2009 Le Mans/LMS/ALMS Thread

Did Audi make a promotional video for the R15 as they did with the R10 ?
 
The Audi R15 looks like a beast which will eat his competitors. :twisted:
 
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSb5kto5Vo0[/YOUTUBE]
Aston Martin LMP1 & Audi R15 - The beauty & the beast.
 
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anyone else catch the special on speed channel about acura's lmp1 development.

interviews with the drivers and amazing shots of the car development and technology and great shots of sebring and homestead.


and taken from another forum where a guy is trackside.

"Both Audis and one of the Pugeots (08) worked out today -- on track at the same time for the most part. The Audis looked faster but I have no times for any of the sessions as they appeared to be just shaking the cars down.
There was some white smoke coming out of the #1 Audi in the pits for a time, they took the bonnet off and worked underneath for a while and the car subsequently ran well without incident.
The open front and large louvers on the side give it the appearance of a huge, fast land shark.
Peugeot did not appear to make the time the Audis did, however, they also appeared to be simply learning the track. "

i wish aston martin was bringing their LMP1 to do battle. :(
 
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This race will mark the return of the ambivalent GP drivers... a.k.a. F1 drivers that do sportscar racing during a F1 season when the schedules don't clash. Case in point, Sebastien Bourdais.
 
With all this testing going on does anyone have any lap times to report? I am really interested to see where the pace of the 908, R15 and the new acura are at.
 
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/73737

Audi dominates first Sebring test

By Matt Beer Tuesday, March 17th 2009, 05:28 GMT

Dindo Capello, Audi R15, Sebring testAudi's new R15 TDI made a stunning debut on the first day of official testing for the Sebring 12 Hours, comfortably out-pacing rivals Peugeot and Acura on Monday.

The No.2 R15 of Allan McNish, Tom Kristensen and Dindo Capello lapped in 1m43.596s, half a second quicker than team-mates Marco Werner, Lucas Luhr and Mike Rockenfeller, and 1.406s clear of Sebastien Bourdais and Stephane Sarrazin in the best of the evenly-matched Peugeots.

While both Audi and Peugeot had already taken part in private tests at the track over the weekend, Acura did not start running until the official opening day yesterday. The De Ferran Motorsports car was fifth, within a tenth of a second of the two Peugoets, and 0.7s faster than the Highcroft Acura.

McNish said the new Audi already felt like a major step forward over its predecessor.

"It's the first time we've actually seen the Acura running and the updated Peugeot as well as us, so we've had the first feelings of relative performance, and the first feelings of the R15 on a circuit we know very well," he said.

"The car feels more agile, it feels more reactive, especially at high speed and through Turn 1, which is a very bumpy corner, it's more stable than the R10 was. We're actually going through there a gear higher.

"We've got a better response from the engine as well. I think the V10 being a bit shorter and lighter is allowing the chassis to be more agile in the other parts of the circuit.

"Performance-wise, what we've seen to date is that we're a little bit ahead of Peugeot on short runs and also on long runs. Acura are very early in their running because they didn't run on Saturday, so I think we've got to wait until Tuesday or Wednesday to see their full potential."

Highcroft driver Brabham is expecting the diesel teams to be tough to beat this weekend.

"We have a steep mountain to climb against Audi and Peugeot here this weekend but we are up for the challenge," he said.

"It is a step by step process for us. The car is getting more and more reliable and we only had one small issue this morning. Having a trouble free run is the key thing we need to focus on."

The No.16 Dyson Lola-Mazda of Andy Lally, Chris Dyson and Guy Smith was the only LMP2 car to run on the first day, lapping 7s slower than the Audis.

FIA GT regular Advanced Engineering set the fastest time in GT2 with its Ferrari, which boasts Gianmaria Bruni on its driving strength for this event, ahead of the No.87 Farnbacher Loles Porsche and Risi's two Ferraris. The new Rahal Letterman BMWs were 1.3s off the pace on day one.

"We are still doing some development, and that is going along nicely," said BMW driver Dirk Muller. "There is no grip yet this early in the week."
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Bad news... The R15 is ultra-quick straight out of the box.
 
vikiradTG2007 said:
Bad news... The R15 is ultra-quick straight out of the box.
Click to expand...

Sebring is a track where the R15 and the 908 should be faster than the smaller displacement acura. Considering the acura is only 0.2 seconds off the pace of the 908 I would wager on a tighter track the acura would be faster than the 908 and perhaps the R15. I still think its too early to tell though, those times may not be that fair since we have no idea of tire choice, tire wear or fuel load.

Edit: The R15 is 1.4 seconds a lap faster than a 908, that's a lot faster......
 
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Well it looks like the 908 made a comeback lapping at a 1:44.5! Like I said earlier not all times directly correlate to how fast the car really will be on race day. The acuras did a 1:45.7 while the R15 did a 1:45.6 basically things are going to be interesting.


Edit:
Is anyone racing in P2 other than mazda/Lola? I feel slightly out of the loop. I knew the RS was no longer getting backing, but I figured some team would be running the P2 acura on some level.
 
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yeah. 1 acura lmp2 car

lowes fernandez will take on the mazdas
 
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Terrible3 said:
Thank god! I am looking forward to the battle between mazda and acura then. As a mazda owner you can probably guess who I am rooting for. :p
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Too bad Mazda isn't using a Wankel power plant.
 
Terrible3 said:
Thank god! I am looking forward to the battle between mazda and acura then. As a mazda owner you can probably guess who I am rooting for. :p
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as an acura owner you can probably goes who i am rooting for.

thats right.

corvette racing :lol::lol:
 
argatoga said:
Too bad Mazda isn't using a Wankel power plant.
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Yes and no. The current rules in P2 would not allow a Wankel power plant to be competitive. As much as I love the engine I think the current inline four turbo is a better move for mazda to be making. The mx5, mazda3, mazda5, mazda6, cx7, speed3 and speed6 all use inline fours and some of those examples turbocharged. From a engine development standpoint it just makes more sense to race the engine that powers most of your products. I do realize that the inline four in the lola has almost nothing in common with the production engines but they both use the same direct injection.
 
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