IMSA Camel GT Championship Camel Continental VIII Watkins Glen International Watkins Glen, New York 122 laps on 2.428 mile road course; 296.216 miles June 30, 1991 I created this video with the RU-vid Video Editor ( / editor )
I loved the IMSA series back in the days. The cars were insanely fast, breaking track records everywhere they go because they had so much down force and they took the turns as fast as the F1 cars despite weighing so much more.
What kind of idiot would say IMSA died because of "lack of competition"? It's a narrative so wrong only the media would publish it, but sadly everyone seems to believe it! Look at this grid: in the early laps alone, 5 different brands holding the top 5 positions, each car bloody fast and gorgeous on its own. Porsche, Jaguar, Nissan, Chevy, Toyota, running so closely with these GTP cars that could put F1 to shame. And here's a story that's news to me: Honda was a 99% guarantee for a 1993 GTP program, and they would've run the incredible Allard chassis (with also a near-guarantee of winning the championship)! The _only_ reason - there's only one - for pulling the plug on the Honda GTP was that IMSA announced GTP's cancellation in 1992. Gee, I thought Racer magazine and Dailysportscar told me "everyone quit GTP because Toyota chased them away"? Wherever's that narrative now, when we know Mazda, Nissan, Toyota, Honda, Chevy, Porsche and Jaguar all would've likely remained in the series for '93 if not for IMSA stupidly cancelling it? And how about March, Lola, Allard and others with their GTP customer programs for '93? Or maybe Mercedes or Peugeot could've been persuaded to join IMSA, instead of the bureaucrats simply giving up on GTP and handing us their sack of WSC dog shit instead? But Racer & co. never explore these possibilities, because they're invested in sportscar racing being weak and boring forever. Pro-F1 puppets, muppets and fake journalists, the whole fucking lot of them. We've been screwed hard, and we're still being screwed by these frauds who now run IMSA and the ACO.
@Cary Salerno: As you know, Trans Am is an SCCA sanctioned series. The last Trans Am race I attended was at Sears Point and it was support race, ( opening act ) for a Nascar pick-up truck race. I thought it was going to be the other way around. Imagine my disappointment. SCCA became know to us regionals as the Sur Charge Club of America that couldn't promote a hotdog at a baseball game.
I think that the longtail 917 actually hit ~225mph; 250mph wasn't reached until the '80s by the likes of Peugeot and Mercedes. But 225mph is still an incredible speed, seeing as how cars were barely breaking 190mph a couple of years earlier.
Christian is correct... The "old" Porsche 935's with the "whale tail" hit around 235-mph... 917 actually a bit slower around 230 and the first car to go over 250mph DURING THE Race was a Peugeot... Some cars may have hit around 245ish during qualifying because they ran obscene amount of turbocharger boost - probably close to 3 BAR of boost (3 times the "normal" air pressure at sea level-approx 45psi)... But they had to keep it to around 2 BAR for the race, as they all had to turn the turbo boost down during the race so the engines would last 24 hours, plus if they turn the boost up it uses more fuel, tires, and driving the car is way more difficult to drive... Some cars had well over 1000hp in qualifying (the Porsche 917 was known to make over 1500hp) but the 917 had too much downforce to hit 250mph... More downforce =more drag =lower top speed but faster cornering... The Mercedes clk-gt1... The Toyota gt-one... Etc all peaked under 240mph. During the race, at least. The merc and Toyota were known to make over 1000hp in qualifying spec... Most cars are around 600-700hp during the race itself. New lmp1 hybrids are said to make over 1000hp between the electric and gasoline engines. You also don't need to hit 250 to average 150 - back then, yes maybe... But the lap record for the Circuit was set last year by the Toyota ts050 hybrid.. Which maxes out at "only" around 200mph during the race. It simply accelerates so goddam ridiculously fucking fast from 0-150mph that it makes up for the lack of top speed by blasting from turn to turn.... The new prototype cars also have 4wd and can take the turns 10-20mph faster than the "old" 917's, 956/962, 911-gt1,etc. It's about AVERAGE speed, not top speed. If I lose 40mph on 25% of the track (the straights), but gain 10mph on the other 75%... Then I went faster than you by 10mph on 50% of the track... And when one lap is 8 miles, I went 10mph faster for 4 miles. That's a very significant amount! The first, and ONLY car to OFFICIALLY HIT 250MPH was the Peugeot wm88 in 1988... There was a small race team in France that knew they didn't have the $$ to actually compete for the overall win (didn't have $$ for lots of spare parts etc) so they decided to focus solely on being the fastest car down the straightway, which at that time was almost 4 miles long. They called it "Project 400"...as in 400kph which is equal to 248.5mph... Still technically not 250... During the race they hit 407 kph, which is 252.9mph. So they were the first, and only, car to actually hit the 250mph mark.... Other teams may have done it during qualifying, but nobody got it on a radar gun. Peugeot wm88. Google it. One of the top 10 most badass cars of all time, simply because it was the fastest car of all time.
@@csonkaperdido I think the only 917 variant to hit 1500HP was the 917/30 in the Can-Am series, not the coupe 917s that raced at Le Mans. The 917/30s that raced in America were turbocharged like crazy and apparently could do like 260mph in the right conditions, but the 917 coupes in Europe only made like 600 or 650 because of natural aspiration. Regarding downforce, I'm not sure how much the 917s made - I don't have numbers even for a single variant. :( But since they were designed in the '60s, when downforce was a pretty new concept in racing (I think), they probably didn't make very much.... Here's some reference points: early Group C cars like the Porsche 956 made 3000-4000 pounds of downforce, late Group C cars like the Jaguar XJR-14 made around 10,000 pounds, GT1 cars like the McLaren F1 GT made 3500 pounds again, and I think modern LMPs range anywhere from 3000 pounds to 10,000+ depending on what year we're talking about. Applying this knowledge to the 917, I'd guess it probably made... under 1000? Or maybe just over 1000, maybe 1500 pounds? On top of that, it wasn't nearly as efficient as the later Group C cars, so it probably made more drag anyway. That'd mean more drag _and_ less downforce, which is probably true, so the 917 isn't nearly as speedy as we might think. (It's still awesome though, easily one of the coolest looking cars ever made!) After we consider other things like tires, chassis, suspension, weight savings, etc., Group C cars (and modern ones too) only outperform 917s even more. Depending on what corner we look at, a Group C car might corner 20-40mph faster, especially if it's a high-speed corner where Group C's ground effects shine. This is sorta guesswork though, so maybe I'm wrong. Regarding your GT1 numbers for HP, those sound a little crazy. Are you sure they were making over 1000HP in qualifying? I thought cars like the CLK GTR only made 500 or 600HP in race trim, maybe a little more in qualifying. I also don't think they were turbocharged, but I might be wrong again. As for top speeds, any modern car from GT1 to LMP seems to top out at roughly 210mph at Le Mans, but the numbers are a lot lower than they used to be since the chicanes were added. I think the speed record _with_ chicanes is 225mph, held by Nissan's Group C car since 1990 or 1991. Correct me wherever I'm wrong though, I'm guessing quite a bit. :P
