[canam]

Circa US$350m is being spent over three years in programmes by two manufacturers to: 1) keep on winning Le Mans and/or 2) win Le Mans. Now by the standards of F1, this is chump change but a LM victory has to be viewed to have some sense of credibility. These manufacturers are using their performance to actually sell cars not as a marketing exercise to 'show off' their engineering capabilities. If LM is viewed to the rigged, then the programs may not meet their marketing objectives and, eventually, will get consigned to the trash can...(as manfufacturers hae done so many times in the past). Under such circumstances, these same manufacturers will point to finger at the ACO for allowing it to happen. After all, they were just building cars to meet the regs!! Credibility is a judgement call made by the marketing departments and they will happily turn off the tap as quickly as hey turned it on.