LeMans

[wee_man]

Hey I was just wandering whether anyone had any thoughts on LeMans this year like whose goin to win it, who'd you like to do well etc. and who do you have support for. Plus is anyone goin?

 

[Gran Turismo7058]

Im not going, Bentley is clearly gonna win. They have already proved them selves in testing. They also did a 26 Hour test I think.

 

[GilesGuthrie]

It's definitely looking good for Bentley. However, something makes me believe that one of the customer Audi teams will steal it.

My parents are there at the moment. I'm really jealous. I will go one of the years, but things are too busy with work at the moment.

 

[wee_man]

That suks. I've been and it's a great atmosphere, you'll love it. Thing is though, I'm not to sure whether Bently will win it, they're quick and reliable, but as we saw with the Toyotas in 1998 and 1999, (who were supposed to win in those years and everyone thought they'd win) they didn't win, they feel by the way side in the last hour.
Like GilesGuthrie i think that the Audi's could snatch it.
I'd like to see Lister do well, as well and what happened to the MG's. I thought they were racing this year (the works team that is).

 

[Flerbizky]

Bentley will, without a doubt, take the overall win. Why else would VAG put the same drivers that has had major success with the Audis the last 3 years in the car. And knowing that a couple of expensive Bentleys will hit the streets a little later this year. No doubt they've done their homework...

Any questions ?.....

 

[wee_man]

Damn good point, but..i dunno... i just have a feeling that something goes wrong. I mean this has always been the case a LeMans you get each year a car or team that everyone thinks will win it and sometimes they do, but sometimes they don't. e.g. Toyotas 1998-99, in 1994 a Porsche open top prototype was supposed to win but McLaren beat them, in 1969 i think Porsche again should of won but Ford in the end beat them. Don't get me wrong I'd like to see Bently win and they can do it, it's just whether it all falls into place on the day (more like weekend).

 

[Flerbizky]

It's Audi... I'm guessing that the Bentley is no more than a superior evolution of the "older" Audis... Which is why it is without a doubt faster than the cars now in the hands of Private teams. An Audi with a roof that is

 

[wee_man]

True. Thats the thing that suks and why i preffered MG, because they make such a big song and dance at how the "Bently Boys" are back blah blah blah except they're not. They're run by Audi and as you said it's basically an Audi with a roof. They've actually probably used the R8 with the roof for a base to design it on (actually they probably did start from scratch wit but they're you go). Although I would like to see the racing for Holland car do well as well considered they were on the pace last year.

 

[Flerbizky]

But here's the absolute favorite in the LMP675 class :
http://www.fastdetails.com/details/dba03Sjerez.htm

My team. Actually it's ½ my boss' racecar. Den Blå Avis is where I work 👍

 

[made in holland]

I hope Racing for Holland can continue to show the speed and reliability they showed last year in the Fia GT series.

Looking at the first qualify i say they are on the right pace.

 

[wee_man]

Flerbizky But here's the absolute favorite in the LMP675 class :

Blody hell Flerbizky thats nice. Does that mean you get to go to the race for free or something as part of hospitality, or is your boss to stingy . Didn'y they use to run Panoz's or somthing. They did quite well in testing as well. They might be able to do well I'd think maybe a class win.

made in holland I hope Racing for Holland can continue to show the speed and reliability they showed last year in the Fia GT series.

Yea they look quite promising and have a good strong driver line up. They always seem to go quite well. So maybe they'd be the ones to take the privateer battle to the works cars.

 

[Flerbizky]

Originally posted by wee_man
Blody hell Flerbizky thats nice. Does that mean you get to go to the race for free or something as part of hospitality, or is your boss to stingy . Didn'y they use to run Panoz's or somthing. They did quite well in testing as well. They might be able to do well I'd think maybe a class win.

Yep.. They ran a Panoz 2 years ago. Which they had to pull out of the race because of faulty electronics caused by the rain... Pretty stupid but it's racing..

And I could've gone to see the race cheap with a special DBA camp with food and beer and tents and tvs etc, but since I just had 3 weeks off, so I guess I had to let other ppl get these days off

 

[wee_man]

And I could've gone to see the race cheap with a special DBA camp with food and beer and tents and tvs etc, but since I just had 3 weeks off, so I guess I had to let other ppl get these days off

 

[wee_man]

Cr*ap sods wrong button

And I could've gone to see the race cheap with a special DBA camp with food and beer and tents and tvs etc, but since I just had 3 weeks off, so I guess I had to let other ppl get these days off

nywayz... you turned down going to LeMans for other peoples sake!?! I suppose it is kind of a generous gesture to do . hmm...
nywayz have you been before?

 

[Flerbizky]

You could've just edited your mis-post

Anyway - Nope... Haven't been to Le Mans yet, but I've taken the days next year, so hopefully......

 

[wee_man]

Oo.
I have to admit i'm a right spud when it comes to computers (and they say you learn something new every day )

I was maybe hoping to go this year except I thought it would clash with my GCSE's (major tests). But it turns out that I could of gone this year . I went back in 1995 to see the race and have seen the qualifying sessions of 1996, and 1998 which were good. Also my dad isn't to keen on going back, because he thinks it's

"just going to be a procecession every year"

. But it's good that you've got the chance now to go next year and gone for it. 👍

 

[GilesGuthrie]

Originally posted by Flerbizky
It's Audi... I'm guessing that the Bentley is no more than a superior evolution of the "older" Audis... Which is why it is without a doubt faster than the cars now in the hands of Private teams. An Audi with a roof that is

Hmm, only partially right.

