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

[Hun200kmh]

Bad news (but not totally disastrous) about the Pescarolo-Dome entry

From mulsannescorner, this picture:

With this text:

We woke up this morning to this image in our Twitter feed from Dome founder Minoru Hayashi. Not a pretty sight, clearly a major issue in testing for the S102.5. We understand that the accident was caused by a tire failure at the end of the straight of the Châteauroux airport at 310 km/h with Minassian at the wheel. The team was checking through the pre-Le Mans Test list on Châteauroux's straights. The car was launch about 3 feet off the ground by the lump of tire carcass but the Big Honking Fin and Big Honking Holes did their job and the car didn't take flight, instead going sideways and landing, "quite softly" (per Minassian), spinning down the runway and into the grass. The flailing tire caused all of the damage, tearing the wing off as well as the engine cover, as well as damaging numerous other items (toe links and pushrods, exhaust muffler, etc.). But mechanically the car is completely sound (tub, gearbox).

A quick reply to our email and we have some answers from Dome's Hiroshi Yucchi:

"We were just doing a systems check at the airport where we went in March for the shake down (Châteauroux). The burst was caused by the debris. Apart from that, everything was fine at the test. Also, we have spare parts to repair the car in time for Le Mans test. Actually, the damage of the car is less than you can imagine from the photo."

So good news about a bad situation.

I'm starting to think that something must've happened to the DeltaWing also. It's almost two weeks without a single piece of news, a single picture or video or update about their testing ... nothing, total blackout. I guess we'll just have to wait and see if they do show up for the Le Mans Test Day. Not much time left.

 

[karl53]

DeltaWing... I cant see this as anything but bad news for the whole Sports Car community. At least LMP cars (Ok... Audi and Toyota) are somewhat relevant to the road cars. But now the DeltaWing... thats just a new formula of race car. The costs, rules, development... I dont see it as worth it.

Why not open the regs up a bit and let the teams come to that sort of thing on their own?

yeah, I would rather have seen that Swiss Hydrogen Fuel cell thing get awarded the 56th entry, the DeltaWing is just another normal car at the end of the day.

 

[Robin]

I agree, disappointed that the deltawing was given the slot when its no different in terms of propulsion innovation. Its basically a different aero design.

Would have much rather have seen a fuel cell, hydrogen or even all electric entry (changing out battery packs).

 

[Hun200kmh]

Official entry list published. TOYOTA still to name the 3rd driver of their 2nd car. And Lamy found his way to another Le Mans Edition, he will drive the #50 Larbre Corvette in GT-Am. I guess this means all former Peugeot drivers managed to get new drives in time for LM. Nice!


http://www.lemans.org/wpphpFichiers...du-mans/entry_list_24_heures_du_mans_2012.pdf

 

[Mac K]

So let's see, Toyota is debuting their new LMP1 car, hopefully it will battle with Audi and give them a run for their money, TWO GT Academy graduates will be racing, The Deltawing is racing, and the GT field looks strong and healthy, ya this is going to be great!

 

[Hun200kmh]

Audi found the GT5 solution for a central rear view mirror in a car without rear window. It's a digital "mirror" placed where a conventional would be. Fantastic news for the Audi drivers (and all those that share the track with them).

...
A camera of very light weight and dimensions of just a few millimeters sits behind the antennas on the roof of the Audi R18. It captures the action at the rear on film and transmits the information to the cockpit as digitalized data. The racing situation behind the vehicle is shown on a screen that sits in the place where an inside mirror is typically located.
...

Source and full article HERE

 

[advent]

Is anyone actually going to Le Mans this year?... Me and a mate are driving down there early on the Thursday before it starts.

For anyone who hasn't been; it's an awesome weekend.... especially the roadtrip down where you come across some very very nice traffic heading in same direction.

 

[Furinkazen]

Audi found the GT5 solution for a central rear view mirror in a car without rear window. It's a digital "mirror" placed where a conventional would be. Fantastic news for the Audi drivers (and all those that share the track with them).




Source and full article HERE

Well... Super GT cars have TV screens inside the car (as seen in GT5) and I found this ace camera with a screen which I never noticed just to the right of the steering wheel... enjoy...

