83rd Running Of The Le Mans 24 Hours - 13/14 June 2015.
- Thread starter Furinkazen
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- S. Shields
Given what Nissan had to work with and what they knew about the GT-R LM in terms of it's potential and capability, frankly what else could they have made Le Mans about? There is precious little that they could have realistically got out of it. Not saying it was about marketing a car or a brand name But they certainly could not have seriously thought the car was ever good enough to compete with the 919 and R18. Even the TS040, CLM and R-One. A brand new prototype with little knowledge of beating a car that has not just months but getting on for years on it? Really??!! I am not a racing nerd. I am not steeped in the technicalities of motorsport but what I do know is a new car with virtually no time spent on it has little chance against much more evolve machines.
Anything was and is better than nothing.
- 9,089
- Scotland
The rebellion did well first time out....
- 5,196
- Nicest part of hell
I agree that the GT classes, albeit slower, were much more interesting than the Prototypes. I mean, there were chases and drafting duels that lasted for 6 hours straight.
It made me happy that they start to show more and more of the GT classes each year. Now throw in a couple of factory Vipers, Fords and McLarens into the Ferrari, Chevrolet and Aston mix and you've got some really epic endurance racing.
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- arveena
So did the Porsche the Audi (there were more manofactors) Bentley, BMW, Toyota, Mercedes they all had lacking speed or some problems but were way better than nissan this year. Even the French where not too bad for their first race. The only one i can think of in the last 20 years which was close to that bad was the AMR one.
![[Nor]MclarenF1](/forum/data/avatars/m/169/169289.jpg?1413287138){kind=avatar}
- 2,281
- Moss
- hoydeskrekk
I'm soooo happy to see Porsche back on top once again! A much deserved victory, especially since it was the rookie car that claimed top spot. It was getting rather tiresome watching Dr. Ullrichs smug face year after year as the four rings kept hogging the #1 spot.
Regarding the GT-R LM. The fact that they had a car running at the end of the race is in itself an achievement. The car went from drawing board to racetrack in less than a year. Combine that tight deadline with a completely different layout and many new innovations and the fact that they even got to the starting line is almost a miracle. Just look at McLaren and the struggles they have in F1 this year. The road to success is often lined with many failures and defeats
Regarding the GT-R LM. The fact that they had a car running at the end of the race is in itself an achievement. The car went from drawing board to racetrack in less than a year. Combine that tight deadline with a completely different layout and many new innovations and the fact that they even got to the starting line is almost a miracle. Just look at McLaren and the struggles they have in F1 this year. The road to success is often lined with many failures and defeats
- 26,736
- Houston, Texas, USA
- JMarine25
It was disappointing for me trying to follow Le Mans this year. So next season, I may almost exclusively try to follow Le Mans online because TV coverage has been mostly disappointing trying to keep up with the FOX Sports 1/2/Go coverage. The first Le Mans I've followed was back in 2001. All congratulations to all winners both overall in all of the other classes. I think this is Porsche's first outright Le Mans victory since 1997.
Perhaps on the criticism side... be happy a car other than the Audis won Le Mans outright, or be a bit disappointed that yet another VW/Audi Group company win Le Mans outright? Either way, I'm proud learning of Porsche winning with their fine racing machine.
I certainly will be looking forward to the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2016. This race is my favorite for someone whom has always loved GT/Sportscar/Endurance racing. There are too many things to keep track of as far as why I love Le Mans and why I look forward to this race every year. But again... I may follow next year's race more online mostly because of disappointment trying to follow it on basic cable/satellite. I did, one time, follow the 24 Hours of Le Mans streaming Radio Le Mans during some time after midnight. I still was fairly disappointed not being able to see as much as Le Mans trying to keep up with the FOX Sports 1/2/Go footage of Le Mans.
Congratulations again to all winners- overall and in all classes.
Perhaps on the criticism side... be happy a car other than the Audis won Le Mans outright, or be a bit disappointed that yet another VW/Audi Group company win Le Mans outright? Either way, I'm proud learning of Porsche winning with their fine racing machine.
