Expand your mind, man

I'm all for learning new things. It's like I always say, if you're not learning something new you're just getting dumber. (or is it more dumb? I never claimed to be an English teacher) Also, I have made no secret of the fact I like sports car and endurance racing in general. One of the cooler sites around, for those who are technically minded anyways, is Mulsanne's Corner, which centers around sports prototype / Le Mans racers in the LMP categories. Much of the site is dedicated to aerodynamics and the details of car design, and it's endlessly fascinating to a nerd like myself. The how's and why's of a new car, flaws that are never discussed until years after the fact, an inside look at a lot of the really classic cars from the last 20 plus years. There are interviews with drivers, designers, and multiple pages on nearly every car you can think of....and probably some you've never even seen!

I've been checking out the site for a few months, and finally my curiousity has gotten the best of me and I bought a book about aerodynamics. I want to know exactly HOW those aero add-ons work, and why I should or shouldn't use similar devices on my street car. Don't think I'm going to go around putting ridiculous spoilers and rear diffusers on my Mk3, or even the Scirocco, but it would be interesting to put some of this stuff to the test. Maybe those DTM splitters from back in the 90's will make the front end stick more...who knows? I highly recommend checking out Mullsanne Mike's page...it's a good read.

So I decided, since I was talking about WSC / LMP sports prototypes, why not drag out the old photo album from the 2000 Rolex 23 at Daytona, scan in some pics, you know, just for the post? Well...I got a little carried away and I scanned in a ton of pics, only a few of which are posted here. Is that an Enron sticker? Probably so, since the Risi team is based in Texas...

Check out the Wolfsburg Rennsport Flickr Page for the full set. Please. Enjoy, I spent a lot of time with the damn scanner tonight...Some of the cars, such as the short-lived Cadillac LMP project, are probably fairly rare to see, and I was happy to add to the few that are around of that car while it actually raced.

The rest, such as the Ferrari 333SP, are more readily uncovered, but it makes for a nice little stroll down memory lane. Cool stuff abounded at the older Daytona races...before they threw out the real race cars and made it an exercise in boring, with ugly spec racers taking to the high banks. Me? I'll take something like this Porsche 917 any day of the week. (this car was the Le Mans winner in 1970...)

I suppose there are some times when the good old days really were better...

_WRS

Wolfsburg Rennsport Flickr Page