[BMW Gator]

At least take that stupid "FAST" off the side. Embarrassing to keep watching "FAST" get PASSED.

[N & M]

When this car was launched we were expecting something mush more. Sadly, the result is way behind expectation.

[hlothery]

The real shame is that BMW could not get it right initially (either the formula or whatever), but Mercedes, Acura, and Lexus seem to have done much better with their packages. Until crashes intervened, they were clearly more competitive. I know GTD is different, obviously, and Turner was more competitive. This race, however, will provide much fodder for lobbying a better formula in GTLM, since there was a very clear speed differential. We watched this all last year, however, and there was no resolution.

[E9TOU]

Originally Posted by hlothery

The real shame is that BMW could not get it right initially (either the formula or whatever), but Mercedes, Acura, and Lexus seem to have done much better with their packages. Until crashes intervened, they were clearly more competitive. I know GTD is different, obviously, and Turner was more competitive. This race, however, will provide much fodder for lobbying a better formula in GTLM, since there was a very clear speed differential. We watched this all last year, however, and there was no resolution.

The problem with BMW's car compared to the rest in the class is that everyone else has a car that is purpose-built for that class -- taking advantage of all the rules and regulations. BMW's car is a GT3 car that's modified to adhere to the regulations of the GTLM/WEC GTE Pro. The last time BMW had a dedicated car for this class (the E92 M3 GT2), I remember them taking the ALMS drivers and constructors championship. The M6 is a mere gap-stop so they can compete in the higher GTLM class.

[raysspl]

The reactions on "that's an ART car?" are AWSM. Agreed with y'all. Keep 'em coming, folks.

[AntDX316]

Originally Posted by drjoe66

Really a pathetic result for the RLL team. The others are driving circles around them. If you are that slow, at least have reliable cars.

I think they were at most 1 lap down during the whole race. I think at the end the M6 GTLM was around 35 seconds to 2 minutes (max) behind from the leader at the end of the race. I was monitoring the live timing every now and then. They also pulled away from the leading Ferrari 488 and Ford GTLM. I was watching in-car of each. Forced the 488 and Ford GTLM to pit. It's not like they were 20 laps back. Also the Ford GTLM pitted the least and Ferrari pitted a lot. I think the same amount as BMW. You can probably blame aero profile for this as the size of the M6 is a lot bigger. Probably why the GTR and Bentley companies decided to opt-out. They all had like 588 laps or something, the GTLMs.

Still though, if the track was fully dry and there were no cautions the top Ford GTLM would have lapped everyone all day. They had insane performance and my tweet of, "The new Ford GT is so dominant, why drive anything else?" got removed with the tags so it could show up on IMSA's twitter. Ferrari led at times but they were smoking tires. They had far more pit stops than the Ford GT. They got walked at the last lap along with everyone else like Porsche and Corvette. I think they cheated because they have other Ford GTs who make it look like it's fair then pull out what it looks to be a noticeable advantage. They have the smallest aero footprint of all the GTLMs. If other manufacturers don't copy they should not complain when they look an economy performance endurance race by staying bigger.