LMS 2008 - Greatest calendar of all times...

[vyselegend]

I just realized How good a work the ACO did in scheduling the 2008 calendar:

Not only did they only manage to find 5 races for a whole championship... They had to make 4 of them collide with F1 GP dates!!! So during the 1000km of Catalunya, I'll have to suddenly quit half-race to whatch the Bahrein GP, during the 1000km of Monza it will be Spannish GP, 1000km of Spa fall during the Turkish GP, and 1000km of Silverstone will take place, of course, during the Italian GP.

What a *$¤@ bunch of §*{&¤! Seriously it had to be on purpose, 3/4 of a year's week ends are GP-less, and they put all their (poor) schedule crossing the F1 calendar.

Now they will cry that LMS don't make enough audience! What do they think Spanniard will do on april 6th? Watch the endurence race a Barcelona, or stay home in order to follow Alonso in F1?... I'm a huge fan of endurence, but I regret I will be forced to switch off during the races because of their stupid crossing-over calendar! At least the ALMS runs it's races on Saturdays, and propose a lot more of them.

Shame on the ACO.

[zac510]

I'm not sure that there is that much crossover audience from Sportscars to F1, but it is a shame that they clash.

[benjabulle]

I'm a F1 fan and I also like the Le Mans Series, I don't care about the clash of dates. I plan to go to Barcelona next week, will be always better to be there near the action than watching a GP on TV.

[vyselegend]

I envy you! If Bahrein is as borring as Sepang especially, because in this case you wouldn't miss anything from F1...

Please come back with lots of pics.(a diving view of the Lola B08/60 Aston's engine bay would be marvellous)

Enjoy!

[benjabulle]

Please come back with lots of pics.(a diving view of the Lola B08/60 Aston's engine bay would be marvellous)

Enjoy!

I will do them all

[West]

With F1 being dull the past few years, you should be glad you have an alternative race to watch.

[benjabulle]

Back from Barcelona, first report, on LMP1 cars, enjoy :

http://www.gurneyflap.com/lmsbarcelona08.html

[vyselegend]

With F1 being dull the past few years, you should be glad you have an alternative race to watch.

That proved right! Bahrein was so borring I was happy to focus on the endurance races. Shame that ALMS round 2 at St Petersbourg was delayed in Europe though. I had the results spoiled by various internet sources before seing the race.

Back from Barcelona, first report, on LMP1 cars, enjoy :

http://www.gurneyflap.com/lmsbarcelona08.html

Great stuff! Thanks. The race was great, it must have been a good trip to get there actually.

I'm stunt by the pace (and incredible reliability btw) of the Lola-Aston. There are some in the paddock that felt unhappy with their interpretation of the rules (H.Pescarolo, Y.Courage etc...), and called for smaller restrictor for the Lola, but I think it should be thought the other way: Enlarge the whole "fuel" P1 field's restrictors to fit those of the Charouz car. There lies the famous fuel / petrol equivalency obviously!

Four different cars at four top places, give a good hint about the 24 hours 2008, I have a strong feeling this year Le Mans will be a memorable one.

As for other classes, well the P2 Porsches weren't that dominant finally, the closed Lola was on a strong pace too. The GT1 field was scattered by racing incidents quite soon, I guess it has been a difficult week end for Ranald (btw if you read us, what happened to the DBR9, has it run out of fuel, rumors say there was a leak on the fuel tank from the beginning, forcing you to shorten your stints. Is it true? Was the car damaged after the colision with the Pug?)
The good aspect is that the level is very even in GT1, in terms of pace and reliability.
The GT2 class is always dominated by the F430, despite the two Porsches on the Podium it always feel like an already won match for the Ferrari. Fortunately in Europe we have the Spyker too, but it's still quite a two car class... I wish there were more variety.

Last note: I propose the Oreca-Courage car for the title of "worst livery ever on a beautifull racing car". It looks like a rubiks cube!

