FIA WEC 2015

benhaha85 · 28 May 2015 at 11:05

Nissan To Run Group C Tribute Paint Scheme At Le Mans

Skeeter · 28 May 2015 at 11:34

Epic! Love it!

Ryan-3 · 28 May 2015 at 17:59

Loving that livery. :cool:

Skeeter · 31 May 2015 at 15:30

The test day was a bit of a washout but it looks a bit ominous for Toyota being 4 seconds off the pace, and really bad for Nissan at 20+ seconds back and beaten by a lot of the P2s

.

Jonny69 · 31 May 2015 at 21:02

Yeah, Nissan were never going to be even close to the pace but I've no idea what's gone wrong for Toyota this season.

Ryan-3 · 31 May 2015 at 23:23

Not sure what's wrong with Toyota. Their aero package doesn't seem as good as Audi or Porsche and then they don't seem to have the power they do.

Alibaba99 · 1 Jun 2015 at 07:43

Ryan-3 said:
Not sure what's wrong with Toyota. Their aero package doesn't seem as good as Audi or Porsche and then they don't seem to have the power they do.

I suspect that it is a combination of insufficient engine power compared to the Audi, insufficient hybrid power (and the inability to harvest enough) compared to the Porsche and lack of budget overall compared to both.

Skeeter · 1 Jun 2015 at 07:54

The worrying thing is it won't take much for Toyota to pull the plug. I hope this is just a blip.

Alibaba99 · 1 Jun 2015 at 18:40

Given that Toyota's budget appears to be around $50M compared to a combined $500M for Audi / Porsche they certainly aren't taking it as seriously.

A re-evaluation of the BoP may help them later this season though.

Ryan-3 · 3 Jun 2015 at 13:37

That is quite a gap in budget. :eek:

They're involved in a few different motorsports, under Lexus in Super GT and they're soon to be in the WRC. Would be a shame - and stupid in my view - to just leave WEC as it starts to become interesting. But it also wouldn't be surprising if they do leave.

Skeeter · 3 Jun 2015 at 15:50

Even with that budget gap they were WEC champions last year.

Nissan will be the biggest reason Toyota stay.

Alibaba99 · 3 Jun 2015 at 17:51

Porsche were in their first year and Audi got their calculations regarding the impact of BoP wrong.

Toyota also failed to make the jump up to the 8MJ class this year, which was one of their intentions, as they couldn't harvest enough energy through recovery systems that only used kinetic energy to make it worthwhile.

Ryan-3 · 10 Jun 2015 at 16:37

A wet sunday according to the weather reports, as well as a damp track in FP1. This year might just be extra special. :cool:

The flashing tail lights are off-putting but they are doing the job. The cars are far easier to spot, so driver visibility in bad conditions should hopefully stop another incident like Nakajima's.

benhaha85 · 10 Jun 2015 at 19:36

As well as hopefully avoiding an incident like the one last year where the Audi was taken out by the Ferrari(?) in the rain.

Ryan-3 · 10 Jun 2015 at 22:04

Yeah, the Toyota came barreling through and the collision put them both in the pit.

Skeeter · 12 Jun 2015 at 13:46

So Toyota have looked at their poor start to 2015, sat down and evaluated their position in WEC, and decided to....

Stay in it and go for a new engine! Woot!

Toyota will swap to a new engine for its assault on next year's World Endurance Championship.

The Japanese manufacturer has announced that it will abandon its existing 3.7-litre normally-aspirated V8 powerplant for an engine of undisclosed configuration at the same time as confirming that it will switch from a super-capacitor to a battery energy-storage system.

Toyota Motorsport GmbH team director Rob Leupen told AUTOSPORT: "We will switch to a new engine and Japan is working hard on it already, but all we can say is that it will be petrol powered."

The team refused to confirm that the new motor will be a small-capacity turbo similar in concept to Porsche's two-litre V4.

TMG technical director Pascal Vasselon has previously explained that a turbo unit offers more consistency of performance over a range of conditions than a normally-aspirated engine.

Toyota will retain the twin-axle kinetic energy-retrieval systems of its existing TS040 HYBRID but move to battery storage to allow it to move into the highest subclass of hybrid power that allows for eight megajoules to be deployed over the Le Mans lap.

"We feel we have to be in the 8MJ class; you can do that with a super-capacitor, but there is a downside on weight," explained Leupen.

Toyota had planned to introduce battery storage next year and the new engine in 2017, but its performances in the opening two rounds of the WEC led to a decision to take the two steps at once.

"Now we have decided that we don't want two years of development and that we put everything together," said Leupen.

The 2016 Toyota, to be known as the TS050, is in the advanced stages of design and the first drawings will be released shortly to allow manufacturing to begin.

The new car will run for the first time in January, as the TS040 did this year.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/119439

I hope that whatever they do go for remains different to anything else out there. The diversity of the power units is one of the main attractions of WEC.

I wonder if they would consider a 1.6 litre V6 turbo...

benhaha85 · 12 Jun 2015 at 14:37

Ford GT to race Le Mans in 2016

Guerrilla · 12 Jun 2015 at 14:39

Skeeter said:
I hope that whatever they do go for remains different to anything else out there. The diversity of the power units is one of the main attractions of WEC.

I wonder if they would consider a 1.6 litre V6 turbo...

Good stuff

Yea definitely hope they come up with something different, love the idea of the different ways to achieve the same.

Skeeter · 12 Jun 2015 at 14:41

benhaha85 said:
Ford GT to race Le Mans in 2016

That looks fantastic, and it utterly ruined by a crap paint job

Needs to be deep blue and white, or Gulf blue and orange.

benhaha85 · 12 Jun 2015 at 14:44

I can't imagine they'll run with that livery next year, especially with it being the 50th anniversary of the 1-2-3.

FIA WEC 2015

Man of Honour