Why not Ferrari in top tier Endurance racing?

[Kitdy]

But how is the quality of the racing? Lots of passing? How does it compare with the ALMS in terms of excitement?

[wwgkd]

But how is the quality of the racing? Lots of passing? How does it compare with the ALMS in terms of excitement?

There is a decent amount of passing since they tend to be more aggressive in their passes. Excitement is subjective though. If all you care about is passing it may be a better choice than ALMS among the prototypes, but if all you care about is passing I could suggest MotoGP.

[DanVB]

The Rolex DP is NOT a spec series since there are several different makes of engines and chassis. The IRL IS a spec series with ONE engine, Honda and ONE chassis, Dallara.
All series have rules on specifications, but you can't consider them all a spec series.
Not all DPs are ugly, like the Riley and Coyote. The Lola and Dallara however are homely.
Regardless it makes for close and exciting racing at a reasonable spectator cost.
Ferrari, I have read IS going to have an engine in the series, factory support or not.

[LeonOfTheDead]

Full day, FIA GT races (GT1, GT2, GT3, GT4), Lamborghini SuperTrofeo, for a good 7 races,two of them during the night, all for 15 €.

[DanVB]

Last November I got 7 tickets to the NASCAR Dickies 400 at Texas Motor Speedway.
They were about 60 rows up, at the last corner.
They cost $125 apiece! Just one race. Add in food, drinks, the token souvenir for my son. We stayed with my brother in Ft. Worth, but if I needed a hotel, throw in another $125 a night, minimum. A weekend for a family can easily top $1,000...big bucks!
The tix were free, however thanks to a generous vendor rep, but you can still see how expensive big league American racing can be.

[wwgkd]

The Rolex DP is NOT a spec series since there are several different makes of engines and chassis. The IRL IS a spec series with ONE engine, Honda and ONE chassis, Dallara.
All series have rules on specifications, but you can't consider them all a spec series.
Not all DPs are ugly, like the Riley and Coyote. The Lola and Dallara however are homely.
Regardless it makes for close and exciting racing at a reasonable spectator cost.
Ferrari, I have read IS going to have an engine in the series, factory support or not.

Nascar has had a lot of different manufacturers, too, they're just required to be identicle. Still basically a spec series. DPs have more variance, but only slightly, mostly just a wonky nose. I'm not saying you're wrong for liking it, but there is a lot more variation to be found in LMPs.

For cheap racing, I suggest SCCA, ot only is there some great racing but it costs even less than rolex series (not sure exactly how much it is these days since I have a professor that races so I go for free.)

[DanVB]

The Rolex has plenty of diversity flat 6s, V-6s V-8s Porsche, Ford, Chevy, Lexus, Mazda, BMW, Honda, Dallara, Lola, Riley, Coyote, etc., and soon Ferrari all in one race. Isn't that enough variation?
A spec series is a SINGLE engine supplier and SINGLE chassis supplier for all entrants, like Formula Mazda, Ford, Atlantic, etc.
I don't like open cockpit/closed wheel cars as much as I do the closed, i.e. ALMS.

[faksta]

US Grand Prix Engineering (USGPE) will use Cosworth engines.

USF1

I hope they will go on with this historic color scheme rather than paint the cars in US flag colors (I somehow expected this to happen) - it looks very good.

[RacingManiac]

The Rolex has plenty of diversity flat 6s, V-6s V-8s Porsche, Ford, Chevy, Lexus, Mazda, BMW, Honda, Dallara, Lola, Riley, Coyote, etc., and soon Ferrari all in one race. Isn't that enough variation?
A spec series is a SINGLE engine supplier and SINGLE chassis supplier for all entrants, like Formula Mazda, Ford, Atlantic, etc.
I don't like open cockpit/closed wheel cars as much as I do the closed, i.e. ALMS.

While its true that DPs are not "spec". They have severely limited design freedom to ensure the cars are as close as they can get. Which is essentially the same formula as NASCAR albeit applied to sportscar.

It does cost much less for an OEM to get involved though, especially since DPs encourages use of certain engines in the cars. For Porsche it makes sense for them to supply GT3 engines for DPs. Which is probably going to be the same business model as Ferrari, if not BMW and others too...

[LTSmash]

The Rolex has plenty of diversity flat 6s....Porsche

It seems that Porsche was getting flack for their engine. Too fast...

[RacingManiac]

Thats the thing about adjusted performance....its artificial, and you can never please everyone...It wasn't that long ago when Lexus V8 was dominating or the Pontiac V8...

[DanVB]

EVERY series has specifications to which entrants are to obey, even Formula 1. F1, by the way, is the most lopsided, usually boring series because the big spender(s) dominate every race! Ferrari spends $500 million per year while the bottom runners spend $50 million per year and don't have a chance.
Isn't that "artificial" or "adjusted"?
There is no magic formula for success and the teams with the most money always do best.
What is your solution?

[Ferrer]

EVERY series has specifications to which entrants are to obey, even Formula 1. F1, by the way, is the most lopsided, usually boring series because the big spender(s) dominate every race! Ferrari spends $500 million per year while the bottom runners spend $50 million per year and don't have a chance.
Isn't that "artificial" or "adjusted"?
There is no magic formula for success and the teams with the most money always do best.
What is your solution?

Except that this year one of the most broke teams ever actually won.

But if you really want watch exciting racing get hold of a channel that boradcasts some sort of touring car races.

[RacingManiac]

EVERY series has specifications to which entrants are to obey, even Formula 1. F1, by the way, is the most lopsided, usually boring series because the big spender(s) dominate every race! Ferrari spends $500 million per year while the bottom runners spend $50 million per year and don't have a chance.
Isn't that "artificial" or "adjusted"?
There is no magic formula for success and the teams with the most money always do best.
What is your solution?

Artificial is the team who "can" are forced to compete at the level with teams who "can't". Its logical that someone who spend more should be more competitive than the teams who spent less. Controlled formula does not mean such thing does not exist. NASCAR, where the paramount of performance adjustment exist, where every car is supposed to be the same, still has the one that has more money beating another who doesn't.

Solutions, I don't think there are such. You have on one end an open formula like Can-Am used to be being dominated by big OEMs. You have on the other the modern NASCAR where innovation is discouraged and the big teams are dominating. Historically racing is good when there are teams of equivalent status competes with one another, when that happens, everything is good. But big teams eventually run out of money, or OEMs run out of interest, and it eventually becomes a one horse show again.

F1 is chaotic this year because they have shaken the status quo, but once the rule stablized the status quo will return. If you change the formula every year the racing will be more unpredictable, but in the age of curbing spending and bottomline management, that is just not practical....

[Kitdy]

Except that this year one of the most broke teams ever actually won.

Our team!