F1technical.net

I was poking around on another site I use and found a couple of photos of the Porsche RS Spyder (their new LMP car) minus bodywork.

As expected, it is remarkably similar to an F1 car:



A high nose to provide space for the front diffuser to work.
Angled radiators flank the cockpit.
Chassis is tall around the driver's head for crash protection.



Exhaust is different - exiting fore of the rear wheel, but I believe some LMP teams are starting to switch to top exit exhausts like F1.
Gearbox is compact and tight, close to COG even though there is bodywork covering this area.
Rear wing mounted to rear crash structure which is in turn mounted to the gearbox.

Here it is with bodywork on:

Copycats!

ROTFLMAO

I think thats an LMP2 car. These are undoubtably fun but not quite the real LMP1 Le Mans Pukkas. My home designed LMP1 is coming on well. I managed to test the steering on my crappy CAD and luckily it just misses the bodywork.

Thanks for bringing a semblance of seriousness back to this thread.

Yes it is an LMP2 car but I thought it was interesting to see how similar it is under the skin.

Mostly the same engineering principles apply between the two different types of vehicles.

Tom wrote:I think thats an LMP2 car. These are undoubtably fun but not quite the real LMP1 Le Mans Pukkas. My home designed LMP1 is coming on well. I managed to test the steering on my crappy CAD and luckily it just misses the bodywork.

I wouldn't quite say that, this Porsche has been setting laptime thats close to the LMP1 and faster than the old LMP900s ever since its debut last year at Laguna Seca. The car is a little fragile at the moment but its blazingly fast....

Interesting trend is emerging though, Audi R10 followed its sister Bentley's route on going with torsion bar spring(like F1) to get rid of spring hysterisis issue. This Porsche is also on torsion bar.....I saw a pic a while back of the RS Spyder's rear arrangement and its not unlike a modern F1 car....

Which is better, closed or open car? I would have thought the closed (like the Mazdas and Jags) would have more aero advantage but open (Audis and Pescarolo) seem to be the only type in the series at a competitive level.

Technically, a closed car can provide a stiffer chassis. But there are advantages and disadvantages to each type. An open cockpit car has better visibility, less driver heat and humidity issues, and changing drivers is easier.
As well, some systems can be accessed directly in the cockpit of an open car, which makes pit stops and minor servicing easier and quicker.

Tom wrote:Which is better, closed or open car?

Probably a case of weight versus aero.

They used to have different tyres to with the open cars getting more rubber, not sure of the current regulations as I have been away from it for a while

Its all swings and roundabouts

I would say the addition of the new rules about cockpit temperatures have swayed the favour towards open cars.

In the past the weights and so forth were different but now they are the same for all LMP1.

RacingManiac said:

I wouldn't quite say that, this Porsche has been setting laptime thats close to the LMP1 and faster than the old LMP900s ever since its debut last year at Laguna Seca. The car is a little fragile at the moment but its blazingly fast

I didn't believe you at first but after seeing the latest ALMS race highlights on MotorsTV and reading Autosport I have to congratulate Porsche for not only taking an LMP2 (the second class) car to overall victory, from the back of the grid, with the sister car 1/2s behind but also beating the Audi R8 (LMP1s) of McNish.

Well done Porsche!

Credits still to Audi for they are already running overweight, and underpower and still managed to be the best of the rest.....R8 is just an amazing piece....