 

[hawkeye122]

Now what would be cool is if the camera panned as you adjust the LCD like a regular mirror.

Yeah, awesome. Not likely though.

What else I would do? Mount a small screen with a Car-Centered mini map. Then you could anticipate which cars are coming up behind you, or start to plan who you will pass at what point.

So Audi would want GT cars to be coloured like... Red.

LMP2 As like yellow, with name abbreviations around them.

LMP1 as the same colours of their team (Toyota=Red, white) Like they do on the F1 Maps, with the full names. (Pedro Lamy or Tom Kristensen coming up behind you isnt as ominous as... Franck Montagny or Allan McNish)

Yeah? YEAH?

 

[tomhart9]

Spose that could work! I doubt they'd need much specialist equipment, maybe some specialized sat nav type devices. they wouldn't b very heavy so they wouldn't be able to moan about that

 

[Jav]

Corvette was the first team to put the "digital mirrors" to use back in 05 IIRC.

 

[NapoleonMikey]

Just watched Truth in 24 II today and cant wait for this race. It cant come soon enough.

 

[Lotrzyna]

Hi all,

As a preparation for 2012 Le Mans 24h I am just watching highlights of last year's race - I do hope that we will not see this much safety car and that they will beat the distance record this year...

I look forward to watching this very much this year since this year I decided to drop from eurosportplayer and switch to new cable provider with eurosport 1 and 2 in HD

This will be like 5th whole 24h in a row for me and I think this year will be quite interesting with delta wing and Toyota coming back - I only hope Toyota will be able to fight Audi as Peugeot was - speaking of which - too bad they are out this year - perhaps a person who bought 2007 HDI could downgrade it to 2012 rules and go in LMP1 ;-)

I also decided to finally do the 24h of Le Mans in GT5 and therefore I have a question - are LMP1 cars using TCS ? strong one ? with this much torque ...

Audis look amazing and painting on the diesel one is better than hybrid.

Have a good watch,

 

[gtone339]

Sarrazin to drive for Toyota at Le Mans!!

link: http://www.toyotahybridracing.com/sarrazin-to-drive-8-for-toyota-racing-at-le-mans/

link: http://www.lemans.org/en/races/24h/update/sarrazin-to-drive-for-toyota-at-le-mans_7144.html

Toyota Racing can confirm that Stéphane Sarrazin will drive its #8 TS030 Hybrid at the Le Mans 24 Hours.

The Frenchman, 36, replaces Hiroaki Ishiura, who withdrew from the race earlier this month due to a back complaint. He completes the driver line-up for the #8 car which already includes Anthony Davidson and Sébastien Buemi. Toyota Racing completed its evaluation of Stéphane in testing this week at Paul Ricard and, as expected from a very experienced endurance driver, he showed the speed, consistency and team work required. Stéphane, who has finished on the podium three times at Le Mans, is returning to Toyota Motorsport GmbH (TMG) after 10 years, following his spell as Formula 1 test driver in 2002.

Yoshiaki Kino****a, Team President:“We are very pleased to recruit a driver of Stéphane’s quality and experience to Toyota Racing. He has a great knowledge of Le Mans and a proven track record, including two second-place finishes, so we are confident he will be a strong addition to our driver line-up. Several team members remember Stéphane very well from his previous time at TMG and we are all looking forward to working with him again.”

Stéphane Sarrazin:“I am really happy and proud to get this chance to participate at Le Mans for Toyota Racing. I have good memories of working with TMG; they work very hard and it is a real pleasure to be back. It has been quite intense this week to become familiar with the team and the car, but I have received great support and I feel we have made good progress. It is a steep learning curve with a completely new technology and we will no doubt learn a lot this season. It’s a new and exciting challenge for me.”
Stéphane drove the TS030 Hybrid for the first time this week at Paul Ricard, joining his new team-mates in the #8 car, as well as the #7 line-up of Alex Wurz, Nicolas Lapierre and Kazuki Nakajima. The four-day session began on Tuesday with an evaluation of performance items and set-ups before the team’s third successful endurance test with the TS030 Hybrid.

