24 Hours of Le Mans Test

[Zytek_Fan]

what sort of advantage?

It takes the diesel a little while (a few seconds) to get up to the power and torque band...

BTW

GO AUDI!!!

[Zytek_Fan]

Audi made an encouraging start in their bid to take a diesel-powered car to the 2006 Le Mans 24 Hours title after both R10s emerged top in the first half of the opening day of testing.

With four hours of testing already completed, the #7 R10 of Rinaldo Capelli, Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish have set an early benchmark for the 12 strong LMP1 line-up, almost a second ahead of the #8 entry of Frank Biela, Emmanuele Pirro and Marco Werner.

However, Audi have not quite managed to romp away from the competition, with the two Pescarolos only just over a second behind on the 13.650km circuit. Currently Eric Helary and Super Aguri F1 driver Franck Montagny lead the way, just ahead of Le Mans Series leaders Christophe Boucht, Emanuele Collard and Erik Comas.

Creation, Courage and Zytek were also in the mix in fifth, sixth and seventh, just ahead of the leading LMP2 runner of Tommy Erdos and Mike Newton in the RML car. They currently sit in eighth place, some six seconds clear of their nearest rival Intersport.

Aston Martin drew first blood in their intense battle with Corvette Racing, with the appropriately named #007 DBR9 of Tomas Enge and Andrea Piccini over two second clear of Oliver Gavin, Olivier Beretta and Jan Magnussen's Chevrolet.

Unsurprisingly it was one of the ten Porsches that came out top in the GT2 class, with Johannes van Overbeek, Seth Niemen and Marc Lieb claiming the fastest time for Flying Lizard, ahead of the IMSA Perf. Matmut 911 and, encouragingly, the Scuderia Ecosse Ferrari and the first of the two Spykers.

Two red flags marred the session, with the first coming courtesy of the #77 Multimatic Panoz which dropped some oil on the circuit, leaving the Canadian team busy changing the engine on the Esperante.

However, the biggest stoppage was for repairing the barrier at Tertre Rouge ‘S' following Angel Burgueno's crash in the Chamberlain Lola AER. While he was unhurt, the lengthy repair time took some 45 minutes out from the running of the session.

The second half of the session is now underway with Emanuele Collard having already topped Audis original fastest time. Full report will follow at the climax of the session later this evening.

[Zytek_Fan]

For timesheets
http://www.lemans.org/24heuresdumans...hronos_gb.html

[Zytek_Fan]

Timesheet divided into their categories
http://www.lemans.org/24heuresdumans...est_18hcla.pdf

[henk4]

It takes the diesel a little while (a few seconds) to get up to the power and torque band...

that is a very strange statement, the advantage of diesels is that they reach the max torque band much earlier than petrol engines..... And btw why do you think gearboxes have been invented???

[Zytek_Fan]

that is a very strange statement, the advantage of diesels is that they reach the max torque band much earlier than petrol engines..... And btw why do you think gearboxes have been invented???

Okay, okay I had a bit of a misunderstanding.

[DasModell]

the Audis will just drive fast enough, they will need less stops and going too fast will attract the interest of the regulators which may want to change the requirements for diesel powered engines.

I see that Montigny is now fastest,....

they won't change anything untill after Pug comes in ..

regarding the Audi .. it seems like it's a monster on the straights
for now they seem to have a similar pace to the Pesca cars .. the key will be as usual . reliability .. and we cant be sure the R10 is bulletproof yet .. it's not the Panzer that the R8 was .. not yet anyway ..


the only real disadvantage .. it's weight i belive . they had problems getting it to 925kilos

[Zytek_Fan]

Spyker Squadron is doing a lot better this year.

All the Mugen powered cars have had problems, mostly electronics problems.

[DasModell]

Gounon did fairly well . 3m33.5 .. not bad at all .

[RacingManiac]

Top of the charts are Pesca for LMP1, RML for LMP2, Aston for GT1 and Scuderia Ecosse for GT2....

Fastest Top speed is the RFH Dome at 330kph, followed by Pesca at 329. The R10 hit 324, but supposedly hits that a lot faster.

Pesca did the time 3:30.195 with qualifying tire. No one know what R10 was using. I personally won't be surprised if comes the race the R10 is faster.....there might still be sandbagging going on, maybe still for rest of the year as well, we won't know until Peugoet shows their diesel monster next year....

FYI, Creation hit 322kph vs Zytek hits 320kph....fender size difference...

[Zytek_Fan]

There probably will be a good fight between RML, Rollcentre, and Intersport this year

[Zytek_Fan]

The Chamberlain Synergy Lola B05/40 was severely damaged in an accident, and it is expected to take about a week to fix.

[F1_Master]

I'm sorry if I sound like an idiot, but is there any news of the Murcielago R-GTs that are currently running in the Super GT?

I just finished watching Round 1 (where Lamborghini took its 1st Japan Racing win btw! ) of the Super GT, and commentator reported that both R-GTs were going to qualify for LeMans.

[Zytek_Fan]

I'm sorry if I sound like an idiot, but is there any news of the Murcielago R-GTs that are currently running in the Super GT?

I just finished watching Round 1 (where Lamborghini took its 1st Japan Racing win btw! ) of the Super GT, and commentator reported that both R-GTs were going to qualify for LeMans.

Only one made it. The Japanese Lamborghini Owner's Club (JLOC) one. It isn't fairing too well though...

[F1_Master]

Only one made it. The Japanese Lamborghini Owner's Club (JLOC) one. It isn't fairing too well though...

Was it the Akito(sp?) or white one? I know they were going for a 1-2 finish, but the black failed and ended up 5th in the GT300.

It'd be nice if Lamborghini would back these cars though. I know they recently introduced an updated R-GT, but it probably isn't fairing too well either.

I also noticed, over the years, the number of Saleens has come down.