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[Rivelution]

O/T but i just have to say that the new Acura LMP-1 car (in Riv's avatar) is completely nuts, i read about it earlier.

Isnt it badarse!!! I the livery on the Highcroft Acura is way better than De Ferren's livery. Anyways I cant wait for Sebring this weekend!!! It should be awesome seeing Audi vs. Peugeot vs. Acura!!!!


Oh and I read that Audi might be extending there presence with R15 in America for 2 more races, and they will be Petit Le Mans and the season finale at LAGUNA SECA!!!!!!

[scotty]

O/T but i just have to say that the new Acura LMP-1 car (in Riv's avatar) is completely nuts, i read about it earlier.

Isnt it badarse!!! I the livery on the Highcroft Acura is way better than De Ferren's livery. Anyways I cant wait for Sebring this weekend!!! It should be awesome seeing Audi vs. Peugeot vs. Acura!!!!


Oh and I read that Audi might be extending there presence with R15 in America for 2 more races, and they will be Petit Le Mans and the season finale at LAGUNA SECA!!!!!!

Is this the Highcroft one?



If so, i concur!

Unforntuately the Diesels apparently have well over 750hp, whereas this Acura for example only has 660-ish. It is one of the most stunning racing cars i have seen in ages...

[EwanM]

Peugoet have blown their Le Man chances...

Audi dominates first Sebring test

By Matt Beer Tuesday, March 17th 2009, 05:28 GMT


Audi's new R15 TDI made a stunning debut on the first day of official testing for the Sebring 12 Hours, comfortably out-pacing rivals Peugeot and Acura on Monday.

The No.2 R15 of Allan McNish, Tom Kristensen and Dindo Capello lapped in 1m43.596s, half a second quicker than team-mates Marco Werner, Lucas Luhr and Mike Rockenfeller, and 1.406s clear of Sebastien Bourdais and Stephane Sarrazin in the best of the evenly-matched Peugeots.

While both Audi and Peugeot had already taken part in private tests at the track over the weekend, Acura did not start running until the official opening day yesterday. The De Ferran Motorsports car was fifth, within a tenth of a second of the two Peugoets, and 0.7s faster than the Highcroft Acura.

McNish said the new Audi already felt like a major step forward over its predecessor.

"It's the first time we've actually seen the Acura running and the updated Peugeot as well as us, so we've had the first feelings of relative performance, and the first feelings of the R15 on a circuit we know very well," he said.

"The car feels more agile, it feels more reactive, especially at high speed and through Turn 1, which is a very bumpy corner, it's more stable than the R10 was. We're actually going through there a gear higher.

"We've got a better response from the engine as well. I think the V10 being a bit shorter and lighter is allowing the chassis to be more agile in the other parts of the circuit.

"Performance-wise, what we've seen to date is that we're a little bit ahead of Peugeot on short runs and also on long runs. Acura are very early in their running because they didn't run on Saturday, so I think we've got to wait until Tuesday or Wednesday to see their full potential."

Highcroft driver Brabham is expecting the diesel teams to be tough to beat this weekend.

"We have a steep mountain to climb against Audi and Peugeot here this weekend but we are up for the challenge," he said.

"It is a step by step process for us. The car is getting more and more reliable and we only had one small issue this morning. Having a trouble free run is the key thing we need to focus on."

The No.16 Dyson Lola-Mazda of Andy Lally, Chris Dyson and Guy Smith was the only LMP2 car to run on the first day, lapping 7s slower than the Audis.

FIA GT regular Advanced Engineering set the fastest time in GT2 with its Ferrari, which boasts Gianmaria Bruni on its driving strength for this event, ahead of the No.87 Farnbacher Loles Porsche and Risi's two Ferraris. The new Rahal Letterman BMWs were 1.3s off the pace on day one.

"We are still doing some development, and that is going along nicely," said BMW driver Dirk Muller. "There is no grip yet this early in the week."

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/73737

Audi are simply awesome.

[Gaz]

[Rivelution]

O/T but i just have to say that the new Acura LMP-1 car (in Riv's avatar) is completely nuts, i read about it earlier.

Isnt it badarse!!! I the livery on the Highcroft Acura is way better than De Ferren's livery. Anyways I cant wait for Sebring this weekend!!! It should be awesome seeing Audi vs. Peugeot vs. Acura!!!!


Oh and I read that Audi might be extending there presence with R15 in America for 2 more races, and they will be Petit Le Mans and the season finale at LAGUNA SECA!!!!!!

Is this the Highcroft one?



If so, i concur!

Unforntuately the Diesels apparently have well over 750hp, whereas this Acura for example only has 660-ish. It is one of the most stunning racing cars i have seen in ages...

Naw thats De Ferran's car. I like the livery, but I like the bright green of Highcroft's Patron car.


I think that sucks that Audi are that much faster than Peugeot and Acura, but hey remember last year at Le Mans when Peugeot qualified like 7 seconds faster than Audi, yet Audi still won?? I cant wait for this race, and dont forget to check out Audi's "Truth in 24" documentary.


Oh and Longbow, I dont think Aston Martin are racing at Sebring. I wish they were because to perform well at Le Mans you have to perform well at Sebring.

[scotty]

I still think both liveries are great. Definitely gonna be supporting the Acuras and Astons over the other 2!

