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Originally Posted by Silk Cut Jaguar
It's a shame the Audi domination has scared the other companies into going the P2 route, which is only going to end up hurting the dedicated privateers with Acura and Porsche duking it out in 2007. It's curious that the ACO still thinks P2 is for private teams yet does nothing to protect them from getting whomped by a richly backed factory outfit.
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Well, given that the Acura entries have two different chassis, both customer chassis, I think it's fair to say that they're equal parts factory and privateer (AGR being supported by XM satellite radio, Fernandez being supported by Lowes). And the Porsche was always intended to be a turnkey privateer car... Just that it's still "under development."
Mazda has been privateer with a little bit of support all along. I'm hearing that, at the very least, the engines will be Japan-supplied next year instead of built stateside.
At most, it can be said that the Japanese teams right now are semi-factory.
The real protection comes in the form of forcing companies to be prepared to supply their wares to any and all comers (ie Michelin). With those tires, Porsche vs Intersport might look a bit different right now...
Anyway, you can't force the factories to go to P1. You can certainly discourage them from entering P2 (which the pinning back of the ears is about), but you have to provide the incentive for them to join P1 at the same time - and with current P1 engine regs, if Honda (or Porsche) isn't prepared to go the diesel route, there's just no incentive.