80th running of the Le Mans 24 Hours - 16–17 June 2012

[RACECAR]

Why would the commentators mention a sponsor anyway unless they're paid to do so? I don't remember hearing about GT much either during the coverage years ago. I heard the commentators use the Forza Motorsport chicane once or twice.

Funny thing, Not once was Forza Mentioned in anyway or fashion on the Speed TV coverage.

 

[nitrorocks]

I noticed something:

2012 Le Mans was sponsored by "Forza Motorsport" (big signs at mulsane straight for ex). There was not one "Gran Turismo" badge/sign anywhere (except gt academy) and all cars got their own manufacturer sticker on the windshield.

Was a cool race though...sadly the Toyotas got problems.

I noticed this too. Maybe they didn't want to put up the money for it this year.

 

[GTP_Monkey]

I watched all but 2 hours of the race (needed a bit of sleep) I only recall Eurosport mention Forza chicane once and possibly over a dozen discusions about GT Academy. Thats great publicity for Sony and GT5.

 

[Grand Prix]

Alright, here are my whack opinions.


1) Ant's crash was terrifying, and caused by yet another GT Amateur class Ferrari. Which begs the question, why do we even have an Amateur class at the world's most prestigious motor race? It is even more highly regarded than the Olympics (IMPOSSIBRU!) by National Geographic.

I think we need to make the current GT class GT2 and introduce a GT1 that can take the fight to the leading LMP2s. Maybe even the LMP1s. I know that defeats the point of having classes, but damn, we need more cars like the McLaren F1 taking the overall win. Maybe they could get rid of LMPs altogether and just make the GTs super fast. I'd watch that.


2) LMAO at Nakajima taking out the Deltawing. There was just no way Nakajima was going to drive in a 24 hour race without making a mistake of some sort. Especially when he had no LM experience. Better luck next year. Good show of respect to Highcroft later on, though. 👍


3) Thank you Speed TV for showing the NASCAR Practice at Michigan, it was one of the most exciting things I ever watched, I'd rank it up there with that one time I watched paint dry. Seriously, it was awesome. 👍 I'm sure NASCAR fans must have greatly appreciated it when you switched over from that dumb race in France.

(I know they were showing it online, but principles, dammit! If Speed TV was showing it over Le Mans, it had to be good, right?)


4) I apologize for this is another rant against Speed. Thanks so much for showing the same ads over and over again in the 24 hours, really, they were great. Judging by the quality of the ads, I'm sure they must have payed you huge amounts of money to show their ads so many times in such a major event. 👍 Well done Speed!

Oh, and you don't need a Speed 2 to show those racing events you used to show when you were Speedvision, and awesome. Seriously. Seeing as you did just fine showing equal coverage of most motorsports on one channel a decade ago. Because, you know, you had just the one channel back then.

Maybe it's time to cut back on the Nascar and those stupid reality shows no one wants to watch? Just a thought. 👍


/rant

 

[Beerz]

Hi Beerz (long time, btw ) the story of the very, very late pitting by the Corvette was a bit more complex, see here:

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/100474

I was hearing RadioLemans with the TV muted (can't stand José Pinto and Domingos Piedade talking about themselves instead of the race we're watching) and they were paying attention, in fact they almost shouted when they saw that Lamy had pitted and was getting out of the car. And they shouted for two reasons, first because they understood what was at stake (disqualification becasue Canal hadn't driven enough time during the 24H) and second because the Audis were approaching in formation the end of the lap, the pitlane was already in "party mode", with people everywhere, and if anything went wrong the Vette could come to a "pitlane closed" situation. All this preventing another lap and handing the victory to Porsche again.

Was very funny, especially because it ended well, Canal got the car out of the pits and did a very lonely last lap

PS - Lamy's last stint was the stuff of legends, keeping up with Armindo in the Porsche with many bhp less under his right foot. Epic drive, lady luck favoured them in the end but if you're not there for the taking, luck won't do you any favours.

Hey buddy!

Ah, didn't know that "detail". Good thing he pitted then.

You're absolutely right. His entire race was flawless and overall excelent in every aspect, but that last stint was just epic, especially being against Armindo in that car, which is renowned to be an explosive combination. Armindo is a crazy fast driver, I really like him too. Talked to him (in english) once in Estoril, he knows only 3 or 4 words in Portuguese, none of them can be said here, due to the AUP.

