__________________ The Beast
2001 E39 M5 LeMans Blue with Black/Blue Sport Interior and Titanium Trim with some great mods and a blown, balanced and blueprinted S62
The Mustang is generally chosen for racing based upon bang for the buck and NEVER competitively raced in obese 2 ton showroom configuration. More often than not, the car is worth $10K, gutted out and weighing under 3K lbs with a built motor.
The other two portly examples you mention are not campaigned by amateur/privateers with a thread of common sense or serious interest in winning. The competitive teams running fat sedans against lighter sports cars intentionally mislead the neive public. Oh, I saw a CTS-V or M3 beat whatever lol. Factory backed teams simply illustrate what the best hotshoe pilots can do with an inferior platform and nearly infinite $.
Competition racing is terribly expensive and that assumes you wisely select the proper (affordable & most competitive) tool for the class. In serious competitions in affordable classes, driver skill is very close and all good cars are built to the limit of the rules...therefore, choice of car model largely determines winning or losing.
I'll agree that limitless pools of money can turn the poorest starting platform into something magical. CTS-V comes to mind.
I guess it really depends on the rules and how close the "race" car is to the "street" car.
I really like the racing series that try to stay as true to the road car as possible with very minimal mods.
I like the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge as the modifications appear to be fairly limited to mostly safety related items. At least with this series I can relate more to what I can possibly create with a street car. Although in any series there are always the "cheaters".
I guess racing ultimately comes down to rules. Depends on the series and how fair the rules are for various makes, and models.
I don't think anyone would agree that the e39 m5 is a good starting platform for competitive "racing" program.
For the occasional track day though, and if it is your only ride? Better than a lot of cars out there for fun on the track and a nice ride off the track.
I'll agree that limitless pools of money can turn the poorest starting platform into something magical. CTS-V comes to mind.
I guess it really depends on the rules and how close the "race" car is to the "street" car.
I really like the racing series that try to stay as true to the road car as possible with very minimal mods.
I like the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge as the modifications appear to be fairly limited to mostly safety related items. At least with this series I can relate more to what I can possibly create with a street car. Although in any series there are always the "cheaters".
Read my previous post. I used to work on a Grand-Am Cup team (now called the continental tire sports car challenge). Our "measly" 3-car team was a $2.2mil/year operation. There is much to be deceived by in that series.
MattMartinDrift. What team and when did you work in Grand Am Cup. I did as well back in 01 and 02 for Silverstone Racing running a Z06 corvette. Im not trying to hijack the thread I just thought that was really cool. Thanks.
mattmartindrift - $2.2M for 2001-2003 Grand-Am Lexus? Chump change!
I'm sure Kensai Racing/Compass360 ST cars here in Toronto didn't have that budget and they seemed to do quite well with their Koni Honda's.
Only being a spectator in racing, there are countless stories about politics. F1 anyone?
Politics seem to trump rules in many cases making "fair" racing debatable.
Do we as fans of racing just discount ALL of it then?
I've heard complaints from racers who ran "spec" series races about unfair play.
I don't know if you will EVER have completely fair racing.
What I don't get today are the instances where more and more drivers are buying/renting their rides.
Is a driver there because of skill, or because they are the major source of funding for the team?
Going back to the M5. Why use this as a "race" car. Doesn't make sense.
Does it have to though?
Going back to the M5. Why use this as a "race" car. Doesn't make sense. Does it have to though?
And that, my friends, is the point.
The OP has already said that he's not in this to win championships, but more for shits and giggles (can I say that here?) and to promote his business by giving the punters what they want - big noise, big slides, big entertainment.
Of course an M5 isn't the best starting point. In the same way that a bumble bee isn't the best design to shift pollen. But it manages to do so very well, and does it in a particularly engaging manner...
instead of sitting on your fat behinds practicing armchair criticism, perhaps you should actually get out start a project of your own, as the op has done. Then you will have the opportunity to show us exactly how fantastic your pool of knowledge is and how much faster you can make your steed of choice go compared to this old E39.
Talk is cheap, and it's always easy to criticize people for doing something passionately, when you have nothing of your own to show and only the experience gained from reading car mags to offer as advise.
It doesn't matter what he does with his car, race, show or otherwise, the fact that he is doing something with it other than polishing it twice a week and treating it as a status symbol is a credit to the man. I would wager that the designers would be very proud of his intent.....
apologies to those who are / have done similar projects.
I love it! Please give details. How did you go about the rebuild? What mods did you effect?
--Peter
Talk about my mods, why, how, etc, without respond from the starter of this thread feels like hijacking this tread. So I first wait for his respond, and hopefully we can discuss (or only read about) the racing preparation of an E39 M5, as I believe is the title of this thread.
And the above is also a hint for all you guys who start discussing how stupid the TS decision is. Doing that is not very respectful, it is not what this thread is about, please start your own thread and call it: “II don’t know **** about racing, “race”cars, track cars, how they are prepared, modified, why and how there are build/modified, nor do I know why manufacturers, sponsers, team bosses, hobbyists , enthusiasts make their choice for the car, but I do know some figures like bhp/ton (whauw, that’s cool!) and think that that is enough to make a statement about and sh*t all over one guy and his M5, and I don’t respect his defense on why he made this choice because I know better anyway, actually I think I can be a second Ross Brawn-thread” or something like that.
And again, this is not my thread, otherwise I would have spend more words on it. Let’s not discuss IF, let’s discuss HOW !
Konst, yellowgixxer : well said! Even better as I did, but I had to ventilate this.
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: a rebuild steering box (+ short story why)
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