$\"\"$ <\/a>

Good Seats Still Available<\/p><\/div>\n

$\"\"$ <\/a>

Eye of the Beholder<\/p><\/div>\n

While not exactly ugly in the ultimate sense, their prosaic appearance does run counter to the traditional \u00a0prototype\u2019s role of being the ultimate in automotive technology,- of providing the fan with the notion that he or she has witnessed their \u201cdream\u201d racer in the flesh. And, while those thoughts \u00a0can be attached to such cars as Mark Donohue\u2019s more than 1000 horsepower Can-Am 917\/30, or today\u2019s 200 plus mile-an-hour Audi and Peugeot turbo diesel coupes, there is no such connection with the Rolex DP set.<\/p>\n

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The Right Crowd?<\/p><\/div>\n

Rather the Daytona Prototypes, up top now at least, have been somewhat squashed versions of NASCAR\u2019s American-bred Cup series stockers. Unfortunately, this has been bad news for a series that otherwise is more than good. Consider for a moment that the equality of the competition over the years has to so close that at the recent Rolex 24 Hour season openers the difference between first and second has more often than not been measured in just a few seconds \u2013 this after a full day of competition.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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Style Is Timeless<\/p><\/div>\n

In fact the equality of performance is a hallmark of the NASCAR owned tour, as is the quality of the drivers. But, in the end, like the late comedian Rodney Dangerfield, the Rolex has gotten no respect. And why? Because of the appearance of the Daytona Prototypes. Now, however, the Rolex folks are unveiling the revised Daytona Prototype which features more traditional, and better looking cabs, especially in terms of the widths of their original overly wide windscreens.<\/p>\n

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Journey's End<\/p><\/div>\n

These new cars while a great improvement over their predecessors, are, unfortunately, still a long way from being the sleek NASA-like machines road racing\u2019s audience has come to expect. And, it is this which leads us to the question of whether or not they\u2019ll be enough to change the so-far lackluster opinion so many have of the Rolex series.<\/p>\n

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Fear And Loathing?<\/p><\/div>\n

Perhaps, though, an even more important question is, \u201cdoes anybody at NASCAR really care?\u201d For all the talk about promoting the championship, there are some who believe that its main purpose in life is to coral the pool of \u201cgentlemen\u201d racers that have been the foundation of the sport for the better part of a century. Thus denying their presence to the American Le Mans Series, which until the addition of its spec Le Mans Prototype and all Porsche GTC production categories, had suffered from chronically small fields.<\/p>\n

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GT Charge<\/p><\/div>\n

Regardless of the truth of that position, the fact remains that in terms of the \u201cshow\u201d the Rolex has been on par, and sometimes better than that put on by the ALMS. Yet, the fact that it has been less than a hit with the fans has all come down to appearances, rather than substance. Obviously the \u201cSecond Gen\u201d Daytona Prototypes are meant to change that. Will they? For that we\u2019ll have to wait and see. Either way, as so many have found out; in today\u2019s \u201cfive second sound bite world\u201d appearances do count.<\/p>\n

Bill Oursler, November 2011<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They say the devil is in the details. If so, the Rolex Sports Car Series, NASCAR\u2019s venture into the world of road racing, is indeed bedeviled by them. Or, perhaps it would be better to say by one of them. That particular pesky detail is the appearance of the championship\u2019s Daytona Prototypes. A sports racer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[92,3],"tags":[183,67],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.doubledeclutch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2654"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.doubledeclutch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.doubledeclutch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.doubledeclutch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.doubledeclutch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2654"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.doubledeclutch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2666,"href":"http:\/\/www.doubledeclutch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2654\/revisions\/2666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.doubledeclutch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.doubledeclutch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.doubledeclutch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}