Apart from Le Mans and the Spa 24hrs, where else do LMP-1 cars get raced in Europe, does anyone know? The Nurburgring?

[Rivelution]

They race at Monza too, I'm not sure about the nurburgring.

[Gilles 27]

The LMP1s used to do the TT at Silverstone, Spa and Monza. Not sure anymore. The ACO and the FIA having different rules is ridiculous, not having a world championship for LMP class cars is harming the popularity of sportscar racing

[scotty]

The LMP1s used to do the TT at Silverstone, Spa and Monza. Not sure anymore.

Looking around the net a bit, i see they have a 'Le Mans Series' separate from ALMS - they go to Silverstone. I am blatantly going now.

http://www.silverstone.co.uk/php/rm_leMansSeries.html

The ACO and the FIA having different rules is ridiculous, not having a world championship for LMP class cars is harming the popularity of sportscar racing

What are the key differences in their rules? Certainly the FIA GT championship is much worse off now than when i saw a round in 1997 (when the McLarens and the Mercs ruled the roost - even at Le Mans).

[Gilles 27]

Basically it's a slightly different spec. The ACO has done a lot to try and make Le Mans a brand and they want to run an international series separate from the FIA series. The FIA GT series at one point allowed carbon chassis (might still do?) but the ACO suddenly banned them which meant cars like the Porsche Carrera GT were redundant projects and got scrapped or converted for road use.

The Maserati MC12 conforms with FIA regs but not ACO so it can't run at Le Mans. Also the Saleen S7 was made uncompetitive at Le Mans by modifications that had to be made for it to switch from FIA spec to ACO spec. There isn't really an FIA LMP series now as none of the major manufacturers are interested in entering. The FIA GT is more popular because there are a lot of privateer teams who buy the cars and can prepare them for whatever series they want to enter.

It is bad news atm because as the recession bites, there is no real big Le Mans style series that incorporates Le Mans with a full season of races so the TV stations aren't interested so the sponsors aren't interested so the big manufacturers aren't interested...

In the end, it's too much hassle for a a big company like Porsche to throw a lot of weight behind a sportscar project because there isn't enough coverage for either ACO or FIA series and you basically have to choose which set of regs to design the car for. It doesn't help that the ACO keep making last minute nonsensical rule changes that render 3 year projects like the Carrera GT and MC12 instantly obsolete.

[Rivelution]

Basically it's a slightly different spec. The ACO has done a lot to try and make Le Mans a brand and they want to run an international series separate from the FIA series. The FIA GT series at one point allowed carbon chassis (might still do?) but the ACO suddenly banned them which meant cars like the Porsche Carrera GT were redundant projects and got scrapped or converted for road use.

The Maserati MC12 conforms with FIA regs but not ACO so it can't run at Le Mans. Also the Saleen S7 was made uncompetitive at Le Mans by modifications that had to be made for it to switch from FIA spec to ACO spec. There isn't really an FIA LMP series now as none of the major manufacturers are interested in entering. The FIA GT is more popular because there are a lot of privateer teams who buy the cars and can prepare them for whatever series they want to enter.

It is bad news atm because as the recession bites, there is no real big Le Mans style series that incorporates Le Mans with a full season of races so the TV stations aren't interested so the sponsors aren't interested so the big manufacturers aren't interested...

In the end, it's too much hassle for a a big company like Porsche to throw a lot of weight behind a sportscar project because there isn't enough coverage for either ACO or FIA series and you basically have to choose which set of regs to design the car for. It doesn't help that the ACO keep making last minute nonsensical rule changes that render 3 year projects like the Carrera GT and MC12 instantly obsolete.

Wow thanks for explaining that dude. Now I see why its easier and cheaper to develop a car in the ALMS than developing over in Europe.

[Gilles 27]

Yeh the ALMS plus the new European LMS run to ACO regs. The FIA has just given up on running an LMP series I think. The FIA are notorious for changing the F1 rules all the time but the ACO have been a right pain recently with their rule changes

[scotty]

Basically it's a slightly different spec. The ACO has done a lot to try and make Le Mans a brand and they want to run an international series separate from the FIA series. The FIA GT series at one point allowed carbon chassis (might still do?) but the ACO suddenly banned them which meant cars like the Porsche Carrera GT were redundant projects and got scrapped or converted for road use.

The Maserati MC12 conforms with FIA regs but not ACO so it can't run at Le Mans. Also the Saleen S7 was made uncompetitive at Le Mans by modifications that had to be made for it to switch from FIA spec to ACO spec. There isn't really an FIA LMP series now as none of the major manufacturers are interested in entering. The FIA GT is more popular because there are a lot of privateer teams who buy the cars and can prepare them for whatever series they want to enter.

It is bad news atm because as the recession bites, there is no real big Le Mans style series that incorporates Le Mans with a full season of races so the TV stations aren't interested so the sponsors aren't interested so the big manufacturers aren't interested...

In the end, it's too much hassle for a a big company like Porsche to throw a lot of weight behind a sportscar project because there isn't enough coverage for either ACO or FIA series and you basically have to choose which set of regs to design the car for. It doesn't help that the ACO keep making last minute nonsensical rule changes that render 3 year projects like the Carrera GT and MC12 instantly obsolete.

The mind boggles at how motorsport organisations are run!

One of the Acuras got on Pole at Sebring... and the Audi's are bloody mean looking in race trim!!



Loving the prototypes at the moment.