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Ford announces Mustang GT4 at SEMA

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ArizonaBOSS

Because racecar.
Moderator
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Arizona, USA

ArizonaBOSS

Because racecar.
Moderator
8,730
2,734
Arizona, USA
Also looks like the full-court media press continues with demo days last week in the UK at the famed Donnington Park circuit...drivers Scott Maxwell and Sebastian Priaulx!


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6,363
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I have mixed emotions on this, while I'm glad the mustang is doing well, I can't tell you how much I think Euro rules totally screw up the sport. Little guys, who are fully capable of building cars and running teams like Phoenix, Capaldi, and a few others have been priced out of the game. In the early 2010 ish, there were mustangs out the wazzoo in IMSA, as many as 10 cars or more..gone.
The aussie V8s are the best show in racing right now, I would hate to see them adopt GT4 for their lead class and hose it up.
 

JDee

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Totally agree with @blacksheep-1. SRO has wiped out the small builders and replaced them with OEM built race cars costing way too much money. SRO doesn't seem to be very kind to North American cars with their BOP, no Camaros are running this year and it's clear the Mustang is way down on power. World-Challenge had 1 Mustang at COTA and that's not a surprise given how much they are favoring the Euro cars, especially the McLaren and Audi. It was laughable at Daytona how much faster the McLaren was in a straight line than anything else. Not very interesting racing and probably lots of politics behind the scenes I expect. If they can't get a decent shake on BOP why bother running?
 
Totally agree with @blacksheep-1. SRO has wiped out the small builders and replaced them with OEM built race cars costing way too much money. SRO doesn't seem to be very kind to North American cars with their BOP, no Camaros are running this year and it's clear the Mustang is way down on power. World-Challenge had 1 Mustang at COTA and that's not a surprise given how much they are favoring the Euro cars, especially the McLaren and Audi. It was laughable at Daytona how much faster the McLaren was in a straight line than anything else. Not very interesting racing and probably lots of politics behind the scenes I expect. If they can't get a decent shake on BOP why bother running?
Nate and his co-driver still nabbed 2 podium finishes.

I was disappointed in the single mustang entry.

Too many Porsche GT4 for sure.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
 

JDee

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Not according to the results, if you can make head or tail out of it, they have so many classes now. The results show them 3rd in one race and 4th in the other. They seem to be in GT4 East and they also have GT4 SprintX and GT4 West.

I just saw where they were running on track and I don't recall the timing showing them above 4th though it could have and I just missed it. I watched both those races and there's no doubt in my mind they had zero probability of winning on speed which is no different than what happened at Daytona.

This style of BOP racing just makes a mockery of the whole concept of racing I think. I get that they're trying to balance very different cars, but more often than not one make seems to have been officially blessed with secret sauce. IMSA publishes the BOP changes before an event, not sure if they do in Blancpain, but quite often it's a good guide as to whose lucky number is coming up this weekend. Call me a cynic (because I am one by nature:)), but it just is too easy to pick a winning manufacturer whenever they want. I think their goal is to sprinkle wins to all manufacturers to keep them coming back year after year. Which is fake racing to me. But whatever....
 

ArizonaBOSS

Because racecar.
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Arizona, USA
Agree that the GT4 mandates in-general have erased the possibility of competition smaller teams and those building cars in-house. I don't care for that either as I certainly can't afford to participate at those levels of spending.

However, it doesn't mean I can't appreciate the hardware :)
 
It has good points and bad points. The BOP is a hard target for a list of reasons that I could be here for a month typing, and another month on spirit of American racing vs Euro racing.

The different tires between series, and the lack of "pro's" getting into the races on fresh rubber at "go time" is a big factor that is missing in PWC Sprint-X IMO. To me the Pirelli's are hard to BOP across because the DH tire and tire sizes have all sorts of different constructions. IE in '15 when we ran the 660 Front and 680 rear, the car was awful, put 680's all the way around and it was fine. Imagine that across 10 different tire sizes and 10 different cars. IMSA is better off with BOP IMO since they are doing it themselves, ( I know nothing about the Michelin slicks. In CTSC in the 2010-2015 time there were 2 tire sizes that were of the same construction in GS, thus it was one less variable to throw in the BOP mix) Maybe not to the level of competitiveness that 2005-2015 era, but better than SRO.

What I see is missing is the fun/challenge/cool factor of being able to apply your own "tweaks". Even the 302R started out as a "spec/homologated car" but as time moved on it was opened up. Some parts were mandated that had to be used (like ECU, ABS, and some other hard parts that Ford still supported), but other things were opened up since Ford wasn't building them anymore. So we had different exhausts, shocks, coolers, and various takes on certain rules, etc than Multimatic/other teams had... One funny point was at WGI when we had the SPEED incar camera it looked like we had a power advantage over the other Mustangs because I passed Maxwell up the back straight. Truth is, our setup allowed us to go up the esses flat out, and they were not. ( By flat out I mean from the exit of turn 1 to the bus stop :cool:) Next race Sean from Multimatic was asking about buying our exhaust system.

I'm glad I got to race in that era of CTSC and PWC, Do I wish I was still out there, hell yeah, but the costs and the lack of rebound when BOP'ed to the back of the field nowadays doesn't look that appealing. The McLaren got hit with 50kg since Daytona. You are at the mercy of the sanctioning body without chance to find a solution that lessens the effects of BOP. And people(lots now adays) are cutting checks for 75k a weekend to do it. :confused: If someone wants to pay me do drive, sure I'd be back in heart beat. But to do it on the back of 18 hour days to make the race like 5 years ago, no way.

When the prices come down on the GT4 cars, they will become pretty cool pieces to race in your local events. Engine management, ABS stuff, aero, all sorted and street-car bug free, and when the motors stop being supported, pull the restrictions and weight, build a bad-ass 5.2 motor and go have fun.
 

Bill Pemberton

0ld Ford Automotive Racing Terror
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Many of us in the amateur ranks are well aware of the Teams that have operated on much more modest budgets than others, and Phoenix Racing is well respected in the racing community. Pretty well known that there has never been the huge money afforded to many teams, but then that is why alot of folks on the East Coast ( heck ,even across the Country) take their cars to SE Pennsylvania to let the Aquilante family prep/mod/support their street and track cars. The main reason is their talented drivers, well prepped cars, and that Underdog example of constantly beating the Goliaths of the Industry. All that said, many drivers take their cars there because they know that Phoenix will do more with a little than many other businesses. The reason is because they will stand behind their beliefs and standards and those on TMO have evidenced that when they recommend not doing something everyone else may push, because they are not confident it is in the best interest of the driver/racer. That can often mean less money for them, but honesty and belief on what is best for customers is the reason they will continue to be respected. We worked with them years ago on some work with Vipers , as they respected us, and we learned they had the same basic philosophy as we do ----- take care of the customer and do what is right. Pleasure to have Blacksheep1 and Andrew contribute to TMO and I for one hope they continue well into the future?!
 

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