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

[Roger the Horse]

˄ I'm sorry. Judging by Spa and the screams of the Radio Le Mans commentary team... Toyota are going to need a lot of luck if they want to win Le Mans.

Sure, judging by Spa pace Audi will only gain 2 laps over 24 hours, and Toyota could easily pull that back if Audi ran into problems, but Audi were likely sandbagging at Spa, and we have so far seen no proof of the Toyota hybrid running for 24 hours without problems.

Yeah, I'd say the wise money is on Audi. A shame really, it's nice seeing an actual race, especially if it's like 2011 was... Still, new regulations and the return of Porsche should shake things up next year!

 

[Tired Tyres]

Nope. Only the Long Tail Audi at Spa matters when it comes to lap times. It was 1 second faster per lap on new tyres but 1 second slower per lap on worn tyres.

To me that will translate to 2 seconds a lap respectively at Le Mans. Toyota may even gain more than 2 seconds on the worn tyre stint as Audi on low downforce and worn tyres will not be quick through the Porsche curves.

The Audi's should do 10 laps per stint whereas the Toyota's will do at least 11 and possibly 12, depending on why they agreed to the 3 litre fuel increase for petrol engined cars. (Paul Truswell blogged that to be the case).

I suspect that Toyota will win this race unless they suffer delays.

Fast one off laps mean absolutely nothing in the greater scheme of an endurance race. Stint averages mean everything.

 

[Furinkazen]

Enjoy, also shows aftermath of the Audi crash.

 

[Mac K]

Is the #30 HVM Lola LMP2 Dempsey's old car?

 

[gtone339]

Michelin tower! 👍

Great test day though.

 

[Furinkazen]

Been speaking to spotters guide designer Andy Blackmore on facebook, the first guide will be published tomorrow, 1 car not showing on it, and that is the Aston Martin art car, which will not be revealed until scrutineering on monday. JPEG / PDF versions of the guide to come.

 

[Mac K]

LMPC/Formula Le Mans run the 24?

 

[Azure Flare]

'Dem pics.

 

[Mac K]

MOAR PICS

http://www.motorsport.com/lemans/photos/main-gallery/?sz=2&r=6566&s=2&p=5

 

[R0ssingt0n]

LMPC/Formula Le Mans run the 24?

Nope, they were only running on the test day to give new drivers an experience of Le Mans.


Oh and me and my dad put the first of the Le Mans stickers on the car last night. Will be putting some down the side next week!

[/URL]

 

[Azure Flare]

Just add a light bar on top and you now have a safety car!

 

[sumbrownkid]

Just how much power really is that Audi running to get a time of 3:22 in a car that supposedly only has around 500-550 HP? And in not so perfect conditions either.

Definitely trimmed for qualifying me thinks.

 

[R0ssingt0n]

Just how much power really is that Audi running to get a time of 3:22 in a car that supposedly only has around 500-550 HP? And in not so perfect conditions either.

Definitely trimmed for qualifying me thinks.

Remember it has 4 wheel drive at times. I'm sure that helps out a fair bit.

 

[R0ssingt0n]

-deleted-

 

[Mac K]

 

[sumbrownkid]

Remember it has 4 wheel drive at times. I'm sure that helps out a fair bit.

In the Porsche curves and at Indianapolis yeah I can see that, but in the straights?

 

[Bram Turismo]

Remember it has 4 wheel drive at times. I'm sure that helps out a fair bit.

Aside from traction out of corners, I don't think 4WD has any advantage over RWD. During cornering it may even add more understeer. But then these cars are ever so developed, I probably have no idea what I'm speaking of!


On the Audi vs Toyota subject:

As much as I wish to believe Tired Tyres' post as a Toyota fanboy, you have to honest here. There is nothing which may suggest Toyota has closed the gap with Audi in comparison to last year. I was hoping Toyota would come into 2013 with a car that was completely developed to perfection from 2012 with all of their technology, and be competitive with Audi from the get-go. But if we are to conclude Spa and Silverstone, there would be no reason to put our money on Toyota. Especially since they are still only running 2 cars.

I may be entirely wrong, as we saw the TS030 became a quicker car throughout the race than the R18 last year. That with only a pretty basic testcar 6 months earlier. But by now I had hoped for some nifty new Toyota engineering brilliance. But I look at the current TS030, then look at the R18 and go "Well, the TS030 doesn't look exactly fast."

As much as I would love Toyota to win here, the R18 looks so brilliant and is so ridiculously fast. I'm only but expecting Audi to dominate this year, let's hope Toyota proves otherwise.

 

[R0ssingt0n]

In the Porsche curves and at Indianapolis yeah I can see that, but in the straights?

I presume so, using the electric power through the front wheels must surely give a better increase in speed on a damp track compared to having the rears do all the work on the toyota. Just my opinion though.

 

[sumbrownkid]

I don't think Toyota has fully shown their cards. If they were truly concerned about that speed advantage that Audi has, then they would've been more vocal about it to the ACO. Pescarolo did it, Peugeot did it and Toyota did it back in Spa.

 

[freshseth83]

Let me shed some light. Go to http://twitter.com/alex_wurz and check his tweets. He says Toyota should be doing an estimated 342kmh http://twitter.com/alex_wurz/status/343363395862532097/photo/1... their top speed on the test day was 322.9kmh! So they're not just slower than Audi, but slower than their own estimated top speed by ~20kmh and slower than their 2012 top speed? They're not even trying yet. The same car was ahead of the 'longtail' Audi at Spa. To me they're just masking their pace until qualifying, perhaps even through till the race.

Heres an onboard of the Lotus lmp2

 

[hawkeye122]

Good find on pics Mac... Or should I say... Motors Mad Man?

 

[Furinkazen]

Andy Blackmore's spotters guide is here.

LMP1 / LMP2
LMP2 / GTE
WEC / Le Mans Track Guide

 

[Mac K]

Good find on pics Mac... Or should I say... Motors Mad Man?

Say what?

 

[Solo]

Say what?

Motors Mad Men is a very active memeber of the RLM listeners collective and he seemed to think yourself and him are the same person.

 

[Furinkazen]

Fascinating analysis on the Toyota vs Audi scrap and who may have the upper hand.

 

[Tired Tyres]

Nissan will be revealing their 2014 Garage 56 Le Mans entry on the 21st June at 10:30 AM CEST on their youtube channel.

 

[Furinkazen]

Sorry american viewers:

 

[Mac K]

I can live with that actually, that's only 2 1/2 hours out of the race, at least it's not a tire test this time..

 

[BROHAM]

Im ok as long as its racing and not infomercials.

 

[Panoz]

Nothing new for us Americans, Le Mans always gets cut off for NASCAR. Live streams keeping us going during those times.