*Race Thread*.... Penultimate Round of the ALMS....Petit Le Mans Oct. 1-4, 08

[The Badger]

lol ..... I was refering to the diesels ..... and im sticking to that story too

[WMUCarGuy]

There's a story on DSC of post-race notes from Petit which mentions something about Dyson's 09 plans. What does the article say?

[NightStalk3r]

It says they may not be back next year with Porsche, but its not from Dyson themselves, more of a rumour.

[gwyllion]

PETIT LE MANS: Radar Trap Speeds

[gwyllion]

Amusing video: battle for the lead

[knighty]

any news on the #30 intersport Lola-Judd?.....just saw the crash on youtube, man it got totally mashed. is the car a write-off or fixable?.......I bet Intersport are due a fair few Lola parts for both cars, as they wrecked the other chassis at the race before.

did their evaluation of the 5.5 Judd engine come to anything?.......I kept an eye on the times and I must say I think the 4.0 AER motor out performed all the 5.5 Judds by about 2 seconds per lap, but I'm happy to conceed all the 5.5 Judd cars were either new to a team, or teams from europe, so they were learning.........did I hear the #30 intersport that got mangled was on Khumos?......if so why?

[Panoz Max]

Originally Posted by WMUCarGuy

There's a story on DSC of post-race notes from Petit which mentions something about Dyson's 09 plans. What does the article say?

While at Petit I overheard Chris Dyson being interviewed. When asked about what they would be running next year his only response was their intention was to be in the ALMS. When asked a more direct question to whether or not they would be back with Porsche and or a new car he responded again with a slight chuckle the same response. Just thought it was funny yet interesting too....P.M.

[SebringMG]

Yeah i was very interested to see how quickly the LNT Ginetta-Zytek ran at times - much faster consistently than ANY of the other P1 petrol runners!

The 4.0 AER is probably better suited to Road Atlanta than the 5.5 Judd i would think with a pretty impressive torque band compared to the Judd which i would think is probably better suited to LM (lower drag if nothing else).

Creation were disappointing imo - generally slow and the implied setup problems of the Creation chassis seem likely! While i applaud building and running your own chassis at some point the lack of results would suggest they will be binned and a chassis brought in, may be under pressure from AIM ?

[Dario911]

Originally Posted by arakis

Always these excuses,

I mean, do they concentrate on building cars that are suposed to win races at Porsche, or are they puting all their efforts into thinking up excuses why they were plain slower,

the risi car didnt only catch up the 45 lizard car, but 87 and 46 too, it was over a second faster all the time, then all of them and overtook them all on track during green racing, while the porsches only lead the race becouse of better full course coution strategies.

Alrom start to finish.l 3 porsche cars had Works drivers, did all of them have problems during the whole race, becouse Risi car was the fastest car during the whole race.

Watch what's happened in the previous races, and tell me if Ferraris were ever faster than Porsches.
In Le Mans, Porsche were 1"5 faster than the fastest Ferrari. In the last GT Open we have dominated the race. In the first races of ALMS we have lost some wins because of the strategy and some safety cars played a good role for Ferrari.
And you came here to say this?!
You win championships with car, strategy, team and drivers. Lizard and Porsche has been clearly superior this year. They've been consistent in all the races, and the results are here to show this.
Sorry, but you have to accept this.

[zac510]

SebringMG, I think the pace of the LNT car is down to the Michelins - the other LMP1 petrol cars being on Dunlops, reputed to be quite a bit slower.

[knighty]

Originally Posted by SebringMG

Yeah i was very interested to see how quickly the LNT Ginetta-Zytek ran at times - much faster consistently than ANY of the other P1 petrol runners!

The 4.0 AER is probably better suited to Road Atlanta than the 5.5 Judd i would think with a pretty impressive torque band compared to the Judd which i would think is probably better suited to LM (lower drag if nothing else).

Creation were disappointing imo - generally slow and the implied setup problems of the Creation chassis seem likely! While i applaud building and running your own chassis at some point the lack of results would suggest they will be binned and a chassis brought in, may be under pressure from AIM ?

you beat me to it, yeah the LNT 4.5 Zytek was flying, to be honest I'm not up to speed on tyres, but find it believable that Michelins have the edge, what with with Audi and Peugeots help. Would be interesting to see if the 4.5 Zytek motor will end up in the back of any other cars?........even so, I still think the AER 4.0 motor is well suited to the ALMS, and I believe Intersport now realise this, as I got the impression they were wondering about a 5.5 Judd, and re-considering their position with AER, but now wont bother.......... like you say a nice wide and tall torque band will launch it out of most corners........to my knowledge the 5.5 Judd only has 670Nm of torque, whereas the AER 4.0 is pushing 800Nm - well worth having.

