It would have broken precedent for him to have done so, but had he done so it wouldn’t have been problematic from a religious standpoint of “but they’re Muslims”. Honestly, the whole “he’s secretly a Muslim” would probably be the narrative, not “he’s trying to make them Christian”.

That’s why I say the statement in-and-of itself isn’t the problem, it’s that it has been delivered by an administration whose past actions and rhetoric call it into question. Obama could have delivered the same statement verbatim and it would have been internally consistent and appropriate. (Not that both won’t be…

It’s the classic “we bought the rights, including the rights to all the past accomplishments”. Same reason Jimmy Johnson is a 7-time Monster Energy Cup champion even though it’s only the first year of the title sponsorship for Monster.

The God of Christianity is the same God of Islam, the God of their shared father Abraham. Alternative take, it’s entirely possible to ask that same God to bless the entire world at the same time as calling the actions of the Syrian government barbaric without it being an indictment on the religion of Islam.

Usually a ‘works team’ gets all their costs covered by the OEM (see Pratt & Miller running Corvette Racing, or Joest running the Audi LMP1), and ‘factory backing’ is any number less than that but more than a token amount.

I think it’s more a case of lack of comparison. You have lots of drivers who are good compared to the rest of the Trans-Am field, but without them being able to be compared against IndyCar or factory GT drivers, it’s hard to tell if a driver is just winning because the rest of the field is weak. I mean, there’s no Ron…

Pretty sure BMW is paying most of RLL’s tab already, and has since the beginning.

I mean, when your biggest names are Greg Pickett running sometimes, Holywood promoter (and prolific wrecker) Tomy Drissi, and that Adam Carolla made his race debut in the latest event, it’s tough to convince people to watch when there are so many other series with top talents.

I think it is being built out of passion. That’s why I like the V6 in it, because instead of building a shallow homage to the GT40's looks like the previous generation, they built a purebred race car intended to win at Le Mans that just so happened to be street legal. They put racing first and foremost.

I think the issue with Trans-Am is that it has fallen to the level of glorified club racing. They just don’t have the big names racing in the series like they used to. The cars are more than capable if you could get the funding and drivers to elevate it.

Well, they started the M6 back when GTE and GT3 were supposed to merge to a common set of regulations. BMW got stuck holding the bag when the convergence talks ended.

Well, someone got the rumor right. Things were swirling around for months that Ford was planning to head back to Le Mans in the GTE class, the debate was around whether it would be a Mustang or a Ford GT. Both having been developed would explain why that was the rumor.

Unless they missed, as one commentator claims.

At a minimum, it’s unwise unless you know exactly what’s downrange. Which is impossible to guarantee firing upwards like that, unless you’re using shot which would just be annoying for anyone underneath it when it came down.

Thanks, I am way out of date with the FE regs.

I believe the Red Wings took it to a bar one night and filled it with salsa as the serving dish.

Not all of them do, some teams have two motors that direct drive the wheels.

And being presented this way also carries the risks it’s used as evidence by those on the right that it’s affirmative action gone crazy (even though the remaining details show it’s anything but). Of course, that’s becoming common from both sides of the aisle, unfortunately.

That’s part of my question, is there data that shows this kind of advertising grows the sport faster than the alternative? Definitely hard to tell, we mostly have anecdotes to go on.

A lot has changed since then, absolutely. However, I don’t think the sport of racing has gone from “no girls allowed” to 100% egalitarian in that time period. There’s still room for improvement, in my opinion. What are your thoughts?