’10 ALMS Round 4 • Utah • July 7th – 11th

[dxk1]

Nice win for Highcroft and nice to see the Drayson car finish strong with a well earned 2nd. Nice to see Melo/Bruni win and get back into the GT fight for team and driver honors. Nice comeback by Magnussen after the penalty to grab 3rd.

DK

[broadrun96]

How would we uninformed be able to tell an S from the regular? Listed as a 911 GT3 Cup like the rest in the Challenge finishing order just on Speedtv.

[NightStalk3r]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

How would we uninformed be able to tell an S from the regular? Listed as a 911 GT3 Cup like the rest in the Challenge finishing order just on Speedtv.

The Cup S has much wider front and rear bodywork as it has a wider front and rear track

Cup


Cup S

[joeb]

Originally Posted by Fizz

Is the #45 running the same car that they did at Le mans this year?

I thought I heard on SPEED that it was the 44 car that was running the LeMans car. But the 45 had been "re-tubbed".

[tux]

Traditonally Flying Lizard build a new car up after Le Mans

[Speed-King]

#63 is in fact not a Cup-S, but a Grand AM-car which uses the bodywork of the Cup-S but little else of the other go-fast-parts...

[old man]

Excellent race in LMP with Highcroft winning because of their fuel eceonomy it seems.

I do not claim to be an expert in LMP or the adjusted ALMS LPM class so can anyone give me a bit of info on the comparison between the Highcroft and the Drayson Lola. As I understood it the two cars are an LMP2 and LMP1 respectively in their original guise so what was the original difference and how has that been adjusted please?

Am I right in thinking the Highcroft is a Wirth designed car?

[Victor_RO]

Originally Posted by old man

I do not claim to be an expert in LMP or the adjusted ALMS LPM class so can anyone give me a bit of info on the comparison between the Highcroft and the Drayson Lola. As I understood it the two cars are an LMP2 and LMP1 respectively in their original guise so what was the original difference and how has that been adjusted please?

Weight, restrictors and fuel capacity, although I'm not familiar with the details of it.

Am I right in thinking the Highcroft is a Wirth designed car?

It's a Courage LC75 tub underneath, but the bodywork is Wirth-designed (pretty much) and it's probably got a different suspension setup to the old Courage. The ARX-02 was a full Wirth design.

[Fogelhund]

If you read through the IMSA bulletins and rules on www.imsaracing.net You will find all the details you need.

[joeb]

It was great to see the Drayson car run up at the front and setting fast race lap. I wonder if the results could have been better for the Intersport car without the two early cautions, although it seems the Dunlops fell off pretty quickly anyways.

I think my favorite part of the race was the in-car cam on the Mazda that showed the decals on the car Castrol and some Florida tourism thing - beautifully ironic.

[HORNDAWG]

Originally Posted by Victor_RO

Weight, restrictors and fuel capacity, although I'm not familiar with the details of it.



It's a Courage LC75 tub underneath, but the bodywork is Wirth-designed (pretty much) and it's probably got a different suspension setup to the old Courage. The ARX-02 was a full Wirth design.

The original design of the tub was the LC75, but it was changed enough (fairly early on) to have to be homologated as an ARX-01. Suspension pickup points and other modifications.




L.P.

[dj4monie]

Originally Posted by NightStalk3r

The Cup S has much wider front and rear bodywork as it has a wider front and rear track

Cup


Cup S

So if ALMS makes the move to GT3 spec cars, how many versions of the Porsche do they want to allow?

Say stop at any current FIA GT3 spec car like the GT3-R



Will most of the current teams have to buy new cars? I suppose but the Cup cars can be sold to run in various classes around North America.

[dj4monie]

Originally Posted by joeb

It was great to see the Drayson car run up at the front and setting fast race lap. I wonder if the results could have been better for the Intersport car without the two early cautions, although it seems the Dunlops fell off pretty quickly anyways.

I think my favorite part of the race was the in-car cam on the Mazda that showed the decals on the car Castrol and some Florida tourism thing - beautifully ironic.

Let's be honest, is it any surprise? We saw the car's pace at Sebring. The reason they even HAD a chance is because they were not giving time away by having His Lordship in the car. As it was, they were not able to eek out enough of a lead to come in for their final stop and put enough fuel in to make it to the finish and stay ahead of Highcroft.

Just imagine how much further they would have been behind, they would have lost 2nd to the Muscle Mike Porsche.

