Can American Racing Be Enhanced with the Recent Muscle Car Movement?

[JohnBM01]

GTPlanet, this is a racing thread in which I look at the muscle car revival. I created this thread to discuss if more racing series can benefit from some of the latest offerings. The latest Camaro is forthcoming. The latest Mustang looks wicked sick as there is already a motorsports variant of the latest Mustang. The latest Dodge Challenger looks VERY wicked. Granted we see some more muscle cars from America's Big Three, can some more racing series benefit?

I usually don't call myself Mr. All-America, but I do admit that some wonderful offerings were served up by America's Big Three. People mentioned in my "The Return of the Muscle Car?" thread that the muscle car is indeed back. Some even couldn't be any happier that it's back. Perhaps a series that could seriously benefit from the latest muscle car offerings would be Trans-Am. Trans-Am would be wonderful to have some wonderful road racing machines to give some old-school types some fond memories. Perhaps imagine if such machines found their way into GT road racing. I know the Corvette is the class of American ALMS GT1 racing, but imagine if Ford hopped up their Mustang to challenge the Corvette in GT1. Speaking of challenges... what if Dodge unleashed a high-performance Challenger to compete in the GT1 ranks to make it GM vs. Ford (Aston Martin... unless they are no longer part of Ford) vs. DaimlerChrysler? Had Grand-Am not do away with all the different racing classes (including American GT), such muscle cars would be a shoo-in for the Rolex Sportscar Series. I do like the GTO.R in the GT series of Grand-Am. I would like to see that Ford Mustang works model in Rolex Sportscars coming to the high banks and twisty infield of Daytona near you. But had American GT still been a part of the GARRA's elite division, there would be a great number of machines taking on the likes of Porsche, Ferrari, BMW, and most others that compete. Or imagine more NHRA and IHRA racing series seeing these revived muscle cars. Possibilities are endless... or are they?

The premise of this thread is if more racing series could benefit by specially-prepared and revived muscle cars. So do you think more racing series in America (and perhaps abroad) could benefit from seeing more race-prepared versions of these 21st Century muscle cars? Are there any real benefactors in American (or even international) racing with these 21st Century muscle cars? Let's see how this discussion goes.

 

[m.piedgros]

Well, Trans-Am COULD benefit from it all, but if at all, there had better be a privateer to start it all up. The sky-high costs of modern motor racing is one of the factors that can be attributed to Trans-Am's apparent failure. If we are going to see the new Mustang, the new Camaro, or the new Challenger in Trans-Am (or more realistically AGT or GT-1 competition) any time soon there had better be a ton of interest already. Otherwise some body fabricator out there had better start working on templates of the new cars to fit Trans-Am regulations.

And as far as the Mustang goes, it would get crushed in GT1 competition due to inherent aerodynamic disadvantages (see: front end). Maybe I am taking a pessimistic view but lets all look at this from a realistic stand-point. Look where the new Mustang is already making itself known. The car had great success in Grand-Am Cup this past year and for the newly renamed (and newly logoed) Koni Challenge Series-reminds you of the Motorola series doesn't it?-the Mustang looks just as strong. With the concentration of GARRA being relocated slightly, shedding more light on the GT ranks, rumors of new cars from every-which-way including Mustang mean maybe this whole rebirth of the muscle car has already benefited racing (see: Pontiac GTO.R for yet another reference).

m.piedgros

 

[Layla's Keeper]

Well, the current Mustang IS coming to GT competition in the GARRA Rolex series via Blackforest Motorsports and Crawford Chassis, and was pretty stout on the time charts at the Homestead Open Testing.

Where a Challenger and a Camaro would fit in is obvious, but the manufacturer support is doubtful. GM is letting the Pratt&Miller chassis under the factory GTO.R's get reskinned as a G6, since the GTO is no longer on sale, so it's clear that the GARRA aim for General Motors is focused 100% on Pontiacs.

DaimlerChrysler, of course, has not committed any money to motorsports beyond the pre-existing Mopar open wheel/drag racing programs, their nascent drift team, the NASCAR Ram/Charger programs, the DTM, and McLaren-Mercedes. The likelihood that the Challenger - with its considerably lower sales goals than the Mustang or Camaro - will become large in the motorsports world is small.

However, I do agree that the most likely place to see the new muscle cars in competition will be GARRA. The GARRA Rolex GT class is fairly balanced, and the cost-effectiveness of the Prep 2 category GT cars is being proven as cars like the Riley-chassis Mazda RX8, and Crawford chassis Mustang and Infiniti G35 come on line.