Le Mans 24 - Qualifying & Race ***spoiler***

To paraphrase a magazine headline I once saw about another marque's overwhelming victory:

"Uno, Due, Tre, Quattro: Ferrari Rubs It In!"

(I hope someone does a t-shirt commemorating this triumph.)

 

Man, I'd love to wear that to a PCA event! Hah!

 

Hal-Ley-Looo-Ya! Thought I was the only one pulling for the Audis. This race proved (yet again) how great they are at endurance racing.

P1 is the Pinnacle, so you have to like that. But GT2 is closer to road cars - these are the true GT cars. I like the Corvette/AM GT1 battle, but the cars are further from the road-going templates. (Except the Saleen, which is near to a racer in street form). It's fun to see the 911's and 430's go at it, and even more fun to watch the Ferraris bring it home it great fashion. Speed's coverage was a little low in GT2, but what can you do.

 

This may be a little off-topic, but I want to rant about how I am fed up with the speed channel.
A week in advance they advertised Stay tuned for historic coverage of LeMans. Then they covered the start and the middle of the night and that was it. I tried tuning in yesterday evening hoping to see some results but instead all I got was re-runs of PINKS!

 

Porsche+audi over ferrari for me

 

Audi is not the pinnacle team. They have had how many years over Peugeot(?), to develope their car and the fact Peugeot can come in and almost give audi a run for their money. Let's not forget the Mcnish factor and the other great driver's audi has on their team.

 

I remember reading that, they had trouble with the car at Paul Ricard (maybe another track in spain?), and the car had some kind of teething issues. However i've also picked up a magazine i've never seen before called "Race Tech" that had an article about the car. In it they were saying that with a closed cockpit car you can get the center of gravity lower.

 

Makes me even more proud of having been associated with the Risi Comp guys...........Way to go guys, you deserved it for all the hard work you have put in and the way you have carried the marque.....congratulations again....

 

Thanks, Carol. Justin is car owner Don Law's son and is very, very talented. In the Historic Group C races, the field is pretty deep and a lot of people who raced the cars originally (at least in the US) continue racing the cars today, so they only know one way to go!

My favorite is the AMR-1, though. I'm sure both cars will be there next year for the support race. I have some experience in FIA Group 6 cars (Lola T-294, T-70 MkIIIB coupe) and Group C2 cars (Tiga, Harrier) but no Group C experience.

Thanks for your reports and look forward to your pics.

 

It is generally accepted that the highest trap speed was 251 by a WM Peugeot V-6 turbo powered car in 1988.

The Porsche 917LM did 247 mph

The Sauber MB was clocked at 400 kmh or 248 mph.

 

I thought this wasn't during the race but during qualifying. They tapped all the air scoops and seams on the car to reduce the drag to minimum, reached the speed and killed the engine. The 917 and Sauber C2 times were during the race.

 

Found this...

"They built a new car for 1988 with even lower drag and went for it
about 3 hours into the race with cooling intakes taped over for
further drag reduction and Roger Dorchy achieved a speed of
407kph (251mph). The engine was then finished and the car wheeled
away at the end of the lap by a happy team. Incidentaly, Michelin
supplied WM with special narrow tyres to aid the drag reduction
quest."

 

Thanks for posting that.

 

I know I'm also late to the party but having Audi and Ferrari win was exactly what I was hoping for but not expecting! Dreams do come true!

 

Why did they do that during the race? Seems like a waste, unless something was already going wrong with the car.