[zac510]

Thanks benjabulle, again, for an excellent report!

vyselegend, yes true what you say about the petrol/diesel equivalence. The Lola-Aston makes it look more sensible. I haven't read of Henri complaining again yet? Shame his cars were looking quite slow too, because I think they are the nicest looking.

Roll on the '24

[benjabulle]

Pesca complained against the regulations for the Aston engine this time, saying it got much more power, he was talking about 80 Cv better than the Judd, nice joke Henri but on track the Lola was faster on the slower part of the circuit also, the LMP2 one showed it well too. The ORECA with the same Judd looks much faster than the Pesca and if the Porsche RS had 2 real drivers they would be also in front of them.

[Ranald]

The GT1 field was scattered by racing incidents quite soon, I guess it has been a difficult week end for Ranald (btw if you read us, what happened to the DBR9, has it run out of fuel, rumors say there was a leak on the fuel tank from the beginning, forcing you to shorten your stints. Is it true? Was the car damaged after the colision with the Pug?)

I can't really say what the problem was simply because we don't know yet, but I would doubt that it had a fuel leak as the amount of fuel lost would have been enough for a fire. What has already been released to the media is that we were able to pump out more than 3 litres of fuel from the car after the race using just the cars internal pumps, enough for the car to return to the pumps. We will just have to wait to find out what the problem was. It really was a shame because the car was quick all weekend and we were looking for a really good result.
The damage to the car after the Peugeot hit was almopst invisible as the collision was very gentle and the car is strong.

On a positive note the circuit is great and the series looks really good this year. Very professional and very competitive in all classes. I have to aggree with you vyselegend that the Oreca car looked terrible but the Lola-Aston and the GT2 Vantage looked superb as to be honset did most of the field excepting the Lavaggi!

Ranald

[vyselegend]

Yes, I've read the report on Planetlemans before seing your post. I'm not involved in mechanical engineering, but the problem sound strange... What can prevent the fuel from reaching the engine while the fuel pump works correctly? Obstruated pipe, injectors?

Anyway thank you to share some comments of what must have been a disapointing (but promising) week end. It always feel "special" to read the facts from someone involved in actual racing, that's nice really. Hope to see you comment here about your win at Monza. In sheer pace you can eat the Corvettes, as showed in Barcelona qualy.

Ben, I see you've updated your report with the P2 class now. Great pics as usual, the WR car really looks fast, very sexy piece of work, a shame it is just slow actually.

Another car was running the AER engine, the LAVAGGI LS1, unfortunately I wasn't allowed to take photos of the beast, so many secrets to hide...

I detect a bit of irony there.

I have to aggree with you vyselegend that the Oreca car looked terrible but the Lola-Aston and the GT2 Vantage looked superb as to be honset did most of the field excepting the Lavaggi!

C'mon, give him a break! As far as I know the bloke is designing, manufacturing, driving the car and managing the team all by himself. I wonder if he just jump out at each pit stop to refuell and change tyres too...



Sure it's not the sexiest car of the field...

[benjabulle]

The WR is an interesting car and could show new directions for the sidepods but I'm afraid it's never been tested in CFD or wind tunnel. The team was the smallest of the field, they even didn't have any clothes with the colors of the team and it was looking as they were at a hill climbing race of the district. The car won't be fast as they simply can't test it and the gentlemen drivers/sponsors can't drive it fast. But that's what makes this serie interesting, the mix of factories and true amateurs with their own car.

[vyselegend]

That's what I don't understand. If the WR team has so little (if any) tools to study aero, why did they design such an original shape. Whithout proper method to rough out the body, there's a risk the design is terribly draggy, or that frontal surface impede rear wing flow etc...

Sure it's beautifull, but shouldn't one design raw angles and straight lines (Like what Lavaggi did actually) when it's impossible to do the windtunnel / CFD study on it, rather than trying to be cleaver and sculpt complex body which aerodynamic influence's understanding is out of reach?

[benjabulle]

The Lavaggi may look rough but it benefited from wind tunnel tests with a model. For the nose of the WR I'll be surprised it makes any differences, I'll say it may be only to have a different look.