90th Anniversary Running Of The Le Mans 24 Hours, 22-23 June 2013.

  • Thread starter Furinkazen
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Kinda off topic, I know, but it's kinda weird seeing how rapidly the activity in this thread died. 12 hours ago we had over 240 viewers!
 
Eks
Kinda off topic, I know, but it's kinda weird seeing how rapidly the activity in this thread died. 12 hours ago we had over 240 viewers!

I think I can vaguely explain:

Audi win = thread activity decline

Toyota win = thread meltdown
 
I have no idea, I couldn't think of any other possible explanation. AF Corse and Aston Martin Racing both entered 5 cars under one name this year too so I'm stumped.

However, I have a theory. Due to Audi being a manufacturer LMP1 team they had a limit on how many can race per team so they included another entry but under Audi Sport North America.
 
Was it just me, or was Speed's coverage really poor...? While they did have a couple of drivers, I feel like none of them have actually paid attention to the sport, and have little information to run on. Also, the pit reporting is so Corvette-centric, making it slightly irritating to watch. Really wish I had seen a stream of the Eurosport coverage in HD
 
Was it just me, or was Speed's coverage really poor...? While they did have a couple of drivers, I feel like none of them have actually paid attention to the sport, and have little information to run on. Also, the pit reporting is so Corvette-centric, making it slightly irritating to watch. Really wish I had seen a stream of the Eurosport coverage in HD

In Australia there were no commentators and no pit reporting. It was actually great because you got to hear the cars roar through the track :).
 
^ I tried watching the livestream on the Le Mans website, kept freeing every few minutes :(. Fortunately, the Radio Le Mans coverage was less laggy :)
 
Was it just me, or was Speed's coverage really poor...? While they did have a couple of drivers, I feel like none of them have actually paid attention to the sport, and have little information to run on. Also, the pit reporting is so Corvette-centric, making it slightly irritating to watch. Really wish I had seen a stream of the Eurosport coverage in HD

I was watching the EuroSport coverage from the 12-19 hour marks. It was even worse than Speed's, other than fewer commercials.
 
I was watching the EuroSport coverage from the 12-19 hour marks. It was even worse than Speed's, other than fewer commercials.

Really? I recall watching the 2011 broadcast on YouTube and finding it much better than Speed's... At least the guys on Eurosport are usually entertaining.

As for just the feed with no commentators, I envy you. That would have been awesome.
 
Really? I recall watching the 2011 broadcast on YouTube and finding it much better than Speed's... At least the guys on Eurosport are usually entertaining.

As for just the feed with no commentators, I envy you. That would have been awesome.

If only you were in Australia, it was Ten Sports coverage ;)
 
There were a couple of guys that were great. They were telling amusing Le Mans anecdotes and were doing a great job talking about the history of the race and everything. They were there until the sun came up, then they signed off.


After they left, some chick and a guy with a really annoying lisp took over, and the entire thing became them talking about how the Corvettes were so slow. I made it about an hour before I just went back to watching the Speed broadcast.
 
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However, I have a theory. Due to Audi being a manufacturer LMP1 team they had a limit on how many can race per team so they included another entry but under Audi Sport North America.

Bingo! Wikipedia says "Joest Racing (currently competing as both Audi Sport Team Joest and Audi Sport North America) is a racing team that was established in 1978".. They are working under one roof.
 
But at least this year is better than last year when they had 4 cars! I think next year will be the year where things might change... I don't expect Porsche to be right on top but Toyota I think will be much more prepared. Roll on 2014!

I guarantee you that Porsche will be closer to Audi in it's first year than Toyota are in their Second.
 
I must be the only Toyota fan in here who thinks Audi thoroughly deserved the win?

Am I tired of seeing Audi win? Well, yeah, perhaps. But Audi had by far the better car. And let's be brutally honest here, there hasn't been one indication since the TS030 was unveiled that would have proven the TS030 to be on par with the R18. Audi just seemed way more prepared than Toyota was.

Deserved? No. Who's to say who deserves what? No. Audi earned the win. As a Toyota fan that sucks but Audi were better. :ouch:

Part of that is because Toyota softened their car expecting rain. Not unreasonable given what had been happening with the weather. If they did that with both cars, then that is because they didn't have the outright pace to run with the Audi's in the dry. They would have been faster in the dry if set up for the dry but still not as fast as the Audi's.

The reason for that is because they had to lose most of the downforce which they have developed over the last year to run a petrol car against a diesel.

Just to be clear, the 2012 Toyota at Silverstone this year was 2.9 seconds faster than at the same race last year. At Spa this year the 2013 car in Le Mans setup was tenths faster than the 2012 car with a Spa setup. You don't give up that kind of performance difference unless it is all downforce, which you give up for Le Mans.

