Endurance Racing Discussion Thread - WEC, ELMS etcSports Cars 

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Jesus christ that's scary to look at. Shades of Mercedes at Le Mans '99.
 
GOTMAXPOWER
Matevos Isaakyan's Spa crash:


With this and the Dragonspeed accident can the Dallara's safely start at Le Mans? These teams should be seriously considering renting the Ginetta's from Manor who can't pay their bills.
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Considering they're two very different issues...I'm struggling to see why teams would.

Both were bad crashes, but at the end of the day I want to know what exactly Aero wise the Russian team did that potentially compromised the car before I blame Dallara.
 
LMSCorvetteGT2
Considering they're two very different issues...I'm struggling to see why teams would.

Both were bad crashes, but at the end of the day I want to know what exactly Aero wise the Russian team did that potentially compromised the car before I blame Dallara.
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The only thing I can think of is when Isaakyan went off at Blanchimont a few minutes earlier, he bounced over the runoff. Maybe that dislodged/damaged some of the front aero.

As for why they could need alternative plans SMP have a car which has flipped over for (as far as we know) an unidentified reason, until they can work out what happened there must be safety questions. The cause of the Dragonspeed accident (which sounds like a power steering issue) is kind of irrelevant for their participation, their only car is scrap and there is no replacement.

Edit: On a different subject the Dallara seemed to have good pace when the young guns got it, could be a good close battle with Rebellion.
 
GOTMAXPOWER
The only thing I can think of is when Isaakyan went off at Blanchimont a few minutes earlier, he bounced over the runoff. Maybe that dislodged/damaged some of the front aero.

As for why they could need alternative plans SMP have a car which has flipped over for (as far as we know) an unidentified reason, until they can work out what happened there must be safety questions. The cause of the Dragonspeed accident (which sounds like a power steering issue) is kind of irrelevant for their participation, their only car is scrap and there is no replacement.

Edit: On a different subject the Dallara seemed to have good pace when the young guns got it, could be a good close battle with Rebellion.
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Which is my point, other than SMP which could easily have been on them or just coincidence as you noted, the Dragonspeed car met its end due to bad luck on a technical issue. Thus it would seem the sole issue with the blow over, isn't down to Dallara (just yet). I do think the idea of Dragonspeed picking up one of the Manor to be able to race would be good.

The bump strips I think are the issue @Panoz posted this in a discord server we're in and it makes sense. Thanks go out to him

 
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He just went full Mark Webber / Peter Dumbreck! In the stream i watched they just showed the wreck after the incident.

I wonder if it was previous damage to the car or aerodynamic effects triggered by the angle and road surface in respect of the car. In Le Mans 1999, two of the three "take offs" happened after the CLR was going over the mulsanne "hump"...
 
shoemaker
I got a eurosport player sub. Good video quality and commercial free, but theres no commentary. They take the world tv feed and its the same commentators who do the official wec stream who do Eurosport. So i dont know why Eurosport player doesnt just take the commentary aswell. Seems daft.
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Because no one would watch Eurosport 1 and 2 with adverts if there was commentary on the extra stream.

I tried to use the Radio Le Mans audio but it was 30 seconds ahead of the pictures. In the end I cancelled Eurosport and subbed to the WEC stream. Which wouldn't keep playing on my phone. And the website crashed so I still ended up watching quite a bit of race on the Eurosport player (7 days free) until the WEC website started working again.

#1 Rebellion car disqualified for a 1.2 mm too thin plank. #3 gets 3rd.
 
Back after a long break from here and can’t read through all of this thread. Can anybody tell me what the future holds for LMP1? As much as I want Toyota to win for once, doing it against privateers is a pretty hollow victory.

The last time that a privateer really gave a good effort was Pescarolo in 2005. I don’t think any of the privateer competitors are on that stage compared to Toyota these days.
 
KinLM
Back after a long break from here and can’t read through all of this thread. Can anybody tell me what the future holds for LMP1? As much as I want Toyota to win for once, doing it against privateers is a pretty hollow victory.

The last time that a privateer really gave a good effort was Pescarolo in 2005. I don’t think any of the privateer competitors are on that stage compared to Toyota these days.
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Funny how Audi could claim so many epic wins against privateers and not get called out for it isn't it? :P

You are forgetting Toyota's amazing good luck at le mans. My money is on a privateer.

