***2012 Le Mans 24 Hours Thread***
Well folks, it's just a few months to 24 heures du mans at Le Sarthe and I can't find a thread so we should have one
Last year's race was utterly amazing - a battle between the lead Audi and Peugeot right up to the end and I was glued to the coverage with Radio Le Mans cranked up. This year it won't be quite as exciting because Peugeot have pulled out, allegedly for financial reasons. But it appears that Pescarolo will be using Peugeot parts but not the whole car, because Peugeot have refused to let the cars be used. Call me cynical, but it's probably so they don't lose face if they go on to lose all their races...
What we do have this year is a hybrid car in the form of the Toyota TS030, which appears to be able to use the pit lane on its motors and the engine fires up as it leaves. It's packing a lot of energy recovery from braking and I'm looking forward to seeing what it'll do in the safety car scenarios. It'll also be interesting to see how far it can drive on the motors alone. It's quite common for cars to run out of fuel halfway round the track, and the circuit is a total of 8 miles long, so it'll be interesting to see if the car can make it back from say Arnage corner on its motors.
There are a LOT of 458 Ferarris running in the GT class this year. Years ago the GT class was dominated by Porsches and Ferraris. Corvette and Aston literally crushed the opposition and the reliability of the Ferraris really showed up as a flaw. They all but dropped out a couple of years ago and even the Italians were campaigning Corvettes. The Porsches also dwindled in numbers for a couple of years which is interesting, because they used to be bulletproof reliable and hence the amateur teams with the lower budgets used to favour them. Sadly, no BMW M3 or Ford GTs in the GT classes this year.
There is also the fabled Delta Wing team campaigning alternative technology. It's a streamliner that looks like it belongs on the salt but the team are convinced it'll run at Le Mans. I can't see how it'll stick to the track, personally, but bring on the alternative technology. Two years ago Porsche, Ferrari and a number of other supercar manufacturers were demonstrating their hybrid and alternative technology cars. It was pretty cool seeing prototype Ferraris loaded with electric motors and batteries up next to their screaming petrol motors, I can tell you!
Video: here's a bit of TS030 pit action. Sounds amazing. Listen for the engine to kick in up at the top end...
Well folks, it's just a few months to 24 heures du mans at Le Sarthe and I can't find a thread so we should have one
Last year's race was utterly amazing - a battle between the lead Audi and Peugeot right up to the end and I was glued to the coverage with Radio Le Mans cranked up. This year it won't be quite as exciting because Peugeot have pulled out, allegedly for financial reasons. But it appears that Pescarolo will be using Peugeot parts but not the whole car, because Peugeot have refused to let the cars be used. Call me cynical, but it's probably so they don't lose face if they go on to lose all their races...
What we do have this year is a hybrid car in the form of the Toyota TS030, which appears to be able to use the pit lane on its motors and the engine fires up as it leaves. It's packing a lot of energy recovery from braking and I'm looking forward to seeing what it'll do in the safety car scenarios. It'll also be interesting to see how far it can drive on the motors alone. It's quite common for cars to run out of fuel halfway round the track, and the circuit is a total of 8 miles long, so it'll be interesting to see if the car can make it back from say Arnage corner on its motors.
There are a LOT of 458 Ferarris running in the GT class this year. Years ago the GT class was dominated by Porsches and Ferraris. Corvette and Aston literally crushed the opposition and the reliability of the Ferraris really showed up as a flaw. They all but dropped out a couple of years ago and even the Italians were campaigning Corvettes. The Porsches also dwindled in numbers for a couple of years which is interesting, because they used to be bulletproof reliable and hence the amateur teams with the lower budgets used to favour them. Sadly, no BMW M3 or Ford GTs in the GT classes this year.
There is also the fabled Delta Wing team campaigning alternative technology. It's a streamliner that looks like it belongs on the salt but the team are convinced it'll run at Le Mans. I can't see how it'll stick to the track, personally, but bring on the alternative technology. Two years ago Porsche, Ferrari and a number of other supercar manufacturers were demonstrating their hybrid and alternative technology cars. It was pretty cool seeing prototype Ferraris loaded with electric motors and batteries up next to their screaming petrol motors, I can tell you!
Video: here's a bit of TS030 pit action. Sounds amazing. Listen for the engine to kick in up at the top end...
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. Hopefully there's some good action at the front, however with no Peugeot and none of the other teams looking like they've been able to keep up with Audi in recent years, I somehow doubt this years race will be as good as last years 
. Hopefully Aston/Prodrive pull something good out of the bag, would be nice to see them up front 
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