So... where the hell is the FRS/BRZ in sanctioned racing?

[Lonewolf]

Originally Posted by LucidMomentum

Michele is doing pretty well:

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showp...&postcount=127

Yup, keep supporting the people who ARE out there, and the rest will take care of itself...

[myusernameisrob]

This doesn't answer your question but this is sweet.

[ame]http://youtu.be/VLNbGMuoap8[/ame]

[strat61caster]

Toyota and Subaru have massively cut their motorsport budgets over the past 10-15 years.

toyotaracing.com
NASCAR, NHRA, USAC, and Off-Road
Toyota wants to sell Trucks and Camry's against other Trucks and Fusions/Impalas, that's the money maker. US road racing is slim pickings as it is, why blow millions of dollars on a campaign that only a few hundred thousand people will ever pay attention to? (Off-Road falls into this category but I assume it's a cheap sport to run based on what I've seen, relatively speaking of course)

NASCAR even with flagging numbers in recent years still pulls >5million viewers per race and over 70 million unique viewers through the season. Indycar struggles to pull 500,000.

In a more perfect world NASCAR would be a little more stock and there would be a handful more road courses...

In any case it's no wonder why we're not seeing the FRS take checkered flags imo. There's a diminishing benefit for automakers to participate as information wins buyers dollars today (reviews, tests, forum posts, etc.) not racewinners.

As said above, the Miata didn't roll into a Spec race the first year it was produced. Toyota is pushing them over in massive numbers, there will be more total Toyobaru's on US soil in the next few months than S2000's. As the guys who know how to make racecars out of regular cars figure out what's really necessary to make these things reliable on track and competitive organizations figure out how to class the cars competitively the scene will grow regardless of Toyota/Subaru's level of support.

[LucidMomentum]

Originally Posted by Lonewolf

Yup, keep supporting the people who ARE out there, and the rest will take care of itself...

Getting a new shift knob due to that campaign.
Going to be a good conversation starter :p

[mav1178]

Originally Posted by hmong337

Am I missing something here?

What you are missing this this:

Toyota: focused on top tier motorsports + grassroots motorsports, nothing in between.
Subaru: focused on WRX and other stuff that fits their overall corporate image, BRZ is not in that formula.

-alex

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by strat61caster

NASCAR even with flagging numbers in recent years still pulls >5million viewers per race

For a combined total of 2.8 million mullets, 58.2 million teeth and 100 million empty beer cans!


Since NASCAR became the pro wrestling of the race world decades ago I can't even think of it as "racing" anymore.


Yes, it draws huge numbers but my mother and 30 other people sit around and watch every race and can tell you every conceivable personal fact on each driver but no 2 people in the room even know what make of car it is they drive. If they have no clue on make you can bet they have even less interest in any stats or the tech on that car. They are not so much into the car aspect as the simple entertainment value.


People interested in the type of racing the 86 is capable of are the complete reverse as they are (usually) more interested in the cars and the drivers become secondary. There just is nota large enough audience for this type of racing to make it truly economically viable.

[strat61caster]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

For a combined total of 2.8 million mullets, 58.2 million teeth and 100 million empty beer cans!


Since NASCAR became the pro wrestling of the race world decades ago I can't even think of it as "racing" anymore.


Yes, it draws huge numbers but my mother and 30 other people sit around and watch every race and can tell you every conceivable personal fact on each driver but no 2 people in the room even know what make of car it is they drive. If they have no clue on make you can bet they have even less interest in any stats or the tech on that car. They are not so much into the car aspect as the simple entertainment value.


People interested in the type of racing the 86 is capable of are the complete reverse as they are (usually) more interested in the cars and the drivers become secondary. There just is nota large enough audience for this type of racing to make it truly economically viable.

Huh, I love NASCAR, love the technology and love the racing but no longer have many free Sunday's to enjoy a whole race. I really wish there were two tiers of commentary as there is so much going on in modern NASCAR, 190 mph chess games with inches to spare.

Except for the two car draft thing that showed up a few years ago when Trevor Bayne won the 500, that shit is a snoozefest.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by strat61caster

Huh, I love NASCAR, love the technology and love the racing but no longer have many free Sunday's to enjoy a whole race. I really wish there were two tiers of commentary as there is so much going on in modern NASCAR, 190 mph chess games with inches to spare.

Except for the two car draft thing that showed up a few years ago when Trevor Bayne won the 500, that shit is a snoozefest.

Ya, reading that back does make it seem like I was saying there are no people left that enjoy it for the tech end. My intent was to point out that the reason it has such high viewers is that many, many people watch it for other reasons and some seem to not even notice that there are cars involved.

[hmong337]

Originally Posted by mav1178

What you are missing this this:

Toyota: focused on top tier motorsports + grassroots motorsports, nothing in between.
Subaru: focused on WRX and other stuff that fits their overall corporate image, BRZ is not in that formula.

-alex

Yes,

Pretty much the conclusion I was leading to. I was wanting to hear it from somebody else.

Toyota is preparing for an ft1 launch with an rcf on the side. Subaru is only about awd stuff.

I guess i own a bastard child with only hopes barely good enough in the $25k sector. At least it looks nice ahaha.

[Chanpion]

There's the Japanese One Make series for the BRZ/ 86. Heard it's a good size. And I've seen them race in some series that I don't remember what it's called, but it had civics and cruzes and stuff like that.

[BlaineWasHere]

Pretty simple, racing takes manufacturer support. This car has none.

[Scracho]

Most platform racing series were established by enthusiasts and then when the events started growing in size and becoming more popular (including significant media acknowledgement) is when most manufactures will step up to support.

All things considered Scion (Toyota North America) has done a pretty decent job at supporting and promoting various events, but their efforts are spread amongst everything from drifting to show queens and as with most companies they have a modest budget to spend and they are just trying to spend it everywhere rather than one target demographic.

Take other platforms like the Honda S2000 or the Acura NSX, I don't see too many dedicated sanction events for those platforms.

Most race teams are private teams, independently owned getting some support from the manufacturer as well as other sponsors.

Check out www.Spec86.com and https://www.facebook.com/groups/Spec86/

Mike is doing a great job of trying to establish a 86 platform series.

I own spec86.ca and spec86.club. I'm trying to do the same here on this side of the border, but it requires time, dedication and money - with a family and a full-time career its becoming difficult to do. However like all of us I have a passion for this platform and its a labour of love.

[hmong337]

I guess I was just expecting a little more activity by Scion/Toyota. This is the most hyped up sportscar in decades. You would think Scion/Toyota of America would've put out a few race cars to prove its worth as being the perfect budget platform tuner. It's quite discouraging that the OE has done NOTHING thus far and the FT86 platform has solely been developed by privateers.

Take a look at Kia. They're Optima isn't even a sports car yet they pushed it along pretty competitively in PWC.



Is a few spec racecars and a bit of developement too much to ask for from the world's largest and most profitable auto manufacturer?

I'm still bitter that Toyota/Scion hasn't done much to in ways of creating a spec racer to compete with rivals like miata, civic, etc. Especially here in North America where majority of these cars were sold.

[MTCRX]

I just read on Twitter that a team is trying to raise sponsorship money to purchase the Lucas Oil Robert Stout Racing FR-s to enter it into SCCA Pirelli World Challenge this year. The same series that Stout Racing tried to compete in. I will see if I can recall the teams name.