Roar before the Rolex 24

[BullMan]

Originally Posted by ACFlinn

I'm not saying it couldn't happen (look what Rocketsports accomplished with their tube frame Trans-Am Jaguar at the Rolex24 in 2002), but has a PC car ever finished a 24-hour endurance race?

Andy Flinn

You know the answer, considering there has not been a 24 hour race held that allowed LMPC cars to enter.

As for the Jag, when he finally tried to build an actual car, he failed miserably.

[Canada ALMS fan]

Originally Posted by ACFlinn

I'm not saying it couldn't happen (look what Rocketsports accomplished with their tube frame Trans-Am Jaguar at the Rolex24 in 2002), but has a PC car ever finished a 24-hour endurance race?

Andy Flinn

They are very under-stressed so it wouldn't be impossible. Fuel mileage could come into play too. Not my theory, just passing it along.

[truebeliever]

Originally Posted by JoeMaters

Hope those Mazda's aren't showing them full speed cause for now, they are slow as hell....

Hmmmm, perhaps they are!

To be honest they were slow engines in the GT class if I remember correctly. From what I understand from people who should know, the Mazda diesel engine in race spec, turbo chargers and all, is really down on power and clearly nowhere near the figures they claim it has. Can't be becaues of the chassis it's in......2 different types of car front engine V rear = same result by the looks.

[Lagunaseca_4life]

According to tremblay From a Marshall pruett article, the mazdas suffered the same driveshaft failure as before in gx so the changed to stronger parts apparently to strong and started breaking things in the transmission, so they are learning

“We had two failures that we've had before in the driveline,” he told RACER. “This one (the 07) is easy and it's going back together right now. The other one will take more work. We had some driveline issues in testing, so we went to stronger parts to keep them from breaking, and now they're too strong and won't absorb the torque without damaging things inside the gearbox. So we're preparing a new gearbox with a lighter input shaft and tapered driveshafts that should absorb the shock a lot better. This is a big learning experience with this program, and we're here learning as fast as we can. It's part of the process.”

Also In one of dagys Mazda articles he mentions getting a bigger restrictor, so it should have more power so hopfully they get more speed.if not we'll have two cautions repeatedly.

[Stephen Green]

Will you lot please calm down before it ends in a slanging match. It it too early in the new year to start wielding the big stick but if you persist then I will.

Thank you in advance and a happy new year everyone

[Rodger Davies]

Lanky Turtle, just watched those videos of yours twice; thanks for sharing, the scenes in the paddock in particular are favourites.

[Breitling24]

Another comment on Lanky Turtle's video, Thanks, first off. Job well done.
I have to say, FLM livery works rather well on the R8. Also, the new Ganasty liveries look pretty cool, too.

[jasonjessica09]

The top GTD cars in the Roar down into the 1 min 47's. Regularly in the 1 min 48's. Wow I'm impressed. This class is no joke. They are moving. The fastest 'slowest' class I've ever seen. For the race qualifying, I bet GTLM pole will be in the 44's. GTD could get into the 46's?

[Lanky Turtle]

Thanks guys, glad you liked the videos.

In regards to the race, any of the Corvette DP's have to be the clear favorites at this point. The new Ford engine is not proving to be reliable and that is not good going into a 24 hour race.

Hopefully the Mazdas get things sorted out later in the year but right now I can only see them running slow and breaking at the 24, regardless of what performance upgrades they are allowed.

I'm really surprised to see the Oak and Muscle Milk Nissans being outperformed by the ESM HPDs, after Nissan dominated P2 at Le Mans last year, but I'm not counting out either team.

I don't think we'll really know what everyone has until qualifying, or maybe not until the green flag drops.

[CyberMotor]

Originally Posted by Lanky Turtle

I don't think we'll really know what everyone has until qualifying, or maybe not until the green flag drops.

...or maybe not until the checkered flag

[Accident]

During the 2010 season, I believe it was said in an interview for an article or maybe during the Petit Le Mans broadcast that the Jeanette LMPC ran the whole season up until Petit on the same motor, but admitted it was feeling a bit tired at that point.

I expect that most of the LMPC DNFs to come at the hands of a gentleman driver rather than a mechanical failure.

[Danathar]

Anybody have predictions as to the BoP adjustments post the roar? I'd guess they might slow down the DP's a little. I'm not sure they can do much to speed the P2's up any more at the moment.

[Coach Ep]

Originally Posted by jasonjessica09

The top GTD cars in the Roar down into the 1 min 47's. Regularly in the 1 min 48's. Wow I'm impressed. This class is no joke. They are moving. The fastest 'slowest' class I've ever seen. For the race qualifying, I bet GTLM pole will be in the 44's. GTD could get into the 46's?