So while I'm ready to congratulate them on a job well done, I think they know what they have to do if they want to have a chance to win this championship since Dyson can't seem to buy a break when it comes to reliability.

[dj4monie]

Originally Posted by old man

Excellent race in LMP with Highcroft winning because of their fuel eceonomy it seems.

I do not claim to be an expert in LMP or the adjusted ALMS LPM class so can anyone give me a bit of info on the comparison between the Highcroft and the Drayson Lola. As I understood it the two cars are an LMP2 and LMP1 respectively in their original guise so what was the original difference and how has that been adjusted please?

Am I right in thinking the Highcroft is a Wirth designed car?

The adjustments IMHO are fairly minor. The differences on track are obvious. 3 years of running the same car the advantage is clearly to Highcroft and the changes to that car have been on-going. Somebody mentioned elsewhere that they were using new bodywork. From what I can tell, its only part of the Le Mans low drag package, the nose of the car is the standard high downforce spec they have been running on the car.

Highcroft gained most of their fuel economy on the yellow flag periods. If you go back to Le Mans, Strakka was able to go much further on fuel than anybody else in LMP2 along with being the fastest car. The periods of long yellows helped them out tremendously. There is suppose to be some setting in the ECU that allows the engine to fun FULL LEAN without any damage at low speeds.

That and the fact that Simon was putting in his fastest laps of the race leading up to their final stop put the nail in the coffin. 15 second lead on a track that long, almost impossible to make up since the Lola's only advantage was on the straights.

[HORNDAWG]

Originally Posted by dj4monie

So if ALMS makes the move to GT3 spec cars, how many versions of the Porsche do they want to allow?

Say stop at any current FIA GT3 spec car like the GT3-R



Will most of the current teams have to buy new cars? I suppose but the Cup cars can be sold to run in various classes around North America.

Maybe one should read the ALMS rules and the supporting releases to know what the time frame is for the various 'versions of the Porsche' allowed in the GTC class.



L.P.

[the real Stig]

Originally Posted by dj4monie

The adjustments IMHO are fairly minor. The differences on track are obvious. 3 years of running the same car the advantage is clearly to Highcroft and the changes to that car have been on-going. Somebody mentioned elsewhere that they were using new bodywork. From what I can tell, its only part of the Le Mans low drag package, the nose of the car is the standard high downforce spec they have been running on the car.

the car is completly different, it really only shares the tooling for the tub. That is to say that once the tub is out the mould it's machined and bult to a different spec to the LC75. All the body pannels, the suspension and even the gearbox are custom. The front and rear body are even quick release like the Audi, somthing the LC75 isn't. interestingly the nose this weekend was new, a kind of hybrid of the 24 and the Sebring. Note the lack of turning vanes but the large (some what dull) front lights and the inward fender vents on the front.
Also remember when the car was closer to a LC75 that Porsche put Acura in a world of hurt, but by the end of the second year Porsche bacically backed out of the championship for fear of the investment needed to beat Acura. Now the HPD can lap the leMans at the same speed as the Porsche even though the ARX01c has a much smaller restrictor. (2010 restrictors are smaller than 2009).

[old man]

Originally Posted by dj4monie

Let's be honest, is it any surprise? We saw the car's pace at Sebring. The reason they even HAD a chance is because they were not giving time away by having His Lordship in the car. As it was, they were not able to eek out enough of a lead to come in for their final stop and put enough fuel in to make it to the finish and stay ahead of Highcroft.

The safety car cost them, I am told they had a 26 second lead when it came out but that is something that has to be factored in somehow, you are always at risk of safety car intervention. Running the bio fuel seems to cause them to have to carry more fuel and so it takes longer to fill the larger tank. This is where they will have to put some development I suppose.

I agree about the downside of LPD but it is his train set and it will now depend on how much he wants to win as a team or as an individual

[the real Stig]

So here's a thought, perhaps LPD wasn't injured and this was a gentle climb down, some sort of experiment to see how well the team could do without him? Where of course the car actually stayed on the track, was really fast and didn't get broken.

[NightStalk3r]

The Lordship certainly isn't lacking in funds to run a 2nd car if he wanted too.