Pascal Vasselon, Technical Director:“This test marked the end of our pre-Le Mans programme so our next chance to drive the TS030 Hybrid will be at La Sarthe itself next month. Clearly, due to the accident we had in April, our preparations have not been ideal but the time for regrets is over. We have made the best of the situation we faced. Le Mans is undoubtedly a great challenge for Toyota Racing in its first year but we can be satisfied with our preparations and we are certainly looking forward to the task ahead.”

Toyota Racing’s next appearance comes at the Circuit de la Sarthe on 3 June for the one-day test to prepare for the Le Mans 24 Hours.

I knew he will join Toyota. Finally former Peugeot drivers teaming up with Toyota, now Stephanie Needs Frank Montagny. They're both a dynamite duo!!

 

[Tired Tyres]

Good for Sarrazin. 👍

Truth in 24 II is on youtube.

 

[hawkeye122]

Good for Sarrazin. 👍

Truth in 24 II is on youtube.

Ah! The full one! I settled for the 40 minute version on Speed the other day...

 

[Ardius]

I also decided to finally do the 24h of Le Mans in GT5 and therefore I have a question - are LMP1 cars using TCS ? strong one ? with this much torque

Yes. I can't say how 'strong' but in GT5 terms I guess simply at "1" is more than enough.
You shouldn't really need it though as (at least for me anyway) the LMP cars are reasonably easy in the higher gears. Its just in the slow speed stuff you need to be careful on the throttle and perhaps short-shift.
I find I'm more consistent and understand the car better without aids like TCS doing the work for me. Its less likely for the car to snap on me without me expecting it, whereas with TCS occasionally you can over-drive the car and get into trouble it can't save you from.
Basically I feel like I know the limits better without TCS.

 

[hawkeye122]

Most of the cars in the 24 Hour race have some form of traction control. As I recall from Sebring, Audi was able to set different levels of TC for different parts of the track.

And also, I believe i heard something about one of the Corvette drivers; The first thing he would do on-track is flip the TC off. He preferred not having it on.

 

[Hun200kmh]

TOYOTA (and a few others) are arriving at La Sarthe ... I think the older I get, the crazier I turn to. This year I'm actually very interested in the Test Sessions

 

[gtone339]

TOYOTA (and a few others) are arriving at La Sarthe ... I think the older I get, the crazier I turn to. This year I'm actually very interested in the Test Sessions

Good thing they arrived there early! 👍

 

[Hun200kmh]

And another AMR-One tub is now running, the Pescarolo 03 is now heading for this weekend's Test at La Sarthe ...

... where it will probably meet its odd sibling, the DeltaWing.

 

[Bram Turismo]

Adoring the F1 styled nosecone 👍

 

[Wardez]

I love the look of that Pescarolo car so much, nice livery too.

And it's awesome to see the Toyota truck there, so excited to see testing results although I'm not optimistic for them at this time.

Check out the "CALM" link in my sig, dark blue text - clickable.
We're running a 3 hour online endurance event the Sunday before Le Mans, on the 10th of June. LMP1 and GTE Pro categories, already did our first race in the build up to Le Mans at Spa and that went just pleasantly, better than I could ask for, just read the race reports. Nothing but the cleanest drivers around taking it to Le Mans in the best way possible within the confines of GT5, should be a blast, all skill levels will be represented as we fill multiple rooms on race day.

 

[OK8]

Just watched both Truth in 24s yesterday and they were brilliant. I was actually following last years Le Mans relatively closely but I didn't notice any of the thrill and nuances towards the end. Must pay closer attention this year.

Really looking forward to it. Rooting for Toyota but after seeing what really goes on in the Audi garage I don't dislike them at all as much as I used to.

 

[Mac K]

Really looking forward to it. Rooting for Toyota but after seeing what really goes on in the Audi garage I don't dislike them at all as much as I used to.

+1 to that.

 

[gtone339]

Found a video on youtube about -

Pescarolo 03 & Dome S102.5 test at Magny Cours:

Dome S102.5 arrives at 1 min 35 sec during video.

Pescarolo 03 arrives at 2 min 2 sec during video.



