Petit Le Mans 2008 Rumors / Entries Thread

[airbusA346]

Originally Posted by panoz.lmp1

Waht shoul happen to Hexis? They´re racing FIA-GT3 and ADAC GT Masters this year

No, I was asking what happened between Hexis and Prodrive/AMR?

Tom.

[wapomumalo]

Pug´s Crash.





Mazda´s Coupe.

The Mazda efford, being respectable from BK Motorsports Point of View, It looks pretty mediocreto me from a Brands Point of View. Mazda, fully owned by Ford, has abbandonned the resurrection of the LeMans winning Wankel Rotary Engine for a rebadged "new" AER engine with no Imput form Mazda´s engineers (Direct Injection not raced yet) since the beggining of last year´´s season. Result might have improved since 2005, but we may ask what´s the benefit of this from a manufactureer point of view?

ANSWER= NONE.

[Bob Riebe]

Originally Posted by wapomumalo

Pug´s Crash.





Mazda´s Coupe.

The Mazda efford, being respectable from BK Motorsports Point of View, I guess looks to me pretty mediocre. Mazda, fully owned by Ford, has abbandonned the resurrection of the LeMans winning Wankel Rotary Engine for a rebadged "new" AER engine since last year. Result might have improved since 2005, but we may ask what´s the benefit of this from a manufactureer point of view?

ANSWER= NONE.

Ford sold Cosworth, but Ford ownes engine design conceived with their money or ownership.
Can't Ford get another source to build one of their advanced designs for use as a Mazda?

[wapomumalo]

Originally Posted by Bob Riebe

Ford sold Cosworth, but Ford ownes engine design conceived with their money or ownership.
Can't Ford get another source to build one of their advanced designs for use as a Mazda?

The answer is: NO.

Ford has no Motorsports budget to start a project by their own, nor engineers, and no intentions to partner again Cosworth, that currently has an Endurance Engine there waiting for money that will never come..

Mazda is a rare case, the Wankel 3 rotor engine was nothing innovative, just the same design as the 4 rotor LM 1991 winner. The AER partnership is good in terms of money invested-results obtained. But no real Imput from Ford-Mazda in there.

[cmk]

Originally Posted by airbusA346

What happened with Hexis?

Tom.

They've been forced to run only 2 cars at some ADAC races because of a shortage of parts from Prodrive/AMR, despite having the drivers/funding for all 3 available. I gather they weren't exactly chuffed.

[Hugewally]

Originally Posted by wapomumalo

Pug´s Crash.





Mazda´s Coupe.

The Mazda efford, being respectable from BK Motorsports Point of View, It looks pretty mediocreto me from a Brands Point of View. Mazda, fully owned by Ford, has abbandonned the resurrection of the LeMans winning Wankel Rotary Engine for a rebadged "new" AER engine with no Imput form Mazda´s engineers (Direct Injection not raced yet) since the beggining of last year´´s season. Result might have improved since 2005, but we may ask what´s the benefit of this from a manufactureer point of view?

ANSWER= NONE.

What does that have to do with the Pug crash?

[Graham Goodwin]

And - please - if you are going to cut and paste images from other sites please ensure that they are properly creditted

Oh and on the Mazda front - they would beg to differ

[andy_b]

Mazda have gained massively from the programme in North America, even if its not a rotary. I remember my old boss, engineer, the late John Baldwin, saying the most important thing on the car is the sticker on the side, because without that you have nothing!

Its about awareness of the brand. Do you think Porsche minded when they ran TWR Jag based machines, or the fact the Audi DTM cars ran Mugen Honda based engines?



btw - Matos out of Mazda, he's walked off in the direction of IRL, more on Marshall's blog over on Speed

[Subaru_WRX_STi]

I really hope that the Lola Mazda can fight for a poduim finish, and I know its their 1st race with this car and the competition is so high

[dxk1]

Originally Posted by Subaru_WRX_STi

I really hope that the Lola Mazda can fight for a poduim finish, and I know its their 1st race with this car and the competition is so high

While that would be a really nice result, it just doesn't seem likely with 5 Porsches and 4 Acuras in the field! Unless, of course, they all run into mechanical difficulties!



DK

[gwyllion]

Originally Posted by Hugewally

I did hear the Pug did a 1:06.4 something...

According to http://auto-racing.speedadmin.mindco...-le-mans-blog/ they did a 1:05.6. The LMP1 pole last year was 1:08.9

Peugeot pulled a gap of 100 meters on Lucas Luhr on the back straight.

[deggis]

Now Audi guys know how Dumas must have felt exactly year ago

[gwyllion]

Originally Posted by deggis

Now Audi guys know how Dumas must have felt exactly year ago

Yes, but he was in a different class.

[deggis]

Originally Posted by gwyllion

Yes, but he was in a different class.

If you don't remember last year's race, in the last laps Dumas got close to the Audi couple of times but on the back straight it just vanished every time. (and since Luhr was talking about the speed difference on the straight) For the driver the class doesn't make difference since they were still trying to go for overall... especially with last year's weight rules.

[AU N EGL]

Originally Posted by gwyllion

According to http://auto-racing.speedadmin.mindco...-le-mans-blog/ they did a 1:05.6. The LMP1 pole last year was 1:08.9

Peugeot pulled a gap of 100 meters on Lucas Luhr on the back straight.

