The Le Mans General Discussion Thread

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MitchZ06
Nope, its there to stop the car from flipping once its travelling sideways (sliding) by acting as a kind of air brake, in a straight line it does a minimal amount of stabilizing. Remember the Pug that crash a year or two ago at Le Mans? it was rotating around its centerpoint and went nose into the wall and apparently crashes like that will be less likely to occur with the 2011 spec LMP's.
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MitchZ06
It doesnt stop it from flipping ala Mercedes Benz CLK-LM style as thats not what its designed to prevent.
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The 908 did flip while travelling sideways, so it seems like the fins don't even do their jobs properly.

Just because people are aerodynamists and engineers, doesn't mean they are always correct or that we can't form an opinion for ourselves. I personally think the fins are rediculous and un-necessary, most side-ways flips I would have thought are usually caused by the friction against the ground, usually digging into the grass or gravel.

The Mercedes CLR is a completely un-related incident, how could you even compare it to the 908 incident? The Mercedes was affected by the wake following other cars, specifically the GT-Ones. Whereas the Pug was at a test track on its own, a very flat test track at that.
 
Tower Turn 13
Does anyone know if the Audis and 908s plan on competing in ALMS at all? They showed up at Sebring with an uppity attitude (the French drivers did, at least), and the Audi team didn't even use their new car because it wasn't ready. Then neither car raced at Long Beach. Though unfortunately the LMP category was skimpy and boring anyway. The Mazda and AM weren't really close to each other...

Why I pay more attention to GT entries in both series.
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They will probably only do the ILMC so will be back for the Petit Le Mans.
 
Well, sorry I'm late to the party (of commenting the Test Day) but was away from Lisbon home and any internet connection for a few days. :dopey:

Checking the results I'd say that, speed wise, the R18 surely looks a big step up from the R15++, and that's worrying for Peugeot, because if you couple speed with reliability (and Audi usually doesn't fail there) you have good reasons to believe in a Le Mans win.


Aston Martin needs to get their act together. Of course it's a new car, I understand their budget is nothing compared to the Peugeot/Audi duo, but Highcroft set the bar very high with a car that started Sebring "HRT style" (no prior testing whatsoever) and: a) ended it; b) after 12 hours, in the same lap as the winning Peugeot; c) in 2nd place overall; d) in front of a works Peugeot.

Can't wait ... Spa to know if the R18 indeed is what it promises to be. Le Mans because that's where all teams will give their all for the ohonors of victory ! :)
 
1. The HPD is not really a new car.
2. Highcroft have plenty of experience with previous iterations of HPD.
3. Its pretty unfair to expect everyone to pull out a result like that, and this is only a testing day after all. Prodrive still have the chance to imitate Highcroft though it is very unlikely.

Not only are Prodrive testing a new car, but its a new philosophy for them; open topped, brand new straight-6 turbo engine, etc. I'm sure they will be a lot faster when they have sorted out their problems, its just they don't have a lot of time left to do that. I guess they can only hope to use Le Mans as a test session and aim for next year, assuming they do find some pace in the car.
 
Yeah I dont get why they didnt just have an all new Lola coupe built to the new regs and stuff the straight 6 in that instead of a whole new car thats complete rubbish as it is (fair enough its a super dooper new car tho).
 
Because relying on Lola is not going to win you Le Mans, Lola build for many customers, they are never going to beat the Audis or Pugs without a rediculously large spend. It gets to a point where its cheaper to build your own chassis so you can spend more effeciently.
Even then, its hard to see Prodrive beating Peugoet or Audi, their budgets and resources are so massive.
 
They had the time to build Rebellion a whole new aero package that is only for Rebellion so I dont see how Lola cant have the time to build AMR a fast chassis.
 
Rebellion aren't going to win Le Mans either, not without all the diesels breaking down. Its not necessarily about Lola having the time, its just they are obviously not going to be devoting all their resources on just Aston Martin's project, they are a business. Not to mention they don't really have any recent experience of winning Le Mans or competing against huge teams.
It costs Prodrive/Aston money to get Lola to do the work, perhaps there are also other reasons why they didn't such as Aston wanting to use a straight-6 turbo or going open-cockpit - perhaps Lola were asking too much to incorporate these things into a brand new design.

It may simply be that Lola don't want to work with Prodrive after the naming argument over the last car (Lola didn't like it simply being called an Aston Martin DBR1).
 