Just as a reference, qualifying times from last year´s 24H:
DP #01 Ganassi Riley-BMW 1:40:553
GT #32 Konrad/Orbit Porsche 1:47:631

(from grand-am.com)

[Lagunaseca_4life]

Yea I noticed the dps going in hot, and the gtlm aston looked like it was diving in too, the RLL bmws going in together is awesome and then the good size pack of cars was also really cool.where you there last night during the night session, any pics or videos? Thanks for sharing.

I agree with the delta wing, seeing it last year at laguna during practice and qualifying made me a believer of the idea and design(not that exact car though, but the design yes.) when I saw it get all twitchy and loose at speed hitting the curbs or catching the gravel it would immediately get straight and take off like it never happened in corners where other cars would lose times or spin if it happened to them.

[Fogelhund]

Interesting to note that Muscle Milk was using the ACO spec restrictor for ROAR, instead of the 5% larger one allowed in the BoP announced Thursday. They just didn't have time to adjust, but that should close the gap in performance some.

[joeb]

Originally Posted by Fogelhund

Interesting to note that Muscle Milk was using the ACO spec restrictor for ROAR, instead of the 5% larger one allowed in the BoP announced Thursday. They just didn't have time to adjust, but that should close the gap in performance some.

I saw that and wondered if the rest of the P2 cars will making the adjustment or if the ESM cars were already running the larger restrictor.

[SALEEN S7R]

Originally Posted by Fogelhund

Interesting to note that Muscle Milk was using the ACO spec restrictor for ROAR, instead of the 5% larger one allowed in the BoP announced Thursday. They just didn't have time to adjust, but that should close the gap in performance some.

Good to hear, how much HP will that increase be roughly, 25-50bhp? The LMP2 cars are only really lacking top end speed and as you suggest the increase in the restrictor size will only help close the gap to the DP's which can only be a good thing.

[Ginaro Zukovsky]

Originally Posted by Fogelhund

Interesting to note that Muscle Milk was using the ACO spec restrictor for ROAR, instead of the 5% larger one allowed in the BoP announced Thursday. They just didn't have time to adjust, but that should close the gap in performance some.

It's strange because the restrictor in the 2012/3 BoP is 40mm and the 2014 BoP is 40.1mm, though the HPD is 30mm vs 30.8mm for this year. I don't know the WEC P2 BoP as it doesn't seem to be published anywhere, but I'm presuming IMSA copied it from the ACO when Conquest used their Nissan in 2012 and the ACO probably haven't changed it since.

[fieldodreams79]

Very interesting regarding Muscle Milk, but now we have to wait a bit to find out how much the larger restrictor helps.

[jasonjessica09]

I don't think the Level 5 LMPC cars ran at all? Is it a case where they have the car but no paying drivers. And that the cars are just there on stand by for the first arrive and drive customer?

[Zurbert82]

Dunno if this has been posted, but the combined times from all sessions are here:

http://imsatiming.com/Results/2014/T...ions%201-8.pdf

I was also looking at the trap speeds (CSV files here http://imsatiming.com/Results/2014/T...0in%20Daytona/) and saw some of the GTD cars were outpacing Muscle Milk, most likely due to the ACO restrictor on the Oreca Nissan. Some GTD's were around 183-184, and Muscle Milk was around 180. ESM and the DW were around 187-188. DP's were around 193-194.

[Maelochs]

Here is what I get as top speeds for the final session (Missing the four slowest and apologize for any errors)



Interesting here is that All the GTLMs are slower than almost all the GTDs; the PCs might as well not bother, they are the worst on the track; and the gap between DP and P2 is a ridiculous 6.5 mph. (Note #1 ESM (fastest P2) was 1.4 seconds slower than #90 SDR (fastest DP) in the final session, so the P2s are Not making it up in the infield.)

On the other hand, GTLM and PC were faster than all the GTDs on lap time.

[CyberMotor]

Originally Posted by Maelochs

Interesting here is that All the GTLMs are slower than almost all the GTDs; the PCs might as well not bother, they are the worst on the track; and the gap between DP and P2 is a ridiculous 6.5 mph. (Note #1 ESM (fastest P2) was 1.4 seconds slower than #90 SDR (fastest DP) in the final session, so the P2s are Not making it up in the infield.)

It appears that the script is working out as planned.

[The Badger]

Do you folks think they have managed to even up the times between DP and P2 ?

Someone is going to be screaming soon I think ..... but I sincerely hope not because it would be a disaster , felt for years .

[joeb]

Not concerned about top speeds and 1.5 second lap time differences right now. How many years did Audi win Le Mans without having the top speed of Peugeot?

No matter what the test, practice, or qualifying times say, they still have to run the race. For that there is no script.