Please forgive me if I've got the classes the wrong way around, but...

The GTP (Bentley) cars run to slightly different spec, which tends to make them faster in qualifying spec. However, the LMP (Audi) class cars get slightly different rules which help them in race trim. I believe that the GTP cars run slightly bigger tyres, and the LMPs run slightly bigger fuel tanks.

It's undoubtedly true that Bentley have the resources of the factory Audi team, now that Audi have taken a sabbatical. I think that the engineering is slightly different in the GTP class, which leads to different stress structures, and thus differences in core chassis strength areas. There are still some reliability question marks with the car - especially in the gearbox arena. You may well be aware that the ACO changed the rules on gearbox replacements, banning Audi's "complete rear end" change that they used to such devastating effect in recent years.

According to my father, who is there, and who is a guest of Audi, the professionalism of the Bentley team this year bears all the hallmarks of last year's factory Audi outfit.

 

[wee_man]

It wouldn't surpirse me. I've heard similar stories as well. Thats why I'm also saying im not to confident they're going to win outright this year. A lot can happen in 24hours even if they're on pole.

Btw for anyone who is interested here are some of the final qualifying results if you don't already know:
Final qualifying positions

Starting slots for Le Mans 24 hours

Le Mans qualifying times (after session four)
Pos Drivers Team Car Time
1 Kristensen/Smith/Capello Bentley Speed 8 3m32.843s
2 Herbert/Brabham/Blundell Bentley Speed 8 3m35.098s
3 Salo/Biela/McCarthy Audi Sport UK R8 3m35.745s
4 Lammers/Wallace/Bosch Racing for Holland Dome-Judd 3m36.156s
5 Magnussen/Ara/Werner Audi Sport Japan R8 3m36.418s
6 Pirro/Lehto/Johansson Champion Racing Audi R8 3m36.857s
7 Matthews/Goossens/Tinseau Riley & Scott-Ford 3m37.476
8 Gommendy/Gabbiani/Ortiz Racing for Holland Dome-Judd 3m38.058s
9 Gounon/Cochet/Gregoire Courage Courage-Judd 3m40.400s
10 Beretta/Jeannette/Papis JML Team Panoz LMP-01 Evo 3m40.766s

LMP 675 class
Pos (overall) Drivers Team Car Time

1 (16)Nielsen/Shimoda/Elgaard DBA-Zytek 3m44.333s
2 (17)Dayton/Field/Sutherland Lola-MG 3m46.404s
3 (18)Rosenblad/Alliot/Hallyday Courage-JPX 3m51.550s

LM GTS class
Pos (overall) Drivers Team Car Time

1 (20)Enge/Kox/Davies Ferrari 550 Maranello 3m53.278s
2 (22)Turner/Davidson/Burt Ferrari 550 Maranello 3m54.725s
3 (24)Collins/Gavin/Pilgrim Chevrolet Corvette 3m55.613s

LM GT class
Pos (overall) Drivers Team Car Time

1 (34)Maassen/Collard/Luhr Porsche 911 GT3-RS 4m06.984s
2 (35)Bernhard/Bergmeister/Buckler Porsche 911 GT3-RS 4m07.028s
3 (37)Hindery/Lieb/Baron Porsche 911 GT3-RS 4m08.913s

*Also Lister has withdrawn after Jamie-Cambelle Walter crashed in final qualifying. Apparantly the car would be unrepairable and he sufferef foot injuries from a 14g crash.

 

[wee_man]

Well the results are now in. If you wish not to know via here then don't look below but...












(Team name's, car number and car make are mentioned.)

Overall top 10

1)Bently no.7
2)Bently no.8
3)Audi Champion Racing
4)Audi Sport Japan
5)JML Team Panoz
6)Dome Judd Racing For Holland no.15
7)Courage Judd Courage Competition
8)Courage Peugeot Pescarolo Sport no.17
9)Courage Peugeot Pescarolo Sport no.18
10)Ferrari Velox Racing Prodrive

LMP900:
1)Audi Champion Racing
2)Audi Sport Japan
3)JML Team Panoz

LMP675:
1)
2)
3)

GTS:
1)Ferrari Velox Racing Prodrive
2)Corvette Racing no.50
3)Corvette Racing no.53

GT:
1)Ale Job Racing Porsche
2)Orbit Racing Porsche
3)Theirry Pierrer Porsche

Well the predictions were right. It was a Benly walkover (or another Audi 1,2,3,4 if you want to be technical). Yet there was some very close and hard racing throughout, most noticably the Covette's which finished 2ng and 3rd in GTS class were very close thorughout and the Berreta Panoz which came fith and the Lammers Dome Judd (Racing For Holland team) were very close!

Hope you all get a chance to see the race somehow, if not there's always next year .
Any thoughts or comments?

 

[Solid Fro]

I hope the 50 and 53 C5-R Corvettes beat those Ferrari 550s. (I didn't read the results, who would?). I couldn't care less for the prototype classes. I guess Bentley will win.

 

[wee_man]

You guessed right. Bently 1 and 2. The Corvette's though came 2nd and 3rd in class with one Ferrari running faultless infront of it. Thought the two corvette's you mentioned, I remembered they ran really closely for several hours (like 0.5s at some points and even closer) for lap after lap. Good racing.