Quote:
Originally Posted by DGthe3
Don't know why I only came across this thread some 6 months later but ...
When GM is doing their testing, they don't have exclusive access to the entire track for as long as they want. Testing occurs during a specific period of 'industry days' where all sorts of manufacturers use the 'Ring. For most of this time, video is not allowed (possibly through a gentleman agreement) as nobody wants footage of their prototypes in the hands of a competitor. Its one thing if an engineer can see it with his own two eyes, but a video clip lets you build a 3D model of at least a portion of the car to pretty fine detail. If the lap was run during this time, there wouldn't be video of it.
Anyway, when the track is eventually open to video backed single laps, each manufacturer only has a small window of opportunity. If you have a camera malfunction of any sort on one of those few chances, there won't be a video of it. And since there is such a time crunch on this, GM (who has so many models to potentially run) doesn't really have much of a chance to come back the following year to try again if something got flubbed the last time.
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Great insight. Thanks!! Maybe it really could run a 7:25, as implied by Al O., but still seems a stretch. 7:30 seems totally doable.