Sport Prototype cars and the open and closed cockpit variants.

[AlphaAndius]

Hiya! Being still a bit of a greenhorn in the world of Autosports, I now have a fascination on Sports Prototype Cars. The fact that they represent the pinnacle of the closed wheel racing world astounds me. Now to the matter of my inquiry;

Many of these cars exhibit both open and closed cockpit variances. My question is, do pros and cons exist with each type? I had always imagined that the closed cockpit cars are more aerodynamic, but the open cockpit ones will not have the burden of pilot cooling mechanicsms, but I know very little. So what are the differences in this one matter of SP design (seeing how teams of all sorts employ both kinds).


Also, another question that has always puzzled me, ever since the first ones showed up in... who knows when (What is the date or period that they first appeared, since wikipedia is very scarce on that matter), why do they continue to be called Prototypes? I don't see cars like the Porsche 962 or the Audi R10 becoming full fledged vehicles of whatever it is attempting to "test out" (As the term Prototype would imply), so why the name? (Unless it's the deal with what happen with Stock Car racing, where the name is kept because it still uses, "Stock parts" ).

 

[Northstar]

Many of these cars exhibit both open and closed cockpit variances. My question is, do pros and cons exist with each type? I had always imagined that the closed cockpit cars are more aerodynamic, but the open cockpit ones will not have the burden of pilot cooling mechanicsms, but I know very little. So what are the differences in this one matter of SP design (seeing how teams of all sorts employ both kinds).

Closed: Better aerodynamics at the cost of poorer visibility and longer driver switch times.
Open: Basically the opposite.

Also, another question that has always puzzled me, ever since the first ones showed up in... who knows when (What is the date or period that they first appeared, since wikipedia is very scarce on that matter), why do they continue to be called Prototypes? I don't see cars like the Porsche 962 or the Audi R10 becoming full fledged vehicles of whatever it is attempting to "test out" (As the term Prototype would imply), so why the name? (Unless it's the deal with what happen with Stock Car racing, where the name is kept because it still uses, "Stock parts" ).

When Prototype racing was first created it was basically seen as the next step for road going super cars. The name just stuck although it's still partly true.

Also, the 962 is a bad example as there was a road version for homologation requirements.

 

[MitchZ06]

The 962 road car was made by a third party company called Dauer AFTER Porsche had raced it, its not a poor example...

 

[Northstar]

The 962 road car was made by a third party company called Dauer AFTER Porsche had raced it, its not a poor example...

It was a joint effort between Dauer and Porsche to get the 962 back in Le Mans.

 

[MitchZ06]

It was after Dauer actually built the first one, Porsche was like "Hey! Lets race the 962 AGAIN and whoop ass at Le Mans in the GT category! Get those Dauer guys on the phone ASAP!" and yeah, the rest as they say is history.

 

[AlphaAndius]

Aaahh, so what began as en effort for concept racing for the future, pretty much became a genre of it's own, maintaining the name? Hehe, I likes it


Oh, I was unawares that the Porsche 962 eventually was fleshed out into a fully fledged (or lesser fledged, since a vehicle to go from race to sports is a downgrade my book ) road car. Interesting the small can of worms I unleashed, heehee.

Once again, you all have been most gracious. Danka danka. ^^

 

[Kingofweasles]

It was after Dauer actually built the first one, Porsche was like "Hey! Lets race the 962 AGAIN and whoop ass at Le Mans in the GT category! Get those Dauer guys on the phone ASAP!" and yeah, the rest as they say is history.

Sorry to go off-topic here, but That...Is not quite true, actually: Porsche's Motorsport arm were dead-certain that there were going to be at least one McLaren F1 GTR racing at Lemans in 1994 and realised as they didn't have a car that could compete with the F1. Enter Joachim Dauer and his Porsche 962-Based "Road Car"; Porsche enters a partnership with him to build the required amount of road cars to get the Dauer 962 Lemans-Legal, they race it at Lemans and, with no F1 GTR's on the grid that year, clean up in the GT1 Class and take a surprising overall victory in the face of Toyota (Who were running de-tuned, modified Group C cars that year).

The ACO, of course, didn't exactly like what Porsche did and told them not to come back with Dauer 962; They relectantly agree, spend '95 working on a beefed-up version of the 993 GT2 car, race it in the GT1 class at Lemans in '95 and get slaughtered by the F1 GTR's...Which prompts porsche to build the 911 GT1, which kick-starts the "Homologation-Special" era, lasting from 1996-1999 (This was the era that gave us the Nissan R390 GT1, The Panoz Esperante GTR1, Mercedes CLK-GTR, Lotus Elise GT1 and the Toyota TS020 GT-ONE by the way).

As for Alpha's Original question: Closed Cockpit Sports Prototypes have better aerodynamics (Usually) and straight-line speed (Again, different cars vary on this) at the expense of having longer pitstops, a narrower track front and rear and being less torsionally stiff than an Open-Cockpit car.

Under current Lemans rules, closed cars have sway for now, but it may change in the future...

 

[gogatrs]

If it weren't for closed cockpit prototypes, Mike Rockenfeller and Alan McNish both might not be with us today...

But I doubt that safety is the primary concern when choosing between open and closed cockpit cars.

 

[Kingofweasles]

If it weren't for closed cockpit prototypes, Mike Rockenfeller and Alan McNish both might not be with us today...

But I doubt that safety is the primary concern when choosing between open and closed cockpit cars.

And I KNEW that there was something else I was missing when I typed that up...

 

[Clark]

The Alpine-Renault A442 is also an interesting car on the whole closed/open debate.

They tried out a bubble roof canopy which added 5mph to the top speed (although it already hit over 230mph without it). They ran the '78 Le Mans with to open cars and one closed canopy 'A442B'. Some of the drivers had said it was claustrophobic and even hotter with the bubble canopy, however the closed canopy car won overall.

 

[Pupik]

For a good time... http://www.racingsportscars.com

 

[Sohvakettu]

I thought that the prototype in the name means that it ain't production model based...
The regulations tend to change with such frequency that they might call them horse races and it would still be as accurate naming as any.

 

[Mt. Lynx]

The Alpine-Renault A442 is also an interesting car on the whole closed/open debate.

They tried out a bubble roof canopy which added 5mph to the top speed (although it already hit over 230mph without it). They ran the '78 Le Mans with to open cars and one closed canopy 'A442B'. Some of the drivers had said it was claustrophobic and even hotter with the bubble canopy, however the closed canopy car won overall.

Audi did something similar in ´99 with the R8R and R8C, just to see wich was the way forward. The result was the famous Audi R8, open LMP900, so at that time the rules favoured open cars.