[SebringMG]

Being on Dunlops has not hindered the Creations during the LMS season quite so badly as happened at Road Atlanta - also Essex ran Dunlops and they could run pace wise with VM (within 1/2 to 1 sec generally and some of that difference would be between Jos and the drivers of the Essex car imo).

I think it is a cumulative effect of tyres, chassis, engine, drivers not being as good as the package LNT put out - worth noticing the Corsa car was significantly slower than LNT. Corsa were on Dunlops but then the Corsa drivers are not used to the Zytek and ffrankly are not in the same class (imo) as Watts and Pla.

[JHamilton]

Originally Posted by SebringMG

Corsa were on Dunlops but then the Corsa drivers are not used to the Zytek and ffrankly are not in the same class (imo) as Watts and Pla.

I think it's more of the former than the latter, not to mention they were using the older engine...


Wonderful event again this year. ALMS and Road Atlanta did a terrific job and the weather was spectacular. This year was jinxed by all of the shunts. I never seen anything like the carnage that ensued from the first practice session to the endo of the race and it leaves me wondering what the cause was. We've had much worse conditions and more cars on track. The speeds are higher and it was extremely dusty this year.

[Hugewally]

Keep in mind it was the first race with the Zytek for the Corsa team too...

[prototype]

Did we ever find out why the Corsa Zytek went off at turn 12? The last I heard is it could have been the left front going flat.

I never heard the interview with Stefan.

[chocmonster7]

Stefan said he felt something snap on the left front which meant the car wouldn't turn in. Later Johnny said that all the tyres were still inflated.

Can't agree with SebringMG about the drivers of the Corsa car not being in the same class as Watts & Pla though. Johansson, Mowlem & Jeanette have a lot more experience and hustled a car up to the front which is a much older spec.

[The359]

Regarding Intersport's AER vs Judd, don't forget that the Judd car was also running the Kumho tires, which are still a bit of an unknown, and that only one of the drivers had previously driven a Lola like that before.

[tux]

They should choose the judd as it sounds better

[prototype]

I agree that Johansson, Mowlem & Jeanette are as strong as Watts and Pla.

I think all 5 are good drivers, Johansson being the one to get the car into the most trouble and Jeannette maybe being the slowest.

Watts was impressive the the LMP2 Zytek last year at Petit.

[Duff_44]

Originally Posted by Panoz Max

While at Petit I overheard Chris Dyson being interviewed. When asked about what they would be running next year his only response was their intention was to be in the ALMS. When asked a more direct question to whether or not they would be back with Porsche and or a new car he responded again with a slight chuckle the same response. Just thought it was funny yet interesting too....P.M.

He might not know himself what 2009 holds...

[cmk]

Gunnar Jeanette may not be quite on the pace of the others in a prototype, and Mowlem is probably a little inexperienced in prototypes too, while Johansson is accident-prone (though this was not his fault). Despite all this, and the obvious talent of Watts and Pla, I believe that the reason's for Corsa's slower pace are tyres, team inexperience, and the smaller engine. The order in which those are placed is uncertain. Certainly their restricted practice due to accidents in practice can't have helped either. That said, they had a creditable debut with Mowlem making good speed in his mid-race stint.

I really wonder why Intersport was evaluating both engines and tyres at the same time on their two cars. That is crummy science - you can't prove a hypothesis when changing two variables simultaneously. The increased pace of the Judd would be masked by the performance of the Kumhos. Of course, now it once again remains to be seen whether they have two cars anymore...

[gsmith2424]

Yes but remember who stole the spot light during the last hour or so of the 2003 24 hrs of Le Mans, Gunnar. He did one of the best jobs of using a car that was slower than those he was racing to hold them off and end up finishing the best of the non Audi class that year in the Panoz.

[fieldodreams79]

Originally Posted by tux

They should choose the judd as it sounds better

i would agree with you until after this weekend...the twin Turbo AER sounds wonderfully nasty, especially under braking.

[JHamilton]

Originally Posted by fieldodreams79

i would agree with you until after this weekend...the twin Turbo AER sounds wonderfully nasty, especially under braking.

I was about to reply the same. They have quieted the Judd to the point that it doesn't sound like anything anymore. The AER sounded pretty sweet on acceleration as well.

[JHamilton]

Originally Posted by cmk

I really wonder why Intersport was evaluating both engines and tyres at the same time on their two cars. That is crummy science - you can't prove a hypothesis when changing two variables simultaneously. The increased pace of the Judd would be masked by the performance of the Kumhos. Of course, now it once again remains to be seen whether they have two cars anymore...

I really don't think an evaluation was intentionally set up. They had no time to change engines and they get Kumhos on the cheap... I know for a fact Intersport knows the Dunlops are better than the Kumhos.