I certainly will be looking forward to the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2016. This race is my favorite for someone whom has always loved GT/Sportscar/Endurance racing. There are too many things to keep track of as far as why I love Le Mans and why I look forward to this race every year. But again... I may follow next year's race more online mostly because of disappointment trying to follow it on basic cable/satellite. I did, one time, follow the 24 Hours of Le Mans streaming Radio Le Mans during some time after midnight. I still was fairly disappointed not being able to see as much as Le Mans trying to keep up with the FOX Sports 1/2/Go footage of Le Mans.
Congratulations again to all winners- overall and in all classes.
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- high_five_city
Good to see the Nissan patrol took a break from replying to all of the posts mentioning the Nissan in negative light.
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- MP-Omnis
Take any of those cars and run them on two cylinders. That's like the equivalent of Nissan showing up without their hybrid unit.
I still don't know what they were thinking. That should have been a bigger priority. Don't the flywheel hybrid systems come as a kit from Williams? You think they spent a billion dollars on this program but couldn't afford a million or two on some proven units. They would have been better served by tossing 400 hamster wheels under the hood. And the tunnels made so much downforce that the cars were constantly bottoming out at speed. They probably had no grip in the slow corners and too much grip in a straight line. Maybe they should turn the cockpit into a ball pit and park it outside mcdonalds. The kids will love those tunnels.
I don't really hope they win in 2016. I don't care if they refine the car or the aero. I'd just like for them to show up with a functioning hybrid and be competitive. Nobody involved in the program can afford another joke year. Sadly, the standard next year is going to be so high in order to excuse this one.
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- JMarine25
I just realized @Holdenhsvgtsr! How could I forget the beautiful Porsche 911 GT1 winning Le Mans in 1998? Well... I can say it's the first PROTOTYPE victory for Porsche since 1997. I sincerely apologize for not remembering Porsche's 1998 victory. But of course, "I think" are the keywords from my previous post.
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Carlos
Premium
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It did not only have a Porsche engine, it started life as an Jaguar XJR-14.
- 567
- S. Shields
Been thinking. Very refreshing to see a different winner. I think they won something better than the trophy. They won admirers. But pressure is on now. If they can't use the race to start building a good run the win will I think come over as a flash in the pan and the gloss will have come off the win.
They have to kick on and continue performing strongly. They can't just think that now they have won Le Mans that is it. Mission accomplished. They have so many more things they need to start achieving if they are to solidify a place as the top team or one of the top teams. Starting at Nurburgring with the first of many wins.
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- HamiltonMP427
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- GTP_SEMS
Congrats to Porsche, just shows even when they're relatively new, with proper planning and engineering Audi is there for the taking, dissapointed I didn't watch much of the race (GTacademy final) but man Toyota need to get back to the drawing board for next year.
- 1,036
- New Zealand
- noshog
I didn't get to see much of the race, just a couple of hours near the end, was celebrating my daughters first birthday so still had an awesome day even if I did miss most of the biggest race of the year.
When I finally did get to catch up, I was a little gutted becuase my favorite team Toyota were miles off the pace, I knew they wouldn't be in with a shot, but was secretly hoping the had some miracle up thier sleeve...but No
But being from New Zealand I still had plenty to cheer for....Kiwi's (Bamber and Hartley) get a 1-2 in LMP1
and Mitch Evans gets a podium in LMP2 Not sure what happened to Stanaway but sure he would've had the pace to win his class too.
So all in all a happy day for me....I'm calling it the day Kiwi's dominated LeMans
When I finally did get to catch up, I was a little gutted becuase my favorite team Toyota were miles off the pace, I knew they wouldn't be in with a shot, but was secretly hoping the had some miracle up thier sleeve...but No
But being from New Zealand I still had plenty to cheer for....Kiwi's (Bamber and Hartley) get a 1-2 in LMP1
and Mitch Evans gets a podium in LMP2 Not sure what happened to Stanaway but sure he would've had the pace to win his class too.So all in all a happy day for me....I'm calling it the day Kiwi's dominated LeMans
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- HamiltonMP427
There probably wont be Factory Vipers for a while, unless you want to give Dodge the money to do it, since they care more about pulling out of racing after winning championships and then not coming back cause they can't figure out how to balance a check book.
They are, she's called the TS050 but you can call her Ronda.
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- GOTMAXPOWER
Dammit everytime somebody says Nissan Patrol I think of the 4x4 car.
