A lot of the time people can be a bit adverse to change no? We get used to things being a certain way… we find comfort in our inspiration and then if the winds start blowing in a new direction, well, we may not feel that pleased do we? Take this big debate about the state of drifting in the US of A. Personally speaking, I think 2009 will be a marker year in american drifting, as it appears to (finally) be fully separate and distinct from the Japanese scene, which originally inspired it not too long ago. Is that wrong? Will this be the dawn of a new golden decade, on par with the birth of Super Touring say 1992? A brief moment of wild high budget cars, like the short lived but amazing GT1 era from 1995-98? Given the state of the economy it's really hard to say at this stage if the current level of big budget builds can be sustained, but I can tell you this: Long Beach Formula D, April 2009 will be a very EXCITING place to be.
Now I seriously doubt that people are going to get into a flame war about the new Audi R15 (tx for the link Patrick!). As I look at this picture I feel a bit uncomfortable with what I see. Perhaps I have too many set ideas about what a Prototype race car should look like but to me this machine looks alien… quite unlike the pointy, shrink-wrapped prototypes we have become used to this past decade. The aerodynamic thinking seems outside my limited grasp of this black art…
Hmmmm… how about another prediction: if the R15 wins Le Mans for the next 5 years in a row, I'm sure it will start looking prettier each time it takes the checkered flag! :>
For an in depth look at the aero details jump over the Mulsanne's Corner….
:R
Source: Race Car Engineering via Patrick Daly via Facebook Message