WOW just WOW

[cmk]

As I stated in one of the other PLM threads (there are too many!), Audi's simulations had Peugeot lapping in this bracket. They can't be surprised. I bet what, if anything, they are surprised about is where that advantage is coming - halfway down the back straight. This poses more of a problem than just the laptime: it's all very well to be close in the esses, but you can't pass. It's the run down to T10 that's the best passing area on the track and you have to figure they're going to get eaten alive there. Even if they just get a pass done entering the straight, they're still getting eaten alive!

[gwyllion]

The Mazda situation is similar to that of MG.

[The359]

MXR-01-Judd anyone? Not the first time Mazda has bought a chassis and engine.

[HORNDAWG]

Updated 2008 Petit Field

LMP1
1 Audi Sport North America Audi R10 TDI ( Mc Nish, Capello, Pirro )
2 Audi Sport North America Audi R10 TDI (Luhr, Werner)
07 Peugeot 908 HDi FAP V-12 diesel ( Minassian, Gene, Klien)Laguna??
10 ECO Racing Radical R10 AER ( Collins, Wright) Withdrawn: hoping for Laguna
12 Autocon Motorsports Lola B06/10 AER (McMurray, Willman, Burgess)
30 Intersport Racing Lola B06/10 Judd (R,Lewis, L. Hines, Forgeois)
37 Intersport Racing Lola B07/10 AER E-85 (J. Field, C. Field, Berry)
48 Corsa Motorsport Ginetta-Zytek 07S Zytek (Jeanette, Mowlem, Johansson)
50 Team LNT Ginetta-Zytek 07S Zytek (Watts, O. Pla)
88 Creation Autosportif Creation CA07 AIM E-85 ( Campbell-Walter, Primat, Simpson)
888 Creation Autosportif Creation CA07 AIM E-85 ( Hall, Halliday, Stirling)
LMP2
5 Penske Racing Porsche RS Spyder (Castroneves, Briscoe)-Collard
6 Penske Motorsports Porsche RS Spyder (Maassen, Long)-Collard
7 Penske Motorsports Porsche RS Spyder (Dumas, Bernhard)-Collard
8 Mazdaspeed/B-K Motorsports Lola B08/80 MZR-R E-85(Devlin, Bonilla, )
9 Patrón Highcroft Racing Acura ARX- 01b V8 ( Brabham, Sharp, D. Franchitti)
15 Lowe's Fernandez Racing Acura ARX-01b V8 (Fernandez, Diaz, Jourdain)
16 Dyson Racing Team Porsche RS Spyder (Dyson, Smith)
20 Dyson Racing Team Porsche RS Spyder (Leitzinger, M. Franchitti, Lally)
26 Andretti Green Racing Acura ARX- 01b V8 (Montagny, Kanaan, Andretti)
66 de Ferran Motorsports Acura ARX-01b V-8 ( de Ferran, Pagenaud, Dixon)

LMGT1
3 Corvette Racing Corvette C6.R E-85 (O'Connell, Magnussen, Fellows)
4 Corvette Racing Corvette C6.R E-85 (Gavin, Beretta, Papis)
008 Bell Motorsports/FUX Aston Martin DBR9 (Borcheller,Ducot, TBA)withdrawn

LMGT2
007 Barwell Motorsports AM Vantage GT-2 (E-85) (Drayson, Cocker, Turner)
11 Primetime Race Group Viper Comp. Coupe (Feinberg, Hall )
18 Vici Racing Porsche 997 GT3 RSR (N. Pastorelli, Basseng, F. Pastorelli)
21 Panoz Team PTG Panoz Esperante GTLM (Milner, Hand, Wirth)
28 LGM/Pro Long Tube Headers Riley/Corvette C6 ( Gigliotti, Goossens, Drissi )
40 Robertson Racing K/D Mk.VII Ford GT (D. Robertson, A. Robertson, D.Murry)
44 Flying Lizard Motorsports-44 Porsche 997 GT3 RSR (Neiman, Law, Pechnik)
45 Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche 997 GT3 RSR (Henzler, J.Bergmeister, Lieb)
46 Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche 997 GT3 RSR (van Overbeek, Pilet)
54 Black Swan Racing K/D Mk.VII Ford GT (E-85?) (Pappas, Lazzaro, Pilgrim)
61 Risi Competizione/Krohn Racing Ferrari F430 GT (Krohn, Jonsson, van de Poele)
62 Risi Competizione Ferrari F430 GT (Salo, Melo)
71 Tafel Racing Ferrari F430 GT (Farnbacher, Müller)
73 Tafel Racing Ferrari F430 GT (Tafel, Ehret, Figge)
87 Farnbacher Loles Porsche 997 GT3 RSR ( Werner, Miller, Hardt)
99 JMB Racing Ferrari F430 GT (Aucott, Kaffer, Daoudi) PLM/Laguna

L.P.

[HORNDAWG]

Dang, double posts!!



L.P.

[dxk1]

Originally Posted by HORNDAWG

Updated 2008 Petit Field

LMP1
10 ECO Racing Radical R10 AER ( Collins, Wright) Withdrawn: hoping for Laguna

LMGT1
008 Bell Motorsports/FUX Aston Martin DBR9 (Borcheller,Ducot, TBA)withdrawn

L.P.

Neither of these withdrawals had any chance anyway so they don't appear to be a great loss. However, both were beautiful racecars and would have added some interest to the race. This looks like a terrific field with the exception of GT1. Pity some competition couldn't have been drummed up for the Corvettes.

DK