You've already imagined it as a kid while playing with your toy cars. You must have seen it while you daydream about cars. The concept has already popped in your mind once, maybe twice. You know that there will come a time when race cars will come equipped with powerful engines and beautiful bodies, all going as fast as their drivers can while passing through Tamburello or at the Esses at Bathurst.
BMW puts an ordinary Z4 to a wind tunnel, does research, puts some more power. Audi takes an RS 5 to the gym so it's fit for the races. Honda recommends a diet and exercise regimen for the Civic so it can be competitive. Hyundai reworks the beige, little i20, giving it wings, punching holes, adding a 300hp engine. Manufacturers, over the years, have turned and are turning production cars into racing cars, as mandated by the organizers, and many have become successful, memorable or both. They are loud, agile, beautiful. They are driven by talented drivers.
And then there are the Ferrari FXX, Pagani Zonda R, Koenigsegg Agera R, and the street versions of the Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR and the McLaren F1 GTR. And the Porsche 911 GT3's that you can get along in the road, along with the street version of the legendary 911 GT1. These cars are greater than the GT3's and Touring cars below them. These and the rest of their kind are race cars with some creature comforts; athletes with a double identity as Hayate the Combat Butler, like the GT1's of the 90's, or cars so hot they can only be raced on tracks.
And you've seen some cars in the street, sporting similar race car bodywork, sounding like race cars that belong best in the Nuburgring than the Autobahn, but is at home in both.
You see some cool race cars on TV whether you watch them on your black and white TV or you play on your elaborately-made cockpit, driving hard until white smoke appears, , until they fly for 41 or more meters in a single jump, sometimes until their bodies peel off when one collides with another. And you see almost the same thing down the next block.
It's an amazing sight: Canards and winglets dominate the sides of the front end. The hood is carved and chiseled. The wheel arches surround the car's wheels, whose rims are seen only at races in Europe, shown on TV. Aerodynamics spread along the sides. A large wing is mounted at the back the way most race cars have them. Diffusers protrude like blades in the car's rear underside.
It used to be a civilian Camry, which is an appliance to most people. A necessary car, and not much else.
You ask him about his car, and he tells you that he built it in his garage. You get shocked.
Carbon fiber is evident in his car as you see it, and when he let you view the hood, an LS7 engine sits at the back. Inside the cabin—or is it cockpit now?—there are bars welded in what used to be rear seats. the whole place is stripped of many things, and only a basic LED display and a bare transmission—a Tremec six-speed manual, as told by the owner. All the things you saw cost $30,000 to make and required 10 people, his friends, to build.
You get even more shocked when he takes it to the local circuit. IT. IS. FAST. Fast off the line. Fast exiting Turn 1. Just 50 seconds later, he has completed one lap. It's amazing, coming from a small garage.
These three different kinds of cars are in the same league in terms of power, aerodynamics, looks, performance, and shock factor. And yet they are all different. The BMW M3 DTM is worlds apart from a Ferrari 599XX Evoluzione, which is also worlds apart from "Gobstopper 2", a Subaru WRX STI made for the World Time Attack Challenge. And yet, imagine these three cars racing at Laguna Seca. Imagine a race between a crazy-cool garage-built Mini Cooper, a Toyota Prius apr GT300, and a Poesche 911 GT3 RS 4.0 at Silverstone. Then throw in a Bentley Continental GT3!
What if there was a racing series that had this kind of racing, one that brings fireworks in the form of radically-made race cars, from the motley crew of friends who just wanted to REALLY GO FASTER to the manufacturer who just wants to stretch it's legs/make a comeback/keep a clean streak? How do we arrange such a series so that everything's fair and level, yet brings the excitement of seeing underdog kit-maker go up against the big team?
Here is my try to explain how it may work.
(I encouraged myself to do this article after commenting in a post about the 2015 Honda/Acura NSX. I'll expound my idea, which was originally a simple comment, as well as I could, but I'll need help in constructing this piece.)