2017 IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship - General Season Discussion ThreadSports Cars 

  • Thread starter IforceV8
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Going from Continental to Pirelli is basically the same for GT cars, goodness. At least we'll see a faster pace in 2019 with whoever is the tire provider :lol:
 
I'm thinking it'll either be Michelin, Dunlop, or they'll just go open tire. Regardless of who gets it, I'm assuming that they'll leave GTLM as an open class.
 
Glad the WSCC will be getting Michelin, I mean, was basically the spec tire for GTLM anyway. :P

AnthonyD1993
I'm thinking it'll either be Michelin, Dunlop, or they'll just go open tire. Regardless of who gets it, I'm assuming that they'll leave GTLM as an open class.
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They have to leave GTLM open, as its GTE, and GTE is an open tire war (well...sort of).
 
Why the dislike for Continental? I never saw anything bad from their involvement - quite the opposite with a lot of teams pretty happy with the performance of the tires. I also get the distinct feeling this is a result of the sport becoming more successful, where I imagine few tire companies expressed interest 10 years ago. I hope this doesn't lead to F1 style awful tire performance, with qualifying being limited to one lap because of heat cycles and other silly nonsense.
 
TheElbows
Why the dislike for Continental? I never saw anything bad from their involvement - quite the opposite with a lot of teams pretty happy with the performance of the tires. I also get the distinct feeling this is a result of the sport becoming more successful, where I imagine few tire companies expressed interest 10 years ago. I hope this doesn't lead to F1 style awful tire performance, with qualifying being limited to one lap because of heat cycles and other silly nonsense.
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I always never liked them because they're just rebranded Hoosiers, Conti doesn't even develope the tires.
 
Hopefully Michelin brings over the good stuff that they use in the WEC. Same with GTD and their GT3 tires because their GT3 tires seem to be very respected too. Also, someone from the SC365 comments pointed out that the tire switch may make it easier for European teams to race stateside since they're at a disadvantage for being unfamiliar with the Contis and vice versa to an extent for IMSA teams that run at Le Mans.

TheElbows
Why the dislike for Continental? I never saw anything bad from their involvement - quite the opposite with a lot of teams pretty happy with the performance of the tires. I also get the distinct feeling this is a result of the sport becoming more successful, where I imagine few tire companies expressed interest 10 years ago. I hope this doesn't lead to F1 style awful tire performance, with qualifying being limited to one lap because of heat cycles and other silly nonsense.
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Most of the hate comes from the fact that the P2s were several seconds slower using Contis than they were on Michelins and Dunlops.
 
TheElbows
Why the dislike for Continental? I never saw anything bad from their involvement - quite the opposite with a lot of teams pretty happy with the performance of the tires. I also get the distinct feeling this is a result of the sport becoming more successful, where I imagine few tire companies expressed interest 10 years ago. I hope this doesn't lead to F1 style awful tire performance, with qualifying being limited to one lap because of heat cycles and other silly nonsense.
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F1 quali isn't reduced to a single lap on tires, if they were then teams would fight on safety grounds about them being used in racing after being used in quali...

Continental had trouble early one and their rain tires were never up to par. They were never anything but Hoosier tires and the issue with that is Hoosier was never known to be a endurance tire builder. Which is why it was obvious when the P2 as said by @AnthonyD1993 were slower on the Continental branded tires compared to the other constructors. Michelin is a great choice and hopefully it gains some speed too
 
Michelin makes good tires. But in lmp2, Dunlop is the preferred option. So if Michelin can make a tire for these cars in IMSA, that might make some WEC teams switch to Michelin over Dunlop. This is a good move by Michelin in more ways than one. They only have 1 car on opposing rubber in GTE, the Aston Martin on Dunlop and no one but Michelin in lmp1, even the ByKolles used them. I would think they will use their lmp1 knowledge for the prototype tires in IMSA. They're also thinking of aligning DPi with lmp1 in the future and this is another piece to the puzzle of common regs. A good start!
 
Furinkazen
Or how GTE cars got overall pole in the wet at Daytona and overall win at PLM?
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I was ignoring the Conti "Rain" tires since most of the time they were in the dry, but yeah, that had a lot to do with it too. Their wets are even worse than the slicks they gave to IMSA teams, and that says a lot given how terrible the slicks are compared to everything else.
 
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IforceV8
http://sportscar365.com/features/commentary/dagys-imsas-silly-season-in-full-swing/

I wonder if Ricky will get a shot at the Indy 500?
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I wonder if Weathertech will go back to the PWC after crying about BoP again next year since the MacNeil family is trying to take the seats currently occupied by Balzan and Neilsen and race the Scuderia Corsa Ferrari. It's safe to say that the bitching will be far worse next year if they get the car and get outpaced by both the Merc and the Porsche- doubly so if that duo winds up outpacing the Ferrari that they used to race should Weathertech get the reigns to the car.
 
Rast is putting on quite a show today, he has managed to hit 2 different BMW's in 2 laps in the DTM today.:boggled:

 
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Christina Neilsen won't return to Scuderia Corsa next year according to RACER. If Balzan leaves as well, the odds of Weathertech running SC's 488 will look like it could actually happen.
 
catamount39
That's disgusting.
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That's why it should be expected. This is the same team that quit the series last year due to "unfair BoP" and switched from the Merc to the Porsche this year for the same reason. The MacNeil family will stop at nothing because the only thing they really care about is trying to get their son a championship. I'd say integrity be damned, but they don't have any to begin with. If anyone is going to pull shady 🤬 in this series, its probably going to be (and already has been) Weathertech.
 
AnthonyD1993
That's why it should be expected. This is the same team that quit the series last year due to "unfair BoP" and switched from the Merc to the Porsche this year for the same reason. The MacNeil family will stop at nothing because the only thing they really care about is trying to get their son a championship. I'd say integrity be damned, but they don't have any to begin with. If anyone is going to pull shady 🤬 in this series, its probably going to be (and already has been) Weathertech.
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Thankfully, the moment MacNeil gets in the car, its slower than ****. :P Hopefully another team takes up Neilsen and Balzan if they do both leave. If its just Neilsen, hopefully another driver gets the ride.
 
IforceV8
Rast is putting on quite a show today, he has managed to hit 2 different BMW's in 2 laps in the DTM today.:boggled:

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That camera angle reminds me of the NASCAR "crank it up" feature. Would be cool if they did a quick little view like that during the races, pure raw uninterrupted sound and close flyby's.
 
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Man, I've really been fighting the Opera VPN so I can watch the race. I must have really botched my settings soomehow because I didn't have nearly the trouble with it earlier in the year.

Rear Diffuser on the 4 looks loose. It's really visible on the right side of the car.
 

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