My prediction is that they willl be mid pack at best at sebring

mk

 

That car is hideous to me. You can make any car "racy" but it still looks boring IMO.

I guess I'll be pulling for Mike Davis this year.

 

Are you serious? Lets break this down shall we?

Turbo sealed SCCA approved engine with my guess a tick over 500whp
AWD chassis completely re-developed by 3R, which means Will Moody and several other really bright people had a hand in it
3R running the car, who has to be among the most professional of race teams not just in SPEED WC, and who get the job done.
Randy Pobst, who has proven over and over again he is a professional driver, no matter if the car is FWD, RWD, or AWD, he gets the job done.
Andy Pilgrim, (not Ron Fellows- sorry mental lapse) who is also a tick better than a "really good driver".

My guess is they run up front, and if they retire it will be some minor issue you get with a "new" car. Although I know the article says that 3R wont have time to test the cars, I have a strong suspicion the cars have been track tested, have been on at least one local dyno months ago, and have likely been "refined" quite a bit.

 

Yeah, good point.

I'll ask James Safronas at their open house on Saturday.

I do remember Derek Bell drove like a mad-man in that Volvo.

Randy's an amazing driver and seems like he's always clean too.

 

Is his son driving this year too?

Man, they've got a great company and have a lot of fun.... surprised Mike hasn't moved to Ferrari since I think he's still got one.

 

Heck, all the big power GT cars have 500rwhp. Its more than just hp that makes a winner in WCGT. As long as there are good drivers in the series with potent cars, these volvos will take some time to get up to speed. Is not like they took that Aston Marton from GT1 and made it a WC racer. they are starting with a clean sheet. Hey, if they can do it, hats off to the 3R team.
If they let them run at anything less than the weight of the S4 Audi, It wont be very fair to everyone else, if they have the HP you are hinting at.

 

The Cadillac team is up for sale now so that's one less front runner for them to worry about...

 

Brandon (Mike's Son) is the driver, although mike has gotten much better over the last few years. I can remember following Mike in that moster mustang through out the race in my 16 year old street car!

mk

 

What a shame!

The series should go back to its roots while it still can. factory cars, limited mods, and older years. As I have always said, Grand Am GS, but at gutted weights. maybe even extend the age limits of the cars to include any local track home town Joes to compete. Now, that would be a great TV racing series! The big money cars winning races is getting a little old. Time for some drama!! Its the season! American Gladiators meets Speed World Challenge. Realtity TV is big right now!

mk

 

I like it -- that's brilliant actually.

Find the next Smokey Yunick !

 

It doesnt matter what the rules are, a serious and decently funded effort will do well, and the hobbyist wont, no matter how much they spend.

 

I hope they took a look at the S60 in the factory race version. It's been done in both spec. and Touring Car format before. Though IIRC never with that kind of power from factory.

 

I wish SWC was like the FIA GT3 Championship. They balance the performance of the cars before the season starts.

http://www.fiagt3.com/

Galati won at a wet Mosport in 2006 with the At-Speed Motorsports Volvo S60R.

http://www.theracesite.com/index.cfm...e&mag_id=12415

 

Speed GT does IMHO the best job of car equalization going. Between the Competition adjustments and rewards weight system a team must be on the cutting edge all the time to stay up front.

 

As I said in post #10.