Awesome historical metaphor. Will we have East and West Le Mans?
I sort of agree. There is no way to return to the past ... fifty or 80 years ago, everything was new and exciting. By the mid-70s, people had seen 220+ mph cars, several hundred horsepower, huge downforce .... the public was jaded, the businesses were starting to question RoI, and the weasels were looking for ways to take over motor racing (as they have taken over everything else) to leach value out of it without adding any real value to it.
Maybe motor racing on a smaller scale will work .... but given real estate costs, track maintenance, and the cost of media contracts (not sure TV will be a big force 20 years from now) I am not sure that motor racing, as it has been for the last century, will exist much any more.
It is a question of fan base, ultimately. There have to be enough fans for sponsors to be willing to fund teams, even privateers ... or enough billionaire enthusiasts willing to bankroll teams at a loss for the fun of it. Sponsors are the only sustainable cash source ... and as the fan base shrinks (how many 18-25-year-olds are excited by cars anymore?) sponsor value shrinks ....
Fans used to pay for the tracks, but with real estate values rising, how many track owners are going to make enough money selling tickets to cover the cost of the tracks? How many will sell out to developers?
I'd be happy to see a bunch of full-on two- and three-liter normally aspirated sports racers and GTs going at it .... a lot more affordable than all the "cutting-edge", change-every-season regulations we have now. But how many people will be happy watching cars going by slower than they used to?
For me, Matra V-12s and Cosworth DFVs, Ferrari 312s, Porche 907s and 908s, 910s .... Alpines .... absolutely fine with me. But how many people (other than fans of this site) would be up for that?
Shoot, I would be fine with stock-block engines, given the degree of sophistication out there now .... just wrap them in light little bodies, insane power/weight ratios .... but how do you excite a new fan who doesn't own or ever want to own a car to begin with?
Uber Le Mans? the Lyft 12 Hours of Sebring. Not seeing it .....