Rebellion or any of the other petrol teams cant win at Le Mans which is a sad but true fact. However they will be one of the faster cars on the grid and I'm expecting AMR to have to pull out which will allow the Kronos Lola-Aston to enter the race and I'll be keeping an eye on its performance (other than Corvette in GT2 ofcourse).
 
gogatrs
Just wait until Porsche comes back and kicks all their asses while driving an LMPC car.
:dopey:
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It'll have to be a private-works P2 team or a PC team because Porsche has said they dont want a petrol car to lose to a diesel...methinks its more a Audi owning Porsche (or is it the other way round) thing where they dont want them competing against each other at Le Mans.
 
Aston don't want to simply be fastest of the petrol cars, they want to win outright. To do that, you have no choice but to build your own car and spend a lot of money doing it. Every second they wait for Lola to design the updates, they could be doing for themselves for cheaper, with their own staff.

Prodrive might also want to train up their own staff in designing aerodynamic parts so they can develop their car in future years and not have to rely on another company for that. Like if they were using a new Lola but they wanted to upgrade it themselves, it would be time-consuming to reverse-engineer it. Better to start with your own design that you understand already.
 
Your right there and to be honest I dont know enough about LMP to go any further with discussions.
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Sure looks better than what they went with...
 
Yeah I don't mind the yellow on that livery. As for who wins, well I'm an Audi fan who was won over by R8s, and the Pugs are cool but I'm really rooting for the R18s. I also am a fan of the Highcroft racing team and Competizione Ferrari (though I don't know if they're racing at Spa?). I don't care who wins though I'm just excited for the race. I really hope I can get an internet feed from the british sports channel it's on. Also anyone know what timezone it is?
 
I like the R18 very much! It's seen on youtube and the way they drive it is like a F1 handling wise! Very amazing Audi & I hope you beat Peugeot this year at Le Mans this year as they have tricks up their sleevs.
 
@ gtone339 the 908 just has a v8 and a fin along with bigger headlamps as noticeble differences visualy so i prefer Audi cause they have skill Peugeot,i doubt they'll ever claim fame as ledgend make at Le Mans.
 
gogatrs
Just wait until Porsche comes back and kicks all their asses while driving an LMPC car.
:dopey:
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The problem is, there aren't any loopholes to get the 962 back in again :lol: (Don't forget those were the GT1 regulations they 'threw away' :D).

If you don't know what I'm talking about, here you go.
 
I just read somewhere that the new 908 has 150 less horsepower then the old one due to engine changes. Does this mean the Oreca still has the extra 150 hp or do they have to limit the power?

As for Aston Martin, if they want to win Le Mans, first off get the car working properly and secondly, close up the cockpit!
 
The grandfathered cars have been balanced against the 2011 spec cars so no they dont have 150hp more.
 
akmuq
I just read somewhere that the new 908 has 150 less horsepower then the old one due to engine changes. Does this mean the Oreca still has the extra 150 hp or do they have to limit the power?

As for Aston Martin, if they want to win Le Mans, first off get the car working properly and secondly, close up the cockpit!
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the oreca is using a old 908 V12 on restrictors so they're even with peugeot & audi
 
C-ZETA
The problem is, there aren't any loopholes to get the 962 back in again :lol: (Don't forget those were the GT1 regulations they 'threw away' :D).

If you don't know what I'm talking about, here you go.
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Nice, I had forgotten all about this great story! And now that you remembered it to me I can only hope someone at POLYPHONY DIGITAL IS READING. I want the Dauer brand (and this car) as GT5 DLC sometime in the future (we have RUF don't we? :dopey: ). Coupled with a livery editor I'll make a Rothmans / Bellof tribute :)
 
Some hi-res stuff from Audi.



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I think the car looks great. Looks very advanced.
 
Indeed, freaking love the look of them. Will have 2 teams to go for now! (Larbre in GT2-Am and Audi in LMP1)
 
Imagine how much better it would've looked without the shark-fin.

When the first images arrived I didn't like it at all. But now that it's gained some colors it's started to grow on me. Pretty soon you won't be able to tell the difference between an LMP car and a spaceship!
 
To quote John Hindhaugh on Radio Le Mans. "Oh my god. It that really what it looks like? Every branch, it hit every single branch when it fell out of the ugly tree!" :lol:
 

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