I call shenanigans. They must have changed the final drive ratio, in which case is it really still a 'production' car?

Looks very cool and I want one because of that, but it seems like a massively inefficient design for something where efficiency is pretty important. Why the steel frame? Why not aluminum or one of those fancy bike alloys if aluminum isn't strong enough? Why the big wheels and fat tires with all their extra weight and increased rolling friction just for the sake of aesthetics? The minibike layout does seem pretty good for an electronic bike though.

Lifting your visor is a sign to the track marshals that you aren't seriously injured so that's all to the good, but it seems to me he lifted it a little too soon. I'd be inclined to keep it down until the debris has stopped flying around and my car has stopped sliding across the track.

Anyways, it's a good thing that in the 60's and 70's they averaged one fatality for every two races or so, and these days it's a big deal when someone is seriously hurt (like Bourdais in qualifying), and a huge deal when someone is killed--like name cars and turns and stuff after them kind of a big deal.

In a passenger car that drop would probably have maimed or killed the occupants. In a race car they probably would have been alright.

To codriver must have had bad notes. Definitely a second gear turn, not a fourth gear.

This is just uninformed supposition, but I could this mean they're going to field a Boxster at Le Mans in the coming years? That seems unthinkable. The 911's are currently disadvantaged because of the big rear diffusors the 2016 GTLM regulations started allowing. All the mid and front engine cars can stick them on there, but I understand the drivetrain is in the way on the 911. It will be interesting to see what happens.

Nice to see video of a car like this being driven properly. Usually it's the car so-and-so drove to the whenever world championship so they just dautle around the track trying to make up for it with fancy camera angles because they're afraid to bend it (and since it's all original bits, it's a deathtrap).

Nah, it was always the same. The lack of overtaking is commonly blamed on high downforce, carbon brakes, and super short braking distances, but it actually wasn't any better before they put wings on cars. Same thing: the rich, fast teams qualify and start at the front and stay at the front and get richer and faster...with the occasional fall from grace (Mclaren) or rise from obscurity (Brawn->Mercedes). As cool as they are technologically, development series like F1 tends to result in boring races.

ed: Oh, and using ground effect has been banned since 81(?). Interestingly, Indycars use the ground effect (though without the skirts so it's not as effective as the F1 ground effect cars), and by virtue of being a (mostly) spec series, has much better races.

Open wheel racing cars are the only real racing cars. Everything else is just pretending.

This should be a standard part of drivers education. You get the boring guy in the cheap suit who makes sure you check your mirrors when changing lanes and stop at railroad tracks, and then next a really pumped up Irishman co-driver yelling instructions at you and berating you for not pushing hard enough on a rally course.

Anyone know a reason for the rain tires? (testing ban, perhaps?) But I've noticed that open wheel cars on display tend to be wearing rain tires. I thought it might just be because they're more interesting looking than slicks, but I'm wondering if there is another reason.

The WEC has been pretty interesting for the last few years with very good racing, particularly in the GTE class.

Ah, the good old years when the cars actually got faster every year.

Interesting to see it on slicks though. These cars in large part are closely engineered around the tires to the point where even switching to a different manufacturer of the same tire specification can totally wreck the handling.

Those don't even look like the same dimensions as the 2001 tires, but that's hard to tell from the video.

For open wheel racing, Indycar is where it's at these days IMO. Since they changed to the DW-12 chassis, lost the stupid blocking rules and brought in some new talent and sponsors, the racing has been fantastic. Unfortunately, I don't care for oval racing, but it looks like its weighing even more towards road and street courses next year.

I wouldn't want F1 to become a spec series, but they need to do something to either make the racing closer or the technology development more interesting. The WEC has been the most interesting development series lately. It's guaranteed that Mercedes, Ferrari and Renault would never allow it, but opening up the engine regulations to allow more freedom could bring in other manufacturers itching to show off their hybrid technology as something sexy and powerful.

I have a question about Smart cars. I see quite a few of them where I live here in the States, but I thought one of their primary features was that you could pull straight into what would otherwise be a parallel parking spot, yet I never see this done. Is it typically a parking violation to do that? That would be massively convenient if you could.

It will be interesting to see how combining an allowance of 5 engine blocks with totally new engine works out... particularly after the results of testing.

In the pool amongst my friends, I have 12 cars managing to finish at Melbourne.

Anyone know off hand whether the turbo counts as part of the "complete engine unit?"