Re: 88, 89 imsa cars

[AUDIDUDI@delphi.com]

> - it is clear (assuming what jay lamm wrote is accurate) that the
> trans am car did not lose its hood section monocoque as was suggested
> in earlier posts.  the roll cage was extended to the front section to
> reinforce it, not REPLACE it.

While my racing experience has been at the club level (I never had a budget
or talent to go any further, my "rich" family notwithstanding), I do have a
pretty good understanding of how things work at the professional level.

One of the reasons Audi hired an outfit like Group 44 to run their team was
because of their ability to re-engineer and develop the cars throughout the
season.  As a result, it's quite likely these cars ended the season looking
much different than they did when they started.  Ask anybody who's involved
with vintage racing how difficult it is to document the history of a car at
any given point in time (especially a successful car, which implies LOTS of
development work has been done) then stand back while the "volcano" erupts! 

On the one hand, Audi should be commended for taking the approach they did;
on the other hand, it sure would have been neat to see what they could have
come up with had they started with a clean sheet of paper!  Maybe they will
go racing again with the A4Q in the North American Super Touring Car series
(if it ever happens!) and give us a reason to have this discussion again in
the year 2004!  

     _             _              _
    / l       l o l  \       l o l  \  _   _ o  _   _   AudiDudi@delphi.com
   /__l l l / l l l  l l l / l l l /  / l /  l l \ / _  Jeffrey Goggin
  /   l l_l \_l l l__/ l_l \_l l l  \ \_l \_ l l l \_l  Scottsdale, Arizona