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Old 10-24-2011, 03:38 AM   #292
old greg
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RWD_only View Post
the VLN race itself speaks to Toyota's involvement in the project. If this was Subaru's baby, why didn't they field a car at the Nurburgring?
Because that's not something auto manufacturers usually do with pre-production prototypes. IMO, the VLN race speaks more to Toyoda-san's love of motorsports and his bromance with Dr. Ulrich.

There's a saying that goes something like this: Don't take a car to the track unless you can afford to crash it, and don't race a car unless you can afford to set it on fire and push it off a cliff. These cars aren't being efficiently stamped out in mass quantities they were hand built and in very small numbers. In fact there may only be two or three in all of Europe. And while the material value of these cars is irrelevant, they'll all be crushed in a few months anyway for tax purposes, they are still needed for testing. And even though the Gazoo Racing car came through unscathed, it's now useless for pre-production testing/tuning due to the welded in roll cage. Even if Subaru wanted to take a BRZ to go racing, I really doubt they could justify ruining a second prototype in order to do so.
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