Quote:
Originally Posted by canaglia
In 2010 peugeot 908HDi were using some kind of high downforce-low drag bodywork at le mans, that's the reason why they still had the best top speed and were about 3 seconds faster than audi R15+ that were running in low drag setting (that explains why audi was however able to hit over 340km/h despite less hp).
About 2011, if you check on alkamel site, you'll find out that in other ILMC races peugeot and audi had basically the same stint lenght; even if according to some rumors, peugeot had about 50hp more; the two cars basically had same fuel milliage. Difference is that at le mans, R18 was more aero loaded, this created much more drag, so the car had to refuel more often than low drag 908. In qualifying all 6 cars were close in a range of five tenths, but during the race audi had a better pace from the very beginning, expecially the lone survivor #2 that was fast and furious during the night.
Anyway, at the end shorter stints were costing them the win, #9 finished second at about 13 seconds recovering a lot of time during the last pit stop when peugeot crew decided to don't change tyres, #8 was out of game for the win, while #7 was several seconds ahead of other peugeots on sunday morning and was using the same fuel strategy. Very likely they would have won passing audi #2 in the last 2 hours because of one less refuel required. But wurz crashed the car at indianapolis..... the remaining is history. That day some peugeot drivers were on the edge like pagenaud, bourdais and davidson, some other like lamy and wurz were shamefull and have been basically kicked out.
About 2013, you forget a little detail.... true is that 2013 R18 was barely able to hit over 320km/h as was in 2012; but 2013 car had the 1900mm full width rear wing and an overall more drag because of improved aero. So to hit the same top speed they needed more power from ICE.
At that time, I used to browse this forum and according to some users, figures were likely like that:
2013 R18 e-tron quattro: about 650hp
2013 TS030: more than 550hp but less than 600hp.
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Well there are somer further point about the R18 from 2011-2013. From what i know, their engine was not much down on power compared to the Peugeot. I highly doubt it that they were more than 20 bhp down, compared to the Peugeots. In 2013 several major factors came into play: they burned between 15-20% more diesel as they did in 2012 to maximise power and ontrack speed. This Had resulted maybe in a 10% gain in bhp. In addition to that, thei blown diffusor came into play. One of the big benefits was, that a major part of the exhaust gases exitet at the rear fenders, which is usually an area which produces drag. So they reduced to low pressure withit and saved overall drag there. The last major point was:
they knew that their car was faster than the Toyotas and the 2014 regulations were underway, with BIG discussions behind closed doors about potential efficiencies.....