No new LMP1 regs have been agreed yet. The ACO/FIA are in talks with manufacturers at the moment.
 
KinLM

The last time that a privateer really gave a good effort was Pescarolo in 2005. I don’t think any of the privateer competitors are on that stage compared to Toyota these days.
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They stand a better chance than you might think.
Pescarolo never really stood a chance because they were horribly unreliable. This year the privateers might not be as fast, but the past few years have shown that they are solid and reliable, whereas the hybrids really are unreliable. Look at last year, Porsche crawled through the eye of the needle.
 
Not sure if it was mentioned before, pitstop rules at Le Mans now allow refuelling while tyres are changed. This should be really interesting.
 
dingodile_r89
Not sure if it was mentioned before, pitstop rules at Le Mans now allow refuelling while tyres are changed. This should be really interesting.
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Not really. They did it in Spa. Meaningless change really. No extra tyres or extra guys over the line. They should have copied the SuperGT pit stop. That looks good.
 
HenrySwanson
Are any other manufacturers eyeing a future attempt at Le Mans?
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The manufacturers currently sitting around the table with the Regulation makers are Ferrari, Aston Martin, Mclaren, Toyota and Ford. Porsche "observes" that process as media tells. Whatever that might mean.
 
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SilkCutXJR
What‘s that like?
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SuperGT races are on Nismo's YouTube channel so you can see it for yourself, but what happens is that the car comes into the pits and goes up on the jack. The tyre guys replace the rear or front tyres at the same time, one on each side, then the fuel goes in. The tyre guys move to the back/front and as soon as the fuel line comes out, the replace the remaining tyres, the jack drops down and car sets off.
 
SilkCutXJR
The manufacturers currently sitting around the table with the Regulation makers are Ferrari, Aston Martin, Mclaren, Toyota and Ford. Porsche "observes" that process as media tells. Whatever that might mean.
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Means when the VAG bs is concluded they may return to that type of racing. Same reason they've watched F1 to see what the regs will be in 2020/21. Another manufacture you've not mentioned is Peugeot. Who have maintained that so long as the rules and cost oversight is there, they'll be interested in a return. And seeing as they've freed up their Dakar spending, that helps.
 
LMSCorvetteGT2
Means when the VAG bs is concluded they may return to that type of racing. Same reason they've watched F1 to see what the regs will be in 2020/21. Another manufacture you've not mentioned is Peugeot. Who have maintained that so long as the rules and cost oversight is there, they'll be interested in a return. And seeing as they've freed up their Dakar spending, that helps.
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I didnt mention Peugeot because I read multiple times that peugeot is not interested anymore because they wanted the rules to suit just them. But let‘s see.
 
SilkCutXJR
I didnt mention Peugeot because I read multiple times that peugeot is not interested anymore because they wanted the rules to suit just them. But let‘s see.
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It's more to do with the ACO being very unhappy with them after pushing to get the WEC started and then pulling out before it started with something that almost resembled notice.
 
Tired Tyres
That will kill GTE......
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Don´t despair.....it has always been this way in the history of either Le Mans and/or the world sportscar championship. It was always a "wave like" moving between GT and Prototype biased rules.....I am very excited for a possible return of the second half of the 90s (look at your own profile picture!)

It is bit early to draw too many conclusions but I think they learned their lesson with the huge Popularity of GTE fan and manufacturer participation and the money pit of LMP1....But I don´t think production based GTs will fade altogether...despite the Hardcore GT1 machinery such as the R390 you still had plenty of production based GT2 cars in the 90s. And it didn´t kill GT2 as such...it was more of a suicide that killed GT1 itself. Maybe the rules will prevent that from happening too soon....Just 3 years of BPR and 2 more of FIA GT championships....that was far too short a time to be had with those dreamcars.
 
Might be worth bringing this up again...

https://www.carscoops.com/2017/12/the-latest-hypercars-would-make-awesome/

gt1-renderings-05.jpg
 
LMSCorvetteGT2
You know people are smoking some strong stuff when they hope so hard they put those drivers on the side. Not sure if to laugh or shake my head or both.
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Well the whole idea of those images is a "what if" so I would hope the names wouldn't be taken seriously.
 

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