Le Mans Rant

My continuing complaint with the world's greatest race is a lack of variety. Last year there were two GT1 cars not American and not British despite numerous marques doing quite well outside of Le Mans itself (Lamborghini, Maserati, Ferrari, and all of Japan Super GT). Also, the Porsche RS Spyder's absence was definitely felt last year with the LMP2 category being clusterfucked by retirements. GT2 was good last year, a nice variety. But overall, there was not enough variety in marques. Now I realize some of that can be blamed on manufacturers not wanting to run expensive racing teams, but most of the blame falls on the ACO.

So 2008 they'll do better, right? Well, the list is released and let's take a look.

LMP1: There are 2 Audis, 2 Peugeots, and 2 Judds. Good mix of engines so far but only 3 chassis types.

LMP2: 2 Zyteks, 2 AERs, and 2 Porsches. Four different chassis. Better. Hope they bring an Acura on.

GT1: 3 Corvettes (2 sixes and 1 five), 2 Maseratis, 1 Saleen, and 1 Aston Martin. Better, but they need to keep it up and bring a Ferrari and a Lambo onto the ticket.

GT2: 4 Porsche 997 GT3Rs and 4 Ferrari 430s. Wow. That sucks. Where's Spyker? Panoz? BMW? Chrysler? Cadillac?

So the ACO is at it again. When are they ever going to learn that what I want is not just great racing between great cars, I want great racing and a lot of cars. Sure, GT2 will probably be quite exciting if these eight are all that are invited, but come on, how boring is that? To expand the sport of racing and get Le Mans back to the prominence it as held in the past there needs to be a ton of cars and marques on tap. I want Morgan. I want Lotus. I want Acura. I want Nissan. I want Alfa Romeo. I want Gillet. I want Jaguar. I want Cadillac. I want Bentley. I want Subaru. I want Mazda. I want Pagani. I want more cars on track but most of all I want more marques on track.