 

[Carlos]

Funny thing, Not once was Forza Mentioned in anyway or fashion on the Speed TV coverage.

I was at Le Mans but didn't see any Forza adds except on the big screens and a stand... 👎

It was great being there though. Sad moment when Toyoto crashed, followed by the Deltawing crash

Was glad to see it back but it didn't last long

 

[nosh]

Alright, here are my whack opinions.


1) Ant's crash was terrifying, and caused by yet another GT Amateur class Ferrari. Which begs the question, why do we even have an Amateur class at the world's most prestigious motor race? It is even more highly regarded than the Olympics (IMPOSSIBRU!) by National Geographic.

I think we need to make the current GT class GT2 and introduce a GT1 that can take the fight to the leading LMP2s. Maybe even the LMP1s. I know that defeats the point of having classes, but damn, we need more cars like the McLaren F1 taking the overall win. Maybe they could get rid of LMPs altogether and just make the GTs super fast. I'd watch that.

Need to catch up a bit mate. The reason why we have GTE is due to the GT1 cars of a few years ago being very expensive to run ( they cost between 2 to 3 times more than a gt2 (current gte class) car to build and the running cost where also about 3 times higher) Due to this manufacturers kind of got out of gt1 and went to gt2, with the last time gt1 cars racing being in 2010, where they pretty much used 5+ year old cars and the winning gt1 labre car doing less laps than the winning gt2 car, the Porsche 997.

Having ametuer drivers at le mans is a positive not a negative, it means that this is one of the last great sporting events where a reasonably good non-pro driver can win their class. Without ameteur drivers le mans would be pretty much dead as ametuers have kept the grid numbers up and supported the race for all of it's existance, with the manufacturers coming in and out. The ametuer drivers also give employment to the pro drivers and teams they race with, with quite a few of the current top drivers starting out racing with am drivers and then getting works deals due to their talent.

GT2 (and gt1 when it was healthy) cars regularly came ahead of the winning lmp2 car just a coupe of years ago due to the lmp2 class being a survival class as the cars would break down every few hours.

 

[nosh]

Also having forza having sponsorship at le mans makes a lot of sense due to the presence of a number of currently competing lmp and gte cars. Whilst gt sponsoring n24 makes a lot of sense as a number of the cars racing there are in gt5, although they probs spend more on sponsoring n24 than turn10/microsoft did at lm24.

 

[HELLAFLUSH240SX]

Also having forza having sponsorship at le mans makes a lot of sense due to the presence of a number of currently competing lmp and gte cars. Whilst gt sponsoring n24 makes a lot of sense as a number of the cars racing there are in gt5, although they probs spend more on sponsoring n24 than turn10/microsoft did at lm24.

Yeah, Forza has a full partnership with American Le Mans, hence the R18, ZR1, 458s, etc in Forza.
Works out really well actually.
If GT cared about sports besides Super GT maybe they can get some Le Mans cars in their game

 

[gorsad]

Alright, here are my whack opinions.


1) Ant's crash was terrifying, and caused by yet another GT Amateur class Ferrari. Which begs the question, why do we even have an Amateur class at the world's most prestigious motor race? It is even more highly regarded than the Olympics (IMPOSSIBRU!) by National Geographic.

I think we need to make the current GT class GT2 and introduce a GT1 that can take the fight to the leading LMP2s. Maybe even the LMP1s. I know that defeats the point of having classes, but damn, we need more cars like the McLaren F1 taking the overall win. Maybe they could get rid of LMPs altogether and just make the GTs super fast. I'd watch that.


2) LMAO at Nakajima taking out the Deltawing. There was just no way Nakajima was going to drive in a 24 hour race without making a mistake of some sort. Especially when he had no LM experience. Better luck next year. Good show of respect to Highcroft later on, though. 👍


3) Thank you Speed TV for showing the NASCAR Practice at Michigan, it was one of the most exciting things I ever watched, I'd rank it up there with that one time I watched paint dry. Seriously, it was awesome. 👍 I'm sure NASCAR fans must have greatly appreciated it when you switched over from that dumb race in France.

(I know they were showing it online, but principles, dammit! If Speed TV was showing it over Le Mans, it had to be good, right?)


