Quote:
Originally Posted by Kayani_1
I am not understand why BMW needs to take a break from ALMS. When they have been kicking butt in it for last couple of years. The M3's have ran with Corvette's, Ferraris, Porsches, and Aston and out done them.
I think they should continue the effort with Rahal L. racing team.
As far as 2010 Le man goes they won it and got 3rd position in 2011. I do not consider that bad results. So if Corvettes GT2 cars went and competed. I think BMW M3 GT2 cars should have done the same. Because they are pretty competitive with those Corvettes. In fact they might have done better then the Corvette cars that suffered real bad luck.
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This is it for the M3- there is no more E92 and BMW does not race obsolete products since racing is just a form of marketing. Why on earth would they spend money to race something they no longer make?? If BMW races in ALMS it will not be BMW Motorsport backed. If RLL wants to field their own team and get their own sponsors etc. that is up to them but BMW is not going to invest any capital in a car that has been sent to pasture. The next generation car will not be here for several years and unless something miraculous happens with the Z4 GT3 there will be no BMW racing in the US. I met with Dr. Jens on Saturday- he said they have no indication at this time that the Z4 GT3 will be homologated for any race series in the US unless it is redesigned and if that is the case, it makes no business sense to do such a thing as the car is racing well around the world for privateer teams and sales have been excellent, with order books full in current form.
As for Corvette- GM uses it as a loss leader for marketing so anything they do is solely to sell other cars. BMW has no loss leaders from a marketing standpoint- also Corvette Racing has sponsors with DEEP pockets that just want to see their name on a car on the grid- BMW sponsors are not the same animal and some have also taken money from the GT cars and put it into DTM.
There were 140,000 fans this weekend in Nuremberg for the DTM race- millions more watched on TV. One race has more specatators than the entire ALMS season does. And in the US sadly- racing does not sell cars; Mercedes doesn't even race in the US, neither does Lexus and Audi only visits the states for a few races. The precedent has been established that racing in the US outside Nascar is limited to niche individuals and those individuals are only a small percentage of all car buyers (I am in that niche but don't base car purchases on race results like some).
As for Le Mans it is a huge race, lots of fans but is sponsoring a car there worth the same money as a Super Bowl ad especially if you do not think you can win? That's how marketing works... To racing fans it is something different but just like your favorite sports teams the product put out has to make a profit in the end. More people watch the Super Bowl and more are likely to take interest in a product if the ad is a good one- Dig up the Le Mans numbers in the US and you will be surprised at how small the audience is, its not worth the money outside for the art car...
Le Mans in Europe gets big numbers but DTM overall is a better investment and there is no need to have to grease the "off the record" French authorities to be able to enter and field a team.
Once again though- look at BMWNA and how they have now begun to package cars for more luxury, they are softer and comfortable does that equal racing?