Hands down Mitsubishi did what they set out to do, they dominated the WRC for 4 straight championships, they literally kicked Subaru's tail pipes in!!! 7 out 10 magazines prefer the X over the new STI and the EVO is revered by many not just a select few! Once the new Fq400 is launched and it crushes the GTR, Mitsubishi will once again further their reputation of building extremely fast AWD turbo 4's... domination among the many and all those who try to imitate or oppose on the EVO and it's legacy!!!

 

It's a money issue. Look at Honda, they even pulled out of F1.

 

Well if true, then how come Nissan could not just outsource a launch control for their upper end GTR that would work? Answer: Because you can't do this successfully and consistantly; you must do the testing under real race conditions.
Why do all the major car company's go to the Nurburg (sp?) Ring in Germany to test their new performance cars? There are plenty of roads to drive on in their respective countries, so what's going here? Answer: Because they need to have a race course where they can test the various performance systems within their vehicles at high speeds and banking to establish durability as well as the ability compare their vehicles performance to other major competitiors. In short, if you are going to badge your vehicle as a "performance car" and actually be one, you have to have on hands racing experience, the engineering of which has been incorporated and tested within the production vehicle.

Later, Ken

 

Crush the GTR. hopefully topgear does something with the fq.

 

Start of new season begins tonight! Let's see what Jerome has up his sleeve this year.

Later, Ken

 

The Nurburgring is a very unique for its scale and characteristics. It is very difficult to find another track as similar as it is. Over time, the track has become the automotive benchmark testing ground for vehicle performances. Even, aftermarket tuners turn to Nurburgring for the bragging rights of their works. The track is very friendly in opening up to the general public and closing up for the automotive industry testing.

For the launch control failure of the GTR, an exact answer on the cause is hard to find without directly examining the Nissan engineering designs and systems. These information is unfortunately not usually available to the general public. Hopefully, a "undisclosed source" can release the details or Nissan will generously open up on the problem's cause.

It is very true that gaining real race experience might help Nissan to develop or to arrive the launch control more successful from an outsource, as Nissan itself has the final decision making on adopting the system and incorporating to other systems. At times, however, the problem itself can be beyond all the racing experience can gathered. There are many factors that governs the decision such primarily in manufacturing and economic factors. Even at times, racing technologies are non-transferable to road cars like the pneumatic valve trains and the kinetic energy recovery system used and will be used in Formula One. Time might help to relate road and racing cars, and ease the gap between them.

 

Patrick, I think your thoughts about relating F1 race experience to passenger cars is problematic, at best. Although it is true some elements/designs have transferred directly from F1; use of carbon fiber immediately comes to mind. That said, the engine design in an F1 car is totally different from all other racing cars to say nothing of passenger cars; no passenger or race car rev's to 20,000rpm or last for just 2 hrs of running to just mention a few.
Now as far as Nissan is concerned, I may be wrong here, but I think Gertrag was the company that produced and/or designed the automatic tranny for Nissan's GTR. If true, let me say Gertrag is no fly-by-nite company. And yet the tranny (launch control) did not hold up. My only point is whether Nissan either farmed out the tranny to Gertrag (a process you suggested) or developed the tranny themselves, the end result was failure. This could have been avoided if Nissan had many years of racing, a la rallying, where launch control has existed for years, and tested and perfected their transmission for reliability and performance under the most severe driving conditions. If they had done so, as Mitso has done, then the transition to passenger cars would have been smooth and totally uneventful. While I agree it was possible for Nissan to develop a trouble free tranny w/o any racing experience, it is highly unlikely that they will be successful. Of course the opposite is true as well. History has demonstrated the latter to be more successful than the former.

Later, Ken

 

The launch control issue is rather easy, Nissan tried pushing the GTR to far to over come higher end cars, without launch control this will definitely slow the car down 0-60. We might have minor issues with our EVO's but look at the recall on Subaru's 2008 wrx/sti, and now the "God like" GTR is being plagued with launch control issues.

 

What's been the problems with the STI?

later, Ken

 

about the mitsubishi is not racing. We tend to forget a Pajero or Montero limited in the US.
Now this Mitsubishi is just as famous, or i would say even more famous then an EVo.
Why?
http://www.mitsubishi-dakar.com/global/team

http://www.mitsubishi-motors.com/cor...of_desert.html



http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...Dakar_2003.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OwI9...-D-T1-for-sale

 

Just to keep things quick, launch controller systems do not involved with the transmission as far as the systems that I am aware of. This is just for factual information.

As for saying the point about relating racing and road and the Nissan potential failure due to the lack of particular experience in terms of rally, all I have to say is this: Mitsubishi have years and successful experiences behind the Lancer Evolution, yet the Evolution's transmission is infamously notorious incline at failing. Evident, the Evolution X as many members in the forums has experienced premature clutch failure. The general consensus is that clutch capability is unexpectedly short. The earlier Evolutions face with highly complicated transmission systems that are prone to failure. This trend is likely to continue regardless the amount of racing experience Mitsubishi has gathered in the short term.

 

no the "evolution x " isnt a real evo

 

" Evident, the Evolution X as many members in the forums has experienced premature clutch failure."

granted the Evo clutch is designed to be a weak link in the drive train.
But you have to admit, the improper break in , and lack of driving experience is a huge plus in this issue.

You not find this many /not even close/ clutch failure in the EU forums. I think mainly because the people dont have to learn to drive with manual in the states.
And the way less requirements to get a license too.

 

That could be a reason as the human factor comes into play.

 

wisdom from an expert.