Hi, everyone! Thanks for posting up this thread. I have a lot more to post, but I'll only offer some minor comments about the race. Expect a bigger post in the future.
It's now officially 8 hours left until we decide the class champions. For the most part, I think the Audi vs. Peugeot match may not be the blow-for-blow fist fight people invested their stock in, but the Peugeots are showing great endurance and not backing out. When it seemed like Peugeot would be the flag-bearers for France, Pescarolo has done pretty well. I love Le Mans for all the action and the cars and the fans who love their racing. This is just some great racing. I'm challenging myself to try to stay awake to see as much of the race as possible.
Here are some elements I'm willing to share right now:
--- Style! ---
Let's talk about some of the "Best Dressed" and "Worst Dressed" cars in this year's race.
* CARS
* Dorsey S. on Speed Channel commented that the Peugeots look like F1 cars with a body over them. They are awesome machines. The small cockpit likely isn't going to do the claustrophic any favors. They still remain pretty competitive. If I designed the car, I'd probably design the car to be a center-cockpit car like Formula One cars or the McLaren F1 machines.
* I remembered looking on GTPlanet for info regarding a beautiful Italian car known as the Lavaggi LS1. Despite this car's name, there is no lineage to Chevrolet as this car is powered by a (set me straight if I'm wrong) a Ford V8. I have a picture of this car saved on my computer. The car I'm used to raced in the Le Mans series. The car in question has red and white colors. Their website is <
http://www.lavaggi.org >. I like the website's song having been there twice. It is a smoothly-designed prototype race car. Beautiful. Or as Italians would say,
bellissima.
* The
Ferrari F430 GT is a beautiful machine. I loved the 360 Modena to death. While I still love the 360 Modena, the F430 is a lovely piece of Italian craftsmanship. It's my new love. More powerful and faster. Absolute beauty. And as with most Ferraris, enjoy the engine noise.
* The
Pescarolo Judd is slick, yet possesses some edgy design. I've been reading that the Pescarolos were using the cars from Courage until they've taken one and modified it so much that it's its own car. Their car is slick. More like something I'd want to race if I were "test driving" an LMP.
* The
Zytek models look absolutely amazing.
* I forgot what the Pilbeams of a few years ago looked like. But the
Pilbeam model racing in this event looks much better than the older Pilbeams I remember. It is a wonderful machine.
PAINTSCHEMES
* I love these Zyteks. They are beautiful racing machines. The
#32 Gulf Zytek in LMP2 is reminiscent of some of the past Gulf-colored machines of racing past. Past meets present in beautiful form. The Those Zyteks are lovely machines. One of my favorites is the beautifully blue
#33 Pescarolo Judd. It's blue with some white and yellow accents. Quite handsome race car.
* The
#78 AF Corse Red Bull Ferrari F430 GT is beautifully blue. I also like red for cars. And none lovlier than red like at the
#97 Risi Competizione F430 GT. You XBOX360 Forza fans are probably enjoying life racing the F430GT in that game. While I'm not very
* Did I mention that I love blue? The
#18 X-Markets Lavaggi LS1 is painted beautifully in blue. The car itself is beautiful. Painting it up nicely makes it even sweeter. Hats off to the crew who made this design.
* The #40 car is black and blue with white accents. That Lola looks great.
* I extremely dig the colorful scheme of the
#80 Flying Lizard Porsche 997 GT3 RSR. I'm very okay with the simple silver and red colors of the normal colors, but the combination of silver, orange, red, yellow, violet, blue, and green look absolutely amazing. Give a house call to Troy Lee Designs. Great job, mate!
* The C5-R may not be top-of-the-line these days, but the
#73 Luc Alphand Aventures Chevrolet C5-R looks amazing. Its combination of blue and yellow with white accents looks quite amazing.
* The Pescarolo boys in LMP1 have another wonderful paintscheme. The Playstation colors all come together beautifully in- you guessed it- blue. I'm glad seeing the Playstation and Gran Turismo colors. I'd like to see maybe a few more real teams with a either PlayStation or Gran Turismo colors, speaking as a fan of Gran Turismo. The ultimate longshot is that Risi Competizione comes out with a GT5 livery. You know, since GTHD and GT5 will presumably feature Ferrari. And why Risi? They're my hometown's best team, damn it! ;-)
* I noticed in a camera close-up that the
Peugeot 908 HDi FAP has a good number of sections with unpainted carbon fiber. Paint adds a few pounds to the car. Actually, I think the paintscheme is okay for the Peugeot. Not real striking to me. As this 908 HDi FAP has been viewed as a real source of French hope, I probably would have liked the royal blue and white colors of the Peugeot logo, or perhaps colors of the French flag.
* Most cars actually look pretty horrible with American flag designs. The
#31 Binnie Motorsports Lola B05/40 Zytek, however, is a great exception. I heard that Bill Binnie is a Scottish-born American. The car is in a wonderful blend of red, white, and blue. Let freedom ring!
* I still prefer the British Racing Green and yellow colors for
Aston Martin Racing than the British Racing Green and red colors. Aston Martin Racing probably could better distinguish the two cars better by making one car's side mirrors in British Racing Green
* I never really liked the 550 Maranello or any variation of it. What I do love is the beautiful color scheme of the
#67 Men-X 550 Maranello. The car has beautiful in black with blue accents including four-point star designs. It looks better than the also-lovely Men-X Ferrari 360 Modena like in Simbin's GTR.
--- Extras ---
* Much kudos to Greg Creamer up in the announce booth. He passionately described the Le Mans experience. He said that multi-class sportscar racing is like a symphony. Pretty interesting way to look at it. He even suggested people get to go out and get to come in person to Le Mans to take in the experience. I'd seriously love to go to Le Mans and experience this race in person. A bit of negative rep goes when he said (indirect quote) "...in fact, I suggest you stay here and enjoy NASCAR Happy Hour in Michigan. Then, stay with us to enjoy Le Mans from 8PM EDT all the way to the finish." Remember, sucking up to NASCAR (even if temporarily or briefly) with an event like the 24 Hours of Le Mans isn't needed to get people into this style of racing. Once I'm done watching as much of Le Mans as possible... that's my racing weekend. I might catch a little of the United States Grand Prix, but my racing weekend is all about Le Mans.
* Andrew Marriott is always an interesting pit reporter. He's probably the best commentator that isn't calling down the race. Always interesting to hear his voice and his comments.
* There was a funny interview with Joao Barbosa. When one of the pit reporters asked Barbosa about what it's like racing at high speed at Le Mans at night. He mentioned stuff about the car getting a little cold behind the wheel and not to mention smelling barbeque. He joked about being hungry after smelling barbeque (us Texans know barbeque best. Don't know about French barbeque, though.). For some reason, Justin Bell joked about zooming down the track and smelling weed. How did that get on the air?
* No matter what you think about these drivers and teams, you have to respect that while extremely focused on doing well at Le Mans, they still have a great sense of humor. The drivers are focused as hell, but still human and still can make a good laugh. I think this is great of these sportscar racing drivers to be professionals that can still have a good laugh.
And that's my Le Mans report. Peugeot has a new lease on life now. I'll try to stay up as much as I can to see how this ends up. My God... can't catch my breath after the big off by the #2 Audi! Help your opinionated Texas boy, someone!
