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Originally Posted by isynge
It does rather boil down to the question as to whether the 2006 Pescarolo that appeared at Le Mans in June was the ultimate expression of what a petrol powered new-regs LMP1 can do. I don't think it is, and I don't think Henri thinks so either. Professional as his outfit is, the fact that they do all their aero work on a runway rather than a windtunnel sums up the disparity in resources quite neatly.
Given the debate so far, my feeling is that the rules are skewed in favour of diesels at present, but as I've said before in this thread - has the sky fallen in? Probably not...
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The nice thing with Henri's runway testing though, is a) it's real scale (with real downforce/speed/drag data; and b) has a real person in the car who can provide feedback (like the inlet between the headrests buffets the drivers head too much).
The Radical too never saw a wind-tunnel, but was pretty good out the box. I think Peter's quotes in relation to the Bentley were "it was 95% off the drawing board and then 98% once it had been in the tunnel".
I suspect that the '07 Pesca will be faster, especially with the new Evo 5.5 Judd, but the disparity will still be there. The dataset that was originally presented to the ACO was "skewed" because of a potential engine contract that might have happened
However, Audi need to sell cars, I don't begrudge them or Peugeot from their activities. Personally, I still would rather hear engines scream and have David challenge Goliath - LeMans will still be a magic place.