Quote:
Originally Posted by MiamiE93Vert
I hear you, but there is still a connection between the race car and the street car even if it is somewhat imaginary and this is worth big dollars in marketing and goodwill. I used to love watching my M3 on the track even if only the GS was mostly coming from the road version. Even the manufacturers stoke the connections. I forgot which company had the commercial during the race but there was a company that ran GTLM/GTD cars on the track next to the street cars: it was 911, GT, 488, R8 and M6. Clearly they are putting, or trying to put, the M6 in the same category; which of these would you choose to take to the track? The choice to make a connection between M6 race and street car was BMW's.
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Of course they do. That's marketing. It doesn't mean there is any technical truth to it though. The only thing meaningful in that context is how close the road car is to the race car. Word is that the Ford GT is pretty damn close to the road car; which isn't all that surprising when you consider that even the road car is going to be assembled by Multimatic in Ontario (the same people who build the GTLM cars).
Have a close look at the M6 GTLM the next time you get the chance. Any comparison to the road car is laughable. I'm afraid the road car is simply irrelevant.
I know I sound like a broken record, but the manufacturers given whatever leeway is required to develop these cars to a performance envelope. There are technical restrictions, but if you read through them, they're pretty loose. They restrict things like overall dimension and preservation of "key components".
For example, IMSA's GTLM regulation 9.5 for chassis says: "Entrants may execute minimum modifications for the installation of components." A sub-entry says, "All modifications must be approved by IMSA." There is no firm definition there. BMW can basically change whatever is required to get to the envelope, and IMSA can sign off on it unilaterally (without approval from other manufacturers).
Have a look through the technical regs for yourself. They're surprisingly sparse. It all comes down to getting the cars to the performance envelope. No consideration is given to how close they are to the road car, outside of some token requirements, like requiring that they use the same displacement engine as the road car.
http://www.imsa.com/sites/default/fi..._blackline.pdf