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I'd like to come up with the following question:

What would a racecar (for example for Le Mans) look like, if there was no rulebook and no restrictions? The only rule would be that the winner is the one, who did the most laps in 24 Hours.

I don't think it would have 5000 hp. No tire could handle that. They'd have to stop for fuel every lap. How many hp would they have?
How would the chassis look like? Like mis 90s CART cars because of the long straights? Or mor like 2008s Formula 1 cars? Would they even have 4 wheels?
What fual would they use? Cerosine? Would the have a turbine? Rocket Pack? Dieselengine?
And don't forget: It has to be ultra durable. And because of this the race would be thrilling to the end...

If it's anything like the car Williams designed without restrictions in F1 Racing a few years back it'll be a six wheeler.

Car and Driver ran a story last year where they asked some designers and sports car guys what it would be like if Can-Am was still around. Not sure if it was an April Fool's joke, but still an interesting read on the subject.
http://www.caranddriver.com/features/09q2/what_can-am_could_have_been-sport

I remember that Williams no-rule car from F1Racing magazine. I think Sam Michaels did the article.

It had side skirts like in the ground effect era and had 2 rear axles like the early 80ies Williams experimental car which makes more sense than Tyrrell's 4 tiny front wheels in terms of aerodynamics

Michaels said the car would be capable of 10g

It apparently needed the 6 wheels because the amount of power it produced, if it had 4 then the chassis would have been ripped apart

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3x TBKL rFactor Hillclimb champion

Is there a photo of that model ? Or a scan of the article ?

i would love to see a series like this with there being regulations for safety of coarse. at least something closer to imsa and group b rally than what we in todays series would be nice

Isn't it called F1? I mean.. most rules are there to restrict car performance to allow them to operate in safe limits around current tracks. Sure, theres cost saving stuff too.. but generally speaking..

I think if Can-Am was still around or F1 was allowed to run unrestricted we'd be at the point of the drivers sitting in pit lane with a simulator linked to a Satellite GPS type system controlling the car while not being in it!

The cars themselves would be capable of about 300MPH at least, and due to the fact they'd probably be so hard to film (bullets shooting around the track) and for safety reasons the spectators probably wouldn't be allowed near the tracks, there'd be so little point to make the whole thing unfeasable!

Good article.

Can-Am is great example also why it doesn't work in the long run. It only required one manufacturer (Porsche) to raise the game too high and then came the oil crisis (compare to recent financial crisis) and it was suddenly all over.


I wonder why Group B is seen as unrestricted series. Of course it had a lot of freedom especially compared to todays WRC but there will still a lot of limitations due the fact that the manufacturers still had to produce production versions of those cars. In a sense they weren't true prototypes but more like GT cars on gravel.

yea i see what u guys are saying but i just used them as examples. theres never really been a series where they've said ok heres a race track now get around it with any way u see fit. those were just a couple of series that had pretty loose rules on them and certainly more than todays rally and most sports car races. i dunno maybe im not using the right words to describe what im trying to get across hahaha

http://eu.gran-turismo.com/gb/news/d14918.html

Designed by Adrian Newey. But I'm not so sure GT5's physics engine is the most realistic platform for this.

I guess the tire would be the limitating factor with these kind of corner speeds.