Plus more images of Pescarolo 03 (revised amr-one):

link: http://www.pescarolo.com/multimedia.asp?galerie=71

 

[That90sGuy]

Does anyone know where the race will be broadcast in Australia? I know Eurosport shows it but I want to know if ONE will be showing before I fork out money for my pay-TV providers sports package.

 

[gtone339]

Does anyone know where the race will be broadcast in Australia? I know Eurosport shows it but I want to know if ONE will be showing before I fork out money for my pay-TV providers sports package.

No idea sorry. Watch it live stream via FIA WEC website or justiv tv etc.

Anyway the ACO & FIA added the hotspots for HYBRID- cars braking zones on the Le Mans 24-hour circuit:

http://www.lemans.org/en/races/24h/...es-on-the-le-mans-24−hours-circuit-_7185.html

Because of the entry of hybrid cars in the Le Mans 24 Hours on 16-17 June, the Automobile Club de l’Ouest and the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) have decided to create specific zones where the cars in question can transmit the energy recuperated under braking. There will be seven on the 24-Hours circuit.

The hybrid systems of Audi and Toyota recover the energy generated under braking. Previously this was lost; it is now stored and transmitted under acceleration. In order to limit the size of these systems – and the budgets required for their development – the ACO and the FIA have imposed a maximum quantity of energy that can be transmitted between two braking phases: 500 kilojoules. Each hybrid car can take advantage of additional electric power without exceeding the minima laid down in the technical regulations.

In order to establish clearly-defined zones (those allowing energy (500 kj maximum) to be transmitted between two braking phases, the Automobile Club de l’Ouest and the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) have defined the zones where braking is sufficiently heavy to be taken into account.

There were five on the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in the second round of the FIA World Endurance Championship on 5th May 2012 in which this system was used for the first time. On the 13,629-km Le Mans circuit there will be seven.

Zone no. 1: Dunlop chicane (no. 8 marshal’s post)
Zone no. 2: Forza Motorsport Chicane (no. 42 marshals’ post)
Zone no. 3: Michelin Chicane (no. 60 marshals’ post)
Zone no. 4: Mulsanne corner (no. 76 marshals’ post)
Zone no. 5: Indianapolis Corner (no. 96 marshals’ post)
Zone no. 6: Porsche Corner (no. 115b marshals’ post)
Zone no. 7: Ford Corner (no. 131 marshals’ post)

The entry to each zone is 50 metres before the corner in question. The entrants for the Le Mans 24-Hours test day on 3rd June 2012 will have to respect these zones.

Four of the 56 cars entered for the 2012 Le Mans 24 Hours have hybrid engines: the nos 1 & 2 Audi R18 e-tron quattros and the nos 7 & 8 Toyota TS030s.

It is worth noting that in the case of Audi where the energy is fed to the front drive train the car must be running above 120 km/h for the transmission to take place. For Toyota, on the other hand, in which the energy is fed to the rear drive train there is no minimum speed.

Just found something interesting.

Zone no. 2: Forza Motorsport Chicane (no. 42 marshals’ post) Uh oh!! Looks like Microsoft/Forza has claimed Sony's/Gran Turismo's Chicane!!! What does this mean?

 

[Mac K]

AMR-One tub? Whats that mean exactly? Looks exactly like one of the Aston's from last year...

 

[Ardius]

^The 'tub' refers to the carbon fibre chassis - basically the biggest part on the car.
It comes from the word 'bathtub'* - if you put the chassis upside-down it looks like one (when its painted white). It comes more from the days when racing cars were more flat-shaped than today so it might not be as obvious what it means these days.

So basically Pescarolo have built a car from the chassis of the AMR-One but using a new engine and all the other internals (suspension, brakes, hydraulics, gearbox, etc).
The reason teams do this is to save on the costs of producing their own chassis as all of the aerodynamic work and carbon fibre costs have been done for them.

The XJR-14 "tub" has probably been one of the most re-used as it lasted almost a whole decade of use - though the Courage/Pescarolo01/OAK tub is fast beating that.

* technically it doesn't, its just if I describe it that way its a bit more obvious. The word 'tub' used to be a relatively common english word for 'bucket' or 'bowl'. Its still used today just not very frequently.