4) I apologize for this is another rant against Speed. Thanks so much for showing the same ads over and over again in the 24 hours, really, they were great. Judging by the quality of the ads, I'm sure they must have payed you huge amounts of money to show their ads so many times in such a major event. 👍 Well done Speed!

Oh, and you don't need a Speed 2 to show those racing events you used to show when you were Speedvision, and awesome. Seriously. Seeing as you did just fine showing equal coverage of most motorsports on one channel a decade ago. Because, you know, you had just the one channel back then.

Maybe it's time to cut back on the Nascar and those stupid reality shows no one wants to watch? Just a thought. 👍


/rant

I think GT3 cars would work well, even though today's GTE cars are similar to them. Keeping costs down and bringing in privateers would help keep grid numbers up while still having lots of Pro drivers. In my opinion at least.

 

[nosh]

GT3 cars would not really work as gt3 rules are pretty open, with BOP being balance the performance of each make of car. Given the amount of modification and design work that would have to be done to get most gt3 cars capable of 24 hours at a reasonable speed, it would be cheaper just to use gt2 cars. Although it does make sense that some manufactureers use the same tubs for their gt2 and gt3 cars.

 

[Solid Lifters]

Speed Channel need to fire that idiot responsible for that STUPID helicopter effect whenever we watched a shot from the sky. No, we all think it's a cameraman with a big bunch balloons tied around his butt! So damn stupid.

Amazing race with a lot disappointments and record breaking ground made. I watched every minute that Speed aired. Just finished it all right now. Busy weekend.

 

[nosh]

The sound of the helicopter was on all feeds throughout the world when we where on helicopter cam. This was due to them getting the sound from the helicopter, which makes a noise ! How else would you suggest they get the sound during the helishots ?

 

[Grand Prix]

Need to catch up a bit mate. The reason why we have GTE is due to the GT1 cars of a few years ago being very expensive to run ( they cost between 2 to 3 times more than a gt2 (current gte class) car to build and the running cost where also about 3 times higher) Due to this manufacturers kind of got out of gt1 and went to gt2, with the last time gt1 cars racing being in 2010, where they pretty much used 5+ year old cars and the winning gt1 labre car doing less laps than the winning gt2 car, the Porsche 997.

Having ametuer drivers at le mans is a positive not a negative, it means that this is one of the last great sporting events where a reasonably good non-pro driver can win their class. Without ameteur drivers le mans would be pretty much dead as ametuers have kept the grid numbers up and supported the race for all of it's existance, with the manufacturers coming in and out. The ametuer drivers also give employment to the pro drivers and teams they race with, with quite a few of the current top drivers starting out racing with am drivers and then getting works deals due to their talent.

GT2 (and gt1 when it was healthy) cars regularly came ahead of the winning lmp2 car just a coupe of years ago due to the lmp2 class being a survival class as the cars would break down every few hours.

Clearly I didn't make it obvious enough that my entire post was tongue-in-cheek.

 

[Jav]

GT3 cars would not really work as gt3 rules are pretty open, with BOP being balance the performance of each make of car. Given the amount of modification and design work that would have to be done to get most gt3 cars capable of 24 hours at a reasonable speed, it would be cheaper just to use gt2 cars. Although it does make sense that some manufactureers use the same tubs for their gt2 and gt3 cars.

Uhh, all the top cars from the Nurb24 where GT3 cars...

 

[nosh]

Uhh, all the top cars from the Nurb24 where GT3 cars...

They are, but they arn't your standard gt3 cars, they are alot closer to gt2 cars in terms of design than to the standard gt3 cars. The entire gt3 regulations would need to be heavily revised as well if the were introduced into fia wec as gt3 is basically just build whatever you want and the BOP to get the cars relatively similar pacewise.

 

[nosh]

The time difference between the gt3 and p1 cars would also be quite big, and increasing the performance of the gt3 (you'd also need to increase gte performance) would reduced the reliability of the cars, which would then require more money to bring the reliability back up. It would also cost all gte teams quite a bit to do the same to their cars. It would be cheaper to just use a gte car than go through that process.

However some of the newer gt3 cars are pretty good for 24 hours but the would require modification as said above, which would probs make them unreliable..

 

[nosh]

deleted

 

[nosh]

Clearly I didn't make it obvious enough that my entire post was tongue-in-cheek.

maybe,

 

[Patrick]

There's an edit button for a reason. You're not supposed to quadruple-post.