Eks
Kinda off topic, I know, but it's kinda weird seeing how rapidly the activity in this thread died. 12 hours ago we had over 240 viewers!

I think I can vaguely explain:

Audi win = thread activity decline

Toyota win = thread meltdown

It's called watching a race for 24 hours. What you do afterwards is go to sleep.
 
Unfortunately, I didn't get to finish it. Went to sleep with 3 hours to go. How was #39? Hahaha. I had good laughs last night with the fellas that was here. Great stuff. Who won the best crew member for cleaning?
 
Unfortunately, I didn't get to finish it. Went to sleep with 3 hours to go. How was #39? Hahaha. I had good laughs last night with the fellas that was here. Great stuff. Who won the best crew member for cleaning?

In my mind the Audi windscreen cleaner was the best. Not only was he extremely organized, but he worked quickly and washed with the most consistent pattern providing his drivers with the optimum visibility. 👍
 
How was #39? Hahaha. I had good laughs last night with the fellas that was here. Great stuff. Who won the best crew member for cleaning?

Don't worry, car #39 safely crossed the finish line although he and one other P2 car almost took out Anthony Davidson :lol:

The best windshield cleaner has got to go to Audi. That's why they won the race :P
 
Am I the only one who thinks John Hindhaugh has done a surprisingly little amount of commentating time during the race this year? I swear Paul Truswell has been at it for nearly 24 hours!

Yeah, I noticed this too. I know they have the whole team over there for this event, each pairing doing 3-4 hour stints but Hindy as hardly been on air, and even when he was he sounded tired and very emotional.
 
Well this has been a crazy weekend. Sitting on the ferry now waiting to head back to the U.K. In all honesty I think this has been the worst Le Mans I've been to. With the death of Allen Simonsen and the crappy weather. The on track action was pretty exciting though! Got some great pictures to share with you guys once I'm home too. Bring on next year!
 
Wow, look at that technique.
1053519_10151687010032668_2117849855_o.jpg
 
Wow that's brilliant. 👍 best windscreen cleaner in GTE

Of course, The motorsport arm of VAG trains some of the worlds best windscreen cleaners. Of course, the ones employed by Toyota aren't bad either.
 
Welcome back :)

How was the weekend?

As much as I love Le Mans it feels great to be back! Looking forward to sleeping in my own bed tonight.

The weekend as usual was great. The atmosphere was insane and the racing was as entertaining as ever. The only two downsides were the dodgy weather, and of course Allan Simonsens death. As soon as that was announced everyone seemed incredibly down and if I'm honest I found it hard to enjoy the race after that.

As usual the show had to go on though and as an Audi fan I'm so glad the #2 car won!

Oh and my quest to stay up for the whole 24 hours didn't quite happen. I was awake from 3pm saturday to 5am sunday. Then about 10am sunday to the finish. Bearing in mind i had been awake from 9am saturday that wasn't too bad!


Edit: If anyone is interested in seeing my photos and videos from this year I'll put the link to my photobucket album in my signature tomorrow!
 
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As much as I love Le Mans it feels great to be back! Looking forward to sleeping in my own bed tonight.

The weekend as usual was great. The atmosphere was insane and the racing was as entertaining as ever. The only two downsides were the dodgy weather, and of course Allan Simonsens death. As soon as that was announced everyone seemed incredibly down and if I'm honest I found it hard to enjoy the race after that.

As usual the show had to go on though and as an Audi fan I'm so glad the #2 car won!

Oh and my quest to stay up for the whole 24 hours didn't quite happen. I was awake from 3pm saturday to 5am sunday. Then about 10am sunday to the finish. Bearing in mind i had been awake from 9am saturday that wasn't too bad!

So mixed feelings overall. But it will certainly have been an experience :)

Is this your first time at Le Mans?
 
Definitely, I enjoyed the race a hell of a lot but there was always the thought of Simonsen at the back of my mind.

Nope this was my fourth! I went in 2006, 2009, 2012 and this year.

I'm in little doubt that most here were thinking about Allan for the race. Even my brothers who summed the race up as "Meh" in the 10 minutes they watched of it felt overcome with grief. Sad news :(

And you must really enjoy it then! I'm hoping to go next year with a friend. If you're coming along, we should organise a GTP meet up :)
 
I'm in little doubt that most here were thinking about Allan for the race. Even my brothers who summed the race up as "Meh" in the 10 minutes they watched of it felt overcome with grief. Sad news :(

And you must really enjoy it then! I'm hoping to go next year with a friend. If you're coming along, we should organise a GTP meet up :)

The atmosphere definitely dropped after the announcement. 'Meh' describes it pretty well!

And hopefully I'll be there next year. A GTP meetup would be such a good laugh!
 
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