[dj4monie]

Originally Posted by the real Stig

the car is completly different, it really only shares the tooling for the tub. That is to say that once the tub is out the mould it's machined and bult to a different spec to the LC75. All the body pannels, the suspension and even the gearbox are custom. The front and rear body are even quick release like the Audi, somthing the LC75 isn't. interestingly the nose this weekend was new, a kind of hybrid of the 24 and the Sebring. Note the lack of turning vanes but the large (some what dull) front lights and the inward fender vents on the front.
Also remember when the car was closer to a LC75 that Porsche put Acura in a world of hurt, but by the end of the second year Porsche bacically backed out of the championship for fear of the investment needed to beat Acura. Now the HPD can lap the leMans at the same speed as the Porsche even though the ARX01c has a much smaller restrictor. (2010 restrictors are smaller than 2009).

Oh I realize that, its 95% Wirth Engineering at this point.

I wouldn't say Porsche backed out of it, they released low drag bodywork for the cars at Le Mans in 2007. They brought in the DFI engine mid-season 2008 and still were making changes because Dyson didn't have many of those changes (the ones that were made public anyway) and he was running the same car. This was Porsche yet again giving favor to the factory supported efforts over the customers.

But ALMS was slow to react to this, clearly there was chance for the Penske contract to be renewed but when uncertainty was the rule of the day regarding LMP regulations here and in Europe, Porsche opted not to renew the contract with Penske for the ALMS. This really impacted Season 2009 and now 2010.

Without any direct competition, HPD pulled up stakes and let's be honest with Mazda's (AER) track record, I wouldn't consider them direct competition either.

How many engine failures at critical moments in a race???

[dj4monie]

Originally Posted by old man

The safety car cost them, I am told they had a 26 second lead when it came out but that is something that has to be factored in somehow, you are always at risk of safety car intervention. Running the bio fuel seems to cause them to have to carry more fuel and so it takes longer to fill the larger tank. This is where they will have to put some development I suppose.

I agree about the downside of LPD but it is his train set and it will now depend on how much he wants to win as a team or as an individual

I am aware of the last safety car period, but its about when your make your last stop in relation to everything else. They had to come in when they did from as far as I can tell. They opted not to do a timed fill, which might have shorten their time in the pits.

As I understand it, IMSA has increased the tank size but also increased flow from the refueling rig, so it really shouldn't take any longer than it does for regular gas powered cars.

This will be a moot point fairly soon as it looks like the entire paddock will be switching to E85.

I'm sure everybody realizes all these rich men who decide to drive the cars they own have every right to do so. That doesn't make it right however as fans to be subjected to "What Could Have Been".

The #45 had two unscheduled pit stops, finished 6th and lost the point lead. Could the #44 have picked up the slack considering the problems with the Falken car? I thought winning these Manufacture Championships were the most important thing in GT?

With 1 competitive Porsche, 2 Corvette, 3 BMW and possibly 3 Ferrari (as the lead Extreme is improving all the time) if continued funding can be found for the #61. The Falken car is competitive but its fairly early to expect them to challenge for victory just yet, I think if the Championship gets tight, a 3rd FL will appear...

[dj4monie]

Originally Posted by the real Stig

So here's a thought, perhaps LPD wasn't injured and this was a gentle climb down, some sort of experiment to see how well the team could do without him? Where of course the car actually stayed on the track, was really fast and didn't get broken.

Whatever the case is, if they really wanna have a chance to beat Highcroft for a Championship especially with last 3 events being on the fastest tracks in the series, its something he'll have to consider deeply. They can't afford to give any points away if you assume Highcroft will have the car to beat at Lime Rock for sure and Mid-Ohio for sure.

I just don't believe the Porsche will falter and as long as they keep it on the black stuff, Muscle Milk will keep Highcroft honest. Dyson's reliability issues are really a problem now, two DNF's don't sound too bad and they can thank their lucky stars Intersport can't get its act together long enough to be on the podium that they aren't further back at this point.

If LPD wants to really make this a race to the championship, he'll have to step aside, especially if he can afford a 2nd car like Nightstalker says, he can surely afford to put Pirro in the car for the balance of the season and draft Rob Bell back in for Petit.

[TWK]

Originally Posted by the real Stig

So here's a thought, perhaps LPD wasn't injured and this was a gentle climb down, some sort of experiment to see how well the team could do without him? Where of course the car actually stayed on the track, was really fast and didn't get broken.

Why concoct a complicated theory for something that can be demonstrated quite adequately by lap times. Drayson was "x seconds" off the class pace. It didn't take an "experiment" to determine that Pirro would not be.

[JAG]

Drayson has talked about a 2 car team and links with technical and commercial partners.

[dj4monie]

Originally Posted by JAG

Drayson has talked about a 2 car team and links with technical and commercial partners.

Unlikely to appear before Petit Le Mans if at all in 2010, more likely 2011.