Today on Shakedown it's the Monday racing results recap.
And we go all Chrysler Racing crazy with my wild-ass rumor
of the SRT Viper Racing program.
It's as extreme as the Global Rally Cross X-Game Dodge Dart
being built for Travis Pastrana.
That thing has 600 horsepower and four-wheel drive.
Just like the Dart you can buy on the showroom floor.
And that's today's Shakedown intro.
Short, right?
Done especially for you ADD viewers that got all confused
on Friday's show and couldn't make it through the
four-minute racing preview before we got to the Sebring
track action.
And congratulations YouTube, your new plan
with Drive is working.
The viewers actually think they're watching TV.
And forgot that they can click ahead to the parts of the
video they want to see.
But no big deal.
We solved that problem today.
So while this short intro finishes up, I'll click over
to Comedy Central to see what Colbert's talking all about.
Oh what, this isn't TV?
A lot of racing this weekend.
But let's just cover the stuff that made a difference.
Oh, and let's do the Viper rumor mongering right now
because I'd hate to lose your attention.
And to help you, here's a link to a list of ADD drugs to
allow you to make it through this Shakedown and the
40-minute Tuned show that Matt Farah has coming up for you
later today.
Just click on this link, www.
that's too many Ws, I've forgotten what I'm
searching for .com.
And you know what?
Now that you've got your pills, let's wait a bit on the
Viper rumor.
Back to the racing info.
Super GT in Japan had their first race of the 2012 season.
I'll give you a link to the last lap action and you'll see
that Toyota-Lexus won with their SC430, not an LFA.
WTF?
It's OK, a Japanese tuner company has that handled with
this body kit for the Toyota 86.
Dozo.
An LFA for cheap.
Not really.
I'm told the kit costs $375,000 just like the LFA.
Oh, 375,000 yen?
OK, what's the exchange rate to the American
dollar these days?
Oh, it's still $375,000.
Never mind.
Next topic.
After the last few Shakedowns from Sebring, I'm tired of
talking about Audi.
But I have to one more time, because, damn it, Audi sold
some more R8 LMS race cars.
This time in Japan for the GT300 class.
And guess what?
Audi won.
The 2012 R8 LMS features an upgraded rear wing and hood
for better aero, carbon doors for lighter weight, better
brakes and dampers, an improved gearbox, a larger oil
cooler for the 5.2-liter, 562-horsepower V10.
V10?
Just like the 2013 Viper.
Let's talk about that now.
Ha, no.
Because we've got more news about Super
GT, that GT300 class.
The Subaru BRZ debuted, but with a bad race day.
It qualified eighth, but DNFed after 45 of the 82 laps with a
gearbox differential issue.
Yeah, the gears ended up on a different part of the track
than the car.
And look at the entry list and finish results in GT300.
I'm giving you the link in the description, and find the
Japanese race cars.
It's hard to.
Because other than my favorite Shiden and a few other cars,
it's all GT3-type Porsche, Audi,
Ferrari, BMW, even Corvette.
Hey, at least the pit lizards are Japanese.
How about the Italian bambalinas of the Italian
superstars touring car series, where Jaguar
won the first race.
And Paul Gentilozzi, who ran that disaster ALMS Jag
program, was nowhere to be found.
He's no longer allowed into Italy, despite all the vowels
in his name.
Then F1 refugee, Vitantonio Liuzzi, took his Mercedes to a
race two win.
I have no joke.
And WTF?
The new Audis look cool, gotta show them to you.
But you know what, they did OK in their debut.
P5, race two, and that's enough Audi,
well, until Ava calls.
She knows what I mean.
My wife, however, I've got to explain that to her.
Let's move on to WRC, where Ford won with Mikko Hirvonen.
Oh, wait.
He's racing Citroen this year.
So Citroen won?
No.
Oh, Mads Ostberg won for Ford because Hirvonen and Citroen
got excluded for a technically questionable and ineligible,
illegal, clutch and turbocharger turbine wheel.
So in the end, Sebastien Loeb retains the WRC points lead.
And by the way, in the season-opening European Le
Mans series, that race of Paul Ricard, the debut of the
Sebastien Loeb Racing team, saw his car finish P2 when the
six-hour checker fell.
The Oreca Nissan is wheeled by Sarrazin and Minassian, two
ex-Peugeot factory guys, with third driver Micolas Morrac.
Some other Oreca Nissan won the race.
Oreca.