 

[nosh]

There's an edit button for a reason. You're not supposed to quadruple-post.

They said that about quadruple stinting tyres a few years back, but audi managed to do it

 

[RACECAR]

Does the AUP not ring a bell?

 

[Jav]

The time difference between the gt3 and p1 cars would also be quite big, and increasing the performance of the gt3 (you'd also need to increase gte performance) would reduced the reliability of the cars, which would then require more money to bring the reliability back up. It would also cost all gte teams quite a bit to do the same to their cars. It would be cheaper to just use a gte car than go through that process.

However some of the newer gt3 cars are pretty good for 24 hours but the would require modification as said above, which would probs make them unreliable..

Not trying to be an a-hole here, but GT3 cars are faster than GT-E cars. Like you said it's all in their balance of performance formula wich is driving the evolution of the cars at a pretty fast pace. At the begining of the season the GT3 cars where arround 1.5-2 seconds faster than GT-E cars on their test at Paul Ricard.

 

[nosh]

Not trying to be an a-hole here, but GT3 cars are faster than GT-E cars. Like you said it's all in their balance of performance formula wich is driving the evolution of the cars at a pretty fast pace. At the begining of the season the GT3 cars where arround 1.5-2 seconds faster than GT-E cars on their test at Paul Ricard.

Yeah some are, like when the gt1wc cars ran at lemans a couple of years ago, those cars were faster than the old saleens, however the saleens where a lot more reliable.

GT3 cars are fine, the only problem with them is the fact that the regulations are really loose, meaning they use BOP to get the cars close to each other. This is fine in gt3 and blancpain and even in alms and elms but is not really what the wec is for.


Then again the waivers in gte are just as bad

 

[Jav]

Yeah, I kind of dislike and am ok at the same time with the waivers... I mean if a manufacturer wants to come in by all means try to find a compromise to make them fit in! Right now Chrysler wants to run the Viper, and although the engine is way too big what other car they make that really fits in this class? And this is the same for some of the other manufacturers that are runing in the series... So far it works and has made for great racing wich is all that the sanctioning body should care about!

 

[nosh]

Yeah, I kind of dislike and am ok at the same time with the waivers... I mean if a manufacturer wants to come in by all means try to find a compromise to make them fit in! Right now Chrysler wants to run the Viper, and although the engine is way too big what other car they make that really fits in this class? And this is the same for some of the other manufacturers that are runing in the series... So far it works and has made for great racing wich is all that the sanctioning body should care about!

I think the best car that the chrysler family makes that fits in with gte is the ferrari 458

 

[Tired Tyres]

They are, but they arn't your standard gt3 cars, they are alot closer to gt2 cars in terms of design than to the standard gt3 cars. The entire gt3 regulations would need to be heavily revised as well if the were introduced into fia wec as gt3 is basically just build whatever you want and the BOP to get the cars relatively similar pacewise.

Blancpain Endurance series ring any bells? Spa 24 hours? They are exactly the same as every other GT3 car.

GT3 has what it takes to do endurance no problem.

The problem is BOP. It's a joke where one manufacturer is quickest this week and nowhere at all next week.

What manufacturer is going to tolerate that happening to them at Le Mans?

 

[gorsad]

Blancpain Endurance series ring any bells? Spa 24 hours? They are exactly the same as every other GT3 car.

GT3 has what it takes to do endurance no problem.

The problem is BOP. It's a joke where one manufacturer is quickest this week and nowhere at all next week.

What manufacturer is going to tolerate that happening to them at Le Mans?

What is BOP?

 

[SubaruWRC555]

What is BOP?

Balance of Perfomance. If they fix that I think that it should be the world standard for all GT cars. That way you can take your car and run in any GT series in the world.

 

[Hun200kmh]

Le Mans is amazing indeed. Everything about it.

And I got to say, I never cared much for Anthony Davidson (the Peugeot-Vette debacle a couple of years ago made it harder) but after what happened to him this year, and watching these videos, you got to feel for the guy.

I left a comment on Youtube, considering he's probably in bed without anything to do except browsing the web for news (and do some tweets), I think he'll read and appreciate, I suggest you guys do the same.



EDIT - To add Marino Franchitti's own latest video blog entry. Covers moments from drivers parade to race start.