TBK-Light.com

Just came back from Le Mans.

I have a lot of great things to share with you...

Yeah, so, I was at the WTCC at Zolder...

and...

damn :C You win

My thoughts on today:

- Audi seem to have the edge on car pace. The R18 has looked awfully strong in testing and it continues here. Peugeot were close but I think they're holding a fair bit in reserve and Wednesday/Thursday of race week will be the first time we see the real potential of either car.
- The ACO wanted the prototypes to stay above 3:30. Oops. Hindy mentioned most of the team owners/car designers figure the cars can do 3:20-3:24 laps if they're pushed.
- The fastest petrol was a year old car, 9 seconds off the back of the fastest diesel. If the Rebellion Toyotas were that far back, even with the new bodywork and a pseudo-factory engine, I think the ACO has missed the equivalency boat. Again. Next potential for adjustment well be after Spa. Unfortunately, with AMR being the only factory petrol team, their overall pace was likely to dictate equivalency. They'd had to have lapped around a 3:31-3:32 to be within the 2% the ACO was hoping for. Not likely. I don't think adjustments are likely either, I figure the ACO will put it down to factory-privateer differences.
- LMP2 seems to be finding its legs, somewhat. Good to see, though the Oreca chassis and Zytek/NISMO engine is clearly the class of the... er, class.
- Not ready to write off AMR just yet. It's clear the engine needs a fair bit of work, the failures today being tipped up to cylinder lining that didn't work as planned. Fix reportedly forthcoming.
- Hybrids didn't impress. The Hope Oreca hybrid never did its pitlane run and failed to set anything really representative. MIK disappointed though I think that car is a bit further along than the Hope car. Looking forward to seeing them at Spa but becoming rapidly less hopeful.

Evolution evolves. But that stupid 3:30 has never been about quali laps.


I wish Highcroft would have been at the test. At this rate AMR is going to have hard time even being the fastest petrol.

According to the rules (below in the spoiler tag, for those who have not read them), this test doesn't officially count. Only races do and race pace:

[spoiler]1.3 – Balance of Performance of the different technologies of LM P1
Propulsion

In order to maintain the gap between the different power train technologies
within a range of 2% of lap times, the ACO will keep the possibility to adapt the
performance of the slowest technologies of cars under the following condition:
The reference will be the calculation of average of lap times of the fastest car of
each technology. The average of lap times will be calculated on a number of
laps corresponding to 50% of the distance of the races (average of the best
laps).

The models of cars from slowest technologies must have participated in at
least at 2 races minimum and must have been regularly classified to benefit
from the application of the rule.

A 2% gap average should be observed on these 2 races.
The ACO will keep the possibility to modify the application of this rule if the
result of the adjustment does not permit reaching the target.
The first adjustment will be applied if necessary at the 3rd event of the 2011
season under this regulation. A maximum of 2 adjustments can be applied in
the season for a technology.

The ACO will ask, if necessary, any information to the manufacturer / team in
order to be assisted in his analysis. Any information will be kept strictly
confidential. Any competitor who deliberately gives false information, or try to
influence an adjustment process by hiding his real level of performance will
have his ACO homologation form withdrawn.

http://www.lemans.org/en/race/24h/regulation.html[/spoiler]

This is much better than nothing but the 2 % is ridiculous because it completely ignores chassis and tyres or a driver alone can make that gap.

Thanks for that regulation deggis, I hadn't actually ever seen that reg written out like that.

So that sorts that out then, sort of... At this point the only cars that can really affect the balance are the Rebellion Lola-Toyotas and the OAK Pescarolos, since they're the only ones to compete at Sebring and Spa in the ILMC against the factories. IIRC, the fastest Rebellion time at Sebring (admittedly in qualifying) was a 1:50.6. Admittedly, the Lola-Aston did a 1:49.6 but a grandfathered car won't count. The ARX-01e did a 1:49.8 but they won't be at Spa (apparently) so that'll be a no go. 1:50.6 compared to the 1:46.5 - even in qualifying - is still 4%. Gap needs to be cut in half.

Anyway, deggis, I agree that 2% is a bit silly but I think they're assuming with that reg that the Audis and Peugeots are the teams with the highest budgets and are both diesels and therefore will always have the resource advantage anyway. Spa will probably see both teams going pretty close to the limit as it's an ILMC round, same for most of the petrols. I think that'll probably be more representative as far as race laptimes go for the sake of equivalency.

FWIW, a 2:00 lap at Spa for the diesels would mean a 2:02.4 from the petrols to be at 2%. Le Mans, a 3:30 from the diesels is a 3:34.6 from the petrols (again excluding grandfathered cars). Still 2 seconds off the mark with the diesels likely sandbagging slightly.

10 years today

R.I.P Michele Alboreto

_________________
"An idea whose time has come cannot be stopped by any army or any government"


3x TBKL rFactor Hillclimb champion

2 pictures I took of the new Audi R18.




And some other photos

That Gulf Aston GT

_________________
"An idea whose time has come cannot be stopped by any army or any government"


3x TBKL rFactor Hillclimb champion

Indeed.

Sexy

Le Mans 24h Official Test Day in Slow Motion HD

Some observations from the test day:
- Audi dominated most of the day. IIRC, they quickly set the 3 fastest times, Peugeot was 3 seconds behind and it stood that way until there was an hour left, and Peugeot finally got close at the end of the day when they put soft tires on and attacked. Still, I think it's pretty significant that when he was asked about Audi's pace, Mr Quesnel said he "would not comment Audi's times".
- It's already been said, but the AMR Aston Martin were on the track for maybe 45 minutes overall, and they never were really fast.
- They put some bumps outside and inside some kerbs to prevent cars from cutting or going too wide around corners, I don't know if these were there the years before, they were not in 2008 at least, but they're nasty. I think it was the TDS Nissan that I saw going wide over these at the Dunlop chicane and according to the ear scratching sound it made, its underside didn't appreciate the visit.
- The Ford GTs were slow. And by slow, I mean they often drive like the track was wet. Their lap times seem to agree, I don't know what they were doing, but they're far off the pace of the F458s and M3s.

As for the cars sounds, the Audi is quieter than death, the Peugeot really sounds like a tractor, the Ford GT had the best sound (F458 second) and the Lotus Evora the most disappointing one.

I've got 1450 pictures to sort Well, half of them are trashed anyway, that's what happens when you don't have a press access. This track sucks when you want to take pictures. Did you have a press access Toto, or just a longer lens than me?

No, I didn't have a media pass.

Half of my pictures are also trashed, that's why I prefer videos over photos (I'm not a good photographer). I had my Canon 1000D with a 55-250mm lens for Le Mans + my High Definition camcorder.

EDIT: Too bad we didn't organise a meetup.

Jan Lammers going for his 22nd start with the Hope Hybrid LMP1-car (+ Steve Zacchia)

Nice

Cool. Still missing his Racing For Holland, but good to see him back at least.

Caspar Elgaard confirmed in the third seat for Hope Racing... Nice lineup!

That is, of course, if they make the race. According to Bas Leinders' Twitter this morning, there are strong rumours that a current LMP team has withdrawn and that Kronos/Marc VDS are expecting the official phone call for their entry shortly. No word on who the drop may be, but I would assume the list comes from either one of the AMR cars, Highcroft, or perhaps the Extreme Limite Norma. Also a chance OAK has withdrawn one of the LMP1's given the inevitable tub damage at Spa and injuries to Mathieu Lahaye. Hoping for an announcement this afternoon.

WOOT!

I mean, awwwww