Hey, they ran the Vipers at Le Mans, Daytona, and the ALMS
the last time it was factory raced.
Is it time to talk about the Viper rumor now?
No.
Take another ADD pill, you tweakers.
Let's talk British Touring Cars.
Because World Touring Cars, quite frankly, is a Chevy
Cruze run-away.
As the bow-ties won both races this weekend, or all of them
in the season so far.
But in British Touring Cars, Jason Plato took
MG to a first win.
Then Matt Neal took the first 2012 win for Honda in it's
factory-backed return to BTCC with his race two performance.
In Grand Am's Continental Tire Challenge race, sponsor Rum
Bum switched over from BMW to Porsche and won the GS class,
beating the Multimatic Aston Martin Vantage.
BMW won the Conti ST class.
And in the Grand Am Rolex GT race, Mazda beat Ferrari and
Porsche, Porsche with it's newly
allowed four-liter engine.
And while the two Audi R8s didn't finish on the podium in
the Grand Am Rolex race, they got new racing clutches and
some valuable development tweaks that put them right on
the race pace of winning cars.
So where the hell are the American brands?
Oh, right.
The Corvette DP beat the BMW Riley of Ganassi.
Which finally gets me to the Viper racing rumor.
But I expect we'll get confirmed or clarified at the
New York Auto Show this Wednesday or Thursday in time
for our Friday Shakedown show.
Now, I'm gonna be honest, this is just my logical guess.
But here we go.
First we chatted with SRT head Ralph Gilles at the January
Detroit show.
And while he neither confirmed nor denied a racing plan for
Viper, but you know what?
At New York, I sense something is coming.
And I may not even need to challenge Ralph with this
picture of a body mold with space for the racing body
latches molded in.
Because back in June last year, Chrysler publicly
admitted to looking at the international racing option
for the Viper brand.
Where?
Among their Daytona 24 overall win and a few ALMS
championships, Viper won Le Mans three times,
1998, '99, and 2000.
Now one Shakedown viewer reminded me, how can you race
an 8.4-liter V10 if GT rules require only a 5.5 maximum
engine size?
Well, A, I'm confused because while I agree and know that
Corvette dropped to a 5.5-liter engine because of
its associated advantages to air restrictor
and allowed car weight.
B, the ACO rules seem to allow power plants all the way up to
eight liters.
Which would be wild, watching an 8-liter V10 race the
four-liter BMW M3 V8.
So let's assume there's a way and/or rules exemptions, as
there always are granted, to make it possible to attract
SRT into the GT fray.
How will it happen?
Well, Riley Technologies, who's built a ton of race cars
and still do, from the Mazda GT chassis that just won again
in Grand Am to the Riley DP chassis that won to 2012
Daytona 24 for Ford, and the Ganassi that
races in Grand Am.
Riley was rumored to have been attending ACO meetings on
behalf of Dodge and Viper and SRT and working on the SRT
Viper race car itself.
And when we were at Daytona, I spoke with the Ganassi guys
and watched them work very closely with the Riley
technicians.
Plus, mix in the fact that Dodge needs a new NASCAR team
for it's 2013 Charger effort now that Penske dumped them.
And Ganassi probably doesn't like being behind the
Chevy-favored NASCAR teams that are in line ahead of
them, the likes of Hendrick and Stewart-Haas.
And Chip is the true contender to emulate Roger Penske with
multiple programs, et cetera, et cetera.
And both these guys have not won Le Mans, and they want to.
And they really do like beating each other.
And why this pic?
To remind everyone that back in the day, Ganassi took tens
of millions of dollars out of Toyota to finally get them the
CART IndyCar championship and the Indy 500 win they craved
when they had been dissed by Penske and were desperate to
buy into success.
And Chip is really good at those situations with
manufacturers and their racing.
I expect to see Chip Ganassi on stage with SRT's Ralph
Gilles and Sergio Marchionne and Dodge CEO Reid Bigland
glad-handing and backslapping their way to a huge
partnership announcement blanketing NASCAR and GT
racing with Viper.
Oh, and more fuel to the fire?
Riley Technologies the company does NASCAR engineering, so
that fits everything that Ganassi would need.
And some ALMS officials are heading to the New York show.
Now I'm heading to the New York show as well, to get all
the racing news that's there and not.
Because if SRT is going global sports car racing, I want to
ask someone at Ford, WTF?
Why not them?
And they better not mention Octane Academy or Ken Block as
their racing efforts.
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