Borrowing from dailysportscar.com, we note with cynicism that Peugeot's technical director makes the claim that the gasoline powered cars actually have an advantage within the regulations.
Here's the full quote:
"The diesels are heavier, have much more of their weight to the back of the car, have different cooling needs and systems and all of this means making some major compromises. The conventional petrol powered cars are capable of much better performance as the regulations currently stand."
Heavier? LMP1 regulations state all cars must weigh 925 kgs., whether powered by gasoline or diesel. I'll agree there's a weight distribution discrepancy and cooling differences. But these "compromises" are more than made up for by the torque and power advantage. Frankly if I were a gas powered competitor I'd be begging for the diesel's "problems".
I'll end by saying that the ACO put the diesel regulations out there and Peugeot and Audi built cars to those rules having the option to do either. They shrewdly went diesel knowing full well that the balance of advantage/disadvantage was weighted in their favor. Audi and Peugeot certainly didn't make their decision hoping to be the underdog. To make asinine comments like the one above really smells of pandering, especially as we look at the times from the Nurburgring Le Mans Endurance Series event and the Peugeot 908 has 3.2 seconds in hand over the 3rd placed gas powered Lola B07/17 of Charouz Racing. I guess that's not enough? This is more saber rattling, Audi got their way in the American Le Mans Series and now Peugeot is playing politics with the ACO, hoping to cut them off at the pass of the proposed 2008 regulations changes that will (hopefully--we thought the ACO would have been mature enough to do that for this year) address the extraordinary performance offset. When you're rich you can't be rich enough I guess.
We'll end with Hugh Chamberlain, again from dailysportscar.com, interviewed at this weekend's Le Mans event at Nurburgring:
"It keeps on happening – yet here there are more LMP1s than ever before, but they’ll disappear if they don’t do something about the diesels. You wouldn’t have a race here without the privateers."
For years the sanctioning bodies have ignored the privateers yet it is on their efforts alone that sportscar racing has been sustained. Look at the perseverance of Dyson, Courage, Pescarolo, etc. Though after a while you have to sort of ask yourself why they are still here? They can't be solely responsible for the sport forever, yet the sanctioning bodies take them for granted.