Le Mans News

narboza22 wrote:lol, what? Is there a story to go with that?

it is hot in sepang.

nickyf1 wrote:That's awesome! Where do you get your racing torrents from? I want to watch some Super GT

it's invite only guys, and i'm all out of invitations.

http://www.mulsannescorner.com/newsmay11.html

Dissecting the protagonists. With a few weeks post-Le Mans 2011 we've been having a think about our post race analysis:

It was pretty clear the Peugeot 908 was running less drag. We could see this in the slightly higher straight line speeds averages as well as the longer fuel stints. And of course there was the obvious indicator with Peugeot's anti-wicker rear wing flap.

Audi's top speed wasn't too far off, but more importantly the R18 was clearly carrying more downforce.

But the differences seemed slightly more fundamental than that. Peugeot driver Alexander Wurz complained of instability in the car's setup, "With our #7 car we were always on the back foot because our chassis balance was very oversteery." And while we can't verify, we've been told at least one of the 908's testing accidents was caused by an overly aggressive setup coupled with driver error. The 908 was noticeably less stable than the R18 through the Porsche Curves though interestingly the 908's straight line braking seemed to belies this, suggesting a slight yaw issue.

The reduction in drag through the elimination of highly cambered rear engine cover trailing edge shapes as well as paring out drag from the wing means there's less stabilizing underfloor draw from these items and it would seem that as downforce was taken off the 908 it has become slightly less stable when compared to the Audi R18.

Without knowing actual power output differences between the two we are speculating, and for arguments sake we're going to assume similar power outputs. Yes, this isn't accurate. But we'd be surprised if the power difference was more than 5% and at the moment we don't know which way it would swing. Thus calculating drag from similar power levels shows only about a 5% difference.


Quicker lap times, nearly same top speed, coupled with more downforce must simply mean the R18 is more aerodynamically efficient than the 908. And that's reflected in the higher L/D. A 5% better L/D gives the R18 nearly 500 lbs more downforce at 200 mph than the 908.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Audi also ran a lot more downforce on the R15s than the 908 as well, so its interesting that this time around it paid off a lot better for them.

gen3ral ts0 wrote:

nickyf1 wrote:That's awesome! Where do you get your racing torrents from? I want to watch some Super GT

it's invite only guys, and i'm all out of invitations.

Any chance you could tell us the site and we could maybe find some invites elsewhere?

RLM mentioned on this weeks MWM that Pedro Lamy was fired from Peugeot in the middle of the 24hrs. Has anybody heard anything more about this?

The following is translated from French on the ACO website, this is all ii've seen on the subject of Lamy since Le Mans

Pedro Lamy, second but not solicited by the Peugeot team in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, found refuge at BMW for 6 hours Imola.

The Portuguese will not keep a lasting memory of his twelfth Le Mans 24 Hours. "I regret not having more leads, deplored the former F1 driver. At dawn, the team chose to focus on my two teammates and I respected that decision. They were slightly faster than me, so it was normal to make this decision. There are other times when I am faster than my teammates, as was the case at Spa it to me when we were asked to perform three consecutive shifts. "

No longer commissioned by Peugeot this season ILMC, Pedro Lamy can now devote himself to his second employer. Thus, for 6 hours Imola, it will be associated with Dirk Werner in the No. 56 BMW M3. It will be key, the German occupying the top of the series to a Category Ferrari GTE.

Hmm, that sounds like the politically correct version of events. It seems odd that they would fire Lamy mid race regardless of his pace.

narboza22 wrote:

Any chance you could tell us the site and we could maybe find some invites elsewhere?

it's racing underground.

however, it appears to be down ATM...

918 RSR Gotta be.

LMP1.

So, R18 gets decommissioned, and Porsche get their new car in.

Gosseeeeee Bumpsssssssss on the back of my neck when I saw that wow

Porsche yes Shame to lose Audi but if I had to Chosse who I would want to see Porsche or Adui win Le Mans ........ not a tough choice

I guess Audi could still use the R8 LMS in GTE, can't they?

Would be great to see them in the WRC. But VW are using that Polo in 2013..

Duncan wrote:Gosseeeeee Bumpsssssssss on the back of my neck when I saw that wow

Porsche yes Shame to lose Audi but if I had to Chosse who I would want to see Porsche or Adui win Le Mans ........ not a tough choice

Audi won't be leaving, they'll have a new car for 2014 and the R18 will be decomissioned but Audi will still be racing!

Nicky I cant see Porsche and Audi racing in same category both a factory teams, that would be very coll but VW group would have 2 be mad to through factory money behind to x2 brands but you never know

I think Audi will try and get the R8 LMS certified to race in GTE and either have Team Joest run it or have a factory blessed GT3 or DTM team run it.

EDIT: Then again, in 3 years we may actually have a GT3 class running at Le Mans as the new GT2, with the current GT2 becoming GT1.

UPDATE: Audi has this to say: "This is the decision of Porsche company, a decision in which Audi is not involved. Audi relishes the prospect of every strong new opponent at Le Mans and in the new FIA World Endurance Championship"

OMG all we need now is 1-2 Japanse manfactures, 1 more European manfacture (BMW thats right) and we have a ball game

Whhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

My head would explode. But that would kill me!

Gas - Porsche

Vs

Diesel - Audi

I just heard the female anchor on SPEED Center say Pee-go when referring to Peugeot.

I just died a little inside.

And you guys thought I was crazy when I posted this idea a few days ago in that other thread lol.

In the immediate future, yes, I did think you were crazy.

I have always known that Porsche have been interested, and its only a matter of time before Audi decide that they have had enough success.

But hey, looks like you were right.

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/le-mans-penske-interested-in-porsches-p1-return

Now we just need to get Audi back the the ALMS.

Not exactly sure if this belongs here, but it's quite interesting.

Lola and Drayson Racing announce all-electric prototype.