have fallen way behind anyway with the transmission problem. I was impressed that they got the car back on the track after dropping and replacing/fixing the transmission. That showed a lot of grit.

I was hoping they'd last and do a lot better, but if they had, it wouldn't have been a huge surprise because they didn't have to deal with class rules and had a lot more power than any of the GTE-Am cars.

[Vette Interested]

Considering their car completed over 2,400 miles, four times longer than their longest scheduled race, (Coca Cola 600) the results were excellent. So many items could have failed but did not. And unlike many of the cars in the GTE-AM class, they DID finish the race.

[bartruff]

That was great PR for NASCAR......the noise alone would make it a crowd favorite......I was fortunate to attend the Targa Florio back in the 60's when Shelby was there with his Cobra Team......of course they didn't win....but the crowd would just jump up and down in excitement when one of the Cobra's came thundering by...very few of them had ever heard or imagined what a American V8 would sound like.....

I have to add that yes technology is transformational .....but IHMO Can Am and TransAm were the Golden Age of road racing in America...

[dcbingaman]

Yes, once upon a time, but that's now ancient history. Everyone is restricted in class racing, and the NASCAR Camaro at Le Mans was just a demonstration project meant to build fan interest. There are no lessons to be learned from that.

You could have done the same demonstration project and power with a twin-turbo 3.8 Boxer engine or V6. Today's twin turbo Porsche 992 Turbo S (3.7L) street machine, is producing the same power as the LT6 in the street Z06, but the racing GT3 RS Porsche is limited to about 500HP just like the C8R.

I do know as an airline guy that 747s are now obsolete in favor of more efficient twins.

The class aircraft for trans-ocean flights is now the B777 and the forthcoming B777X. Both use twin HUGE separate flow turbofans like the GE90. Even more airflow than the earlier CF6 and PW9000 engines used on the B747. These engines are remarkable in power and fuel burn, but also in durability and life. Unlike earlier turbofans, these engines will likely never “cone off the wing” for normal maintenance during a B777’s 20-year economic lifetime.

These engines will be succeeded by GE’s RISE Open Rotor engines burning gaseous hydrogen (No GHG emissions) with TSFC’s 20% lower than today’s engines and rotor diameters from 12 to 15 feet. Exciting times for commercial aviation.