On the subject of Nissan I worry about the rest of the season, Le Mans was supposed to be their strong track and it hasn't worked out. They'll have another aero setup for the other tracks but I don't think aero is their biggest problem right now, hopefully they can make a breakthrough on their hybrid system in the next couple of months.
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CAN'T A MAN HAVE HIS DREAMS?
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- catamount39
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- arveena
I hope I am wrong but my prediction for next years:
For the rest of the season i doubt they will finish a race in front of rebellion if everything is normal. On pure pace
- Nissan will not be in the 8MJ next year
- They will not fight for the victory as they wanted to
- They wont get a Podium
- They wont get more stints out of the tyres than anyone else
- They wont do a lap under 3:25
- They will be the fastest on the straights and their marketing will go crazy over it
- They wont finish with all cars like all other big names did this year.
- They will improve a lot
- They are gone after 2017
For the rest of the season i doubt they will finish a race in front of rebellion if everything is normal. On pure pace
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- hoydeskrekk
Yeah and if you think back to the front engined Panoz back in 1999 that despite being a smaller team was much closer to the leaders pace in it's first year.
I want the Nissan to be up there with the top cars but I think they've got a massive task on their hands to the point that even this time next year they still might be lacking in getting the car sorted.
For such a large car company their performance this weekend was just unacceptable. Fair enough they'll be more prepared next year after some decent running but I don't think it was fair on the teams on the reserve list who would've likely had a better cracking at it. They should've waited this Le Mans out imo.
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- CARBOYXJR
If they can get any kind of hybrid system running through the rears as intended, that's 90% of their pace deficit made up in one go. Hopefully the data they acquired was what they'd hoped for, and they can get tick off each issue one by one.
The Audi/Porsche quote is one of the most stupidly hypocritical things I've ever read. Every manufacturer who takes part in racing is doing so for marketing. There simply is no other reason to go racing. They also seem to suggest Nissan aren't bothered about competing or putting up any kind of effort - which is, again, ridiculous. Yep, the world turned against them for this year - it was in no way through a lack of effort. Again, everyone is rambling on about how much they have to make up - literally the only places they lost out on were braking zones and corner exits. Both of those can be nipped in the bud, without fail, with the hybrid system installation. When you use common sense, there's absolutely nothing from the car's current performance to suggest that the intended final layout will not resolve any of the car's weaknesses.
I still find it funny that the racing world yearns for F1 to go back to far freer regulations, so teams can experiment again, yet when another car in another series starts creating something unique, it's straight on the "it's different so it's going to clearly fail" bandwagon. If they fail in their mission next year, then they won't beat around the bush. If the car fails in terms of pace, IE because of the design aspect, then that's Nissan's responsibility, which they'll duly accept. If the cars demonstrate race winning pace and strategy, but are unlucky enough to be taken out or caught up in something that's out of their hands, then they may fail their overall goal - but the project will be by no means a failure. That will never be a get out of jail free "I told you so" card.
The Audi/Porsche quote is one of the most stupidly hypocritical things I've ever read. Every manufacturer who takes part in racing is doing so for marketing. There simply is no other reason to go racing. They also seem to suggest Nissan aren't bothered about competing or putting up any kind of effort - which is, again, ridiculous. Yep, the world turned against them for this year - it was in no way through a lack of effort. Again, everyone is rambling on about how much they have to make up - literally the only places they lost out on were braking zones and corner exits. Both of those can be nipped in the bud, without fail, with the hybrid system installation. When you use common sense, there's absolutely nothing from the car's current performance to suggest that the intended final layout will not resolve any of the car's weaknesses.
I still find it funny that the racing world yearns for F1 to go back to far freer regulations, so teams can experiment again, yet when another car in another series starts creating something unique, it's straight on the "it's different so it's going to clearly fail" bandwagon. If they fail in their mission next year, then they won't beat around the bush. If the car fails in terms of pace, IE because of the design aspect, then that's Nissan's responsibility, which they'll duly accept. If the cars demonstrate race winning pace and strategy, but are unlucky enough to be taken out or caught up in something that's out of their hands, then they may fail their overall goal - but the project will be by no means a failure. That will never be a get out of jail free "I told you so" card.
I think that's about the pace the fastest P1s will be, give or take a few seconds. Again, people are so ready to exaggerate their deficit to try and give their doom and gloom predictions some gravitas.
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