Random Thoughts... [Automotive Edition]

marcos_eirik said:
It's not that unheard of, from the top of my head I know of a few Porsches that has won their class (and even the race outright) on their first attempt; The 936 won it's class as well as taking the outright win in 1976. The 956 and 962 did the same thing in 1982 and 1986 respectively. The completely re-engineered 911 GT1 did it in 1998. Also, the RS Spyder dominated the LMP2 class on it's first outing at Le Mans in 2008.
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Yes, but in the last 40 years, I think you'd find it almost unheard of for a manufacturer to win class or overall at their first try at Le Mans. Not a new car (that happens regularly) but a new-to-LM-manufacturer with a new car, on their very first attempt?

I can't find a single other maker in the post war era, except for Ferrari in 1949, to ever manage that.
 
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Nabster said:
Say I was bored and wanted to be a bit ridiculous with my Grand Prix. Would a full body vinyl wrapping with some strange pattern be too far out there?
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Do the BMW camo wrap. See if it shows up on any car sites as a spy photo for something.
 
I type corrected, then - I'd thought I remembered them running in 94 and failing, but I guess I was wrong. Just looked through the list again and there doesn't seem to be anyone else.

On the other hand, McLaren wasn't totally new to LeMans, having consulted with companies on earlier Le Mans cars. As far as I know, Honda's never been there before and they didn't provide their expertise to other LM entrants prior to this race.
 
Forgot to post these earlier; I couldn't figure out where to put these, so I'm just going to put them here.

US pickups are often used to haul some large and unusual loads.
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Hey, hey, it's some hay. Hay doing 70mph, that is.
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If you respond to a Craigslist ad for a man selling a Mercedes coup? for cheap and this is what his house looks like, chances are pretty good you won't like the Mercedes much.
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Chances are also pretty good that it will have bullet holes.
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Yeah....
 
That's got to be exactly like driving a piece of spaghetti, or a car with a two-axis hinge in the middle.
 
Spectre said:
Forgot to post these earlier; I couldn't figure out where to put these, so I'm just going to put them here.

US pickups are often used to haul some large and unusual loads.
IMG_6231.JPG
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Hmm, wonder if that cargo is secured properly with loading straps....? :lol:
 
EyeMWing said:
Do the BMW camo wrap. See if it shows up on any car sites as a spy photo for something.
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That's brilliant. I was thinking perhaps an over the top full carbon fiber skin (which looks surprisingly realistic aside from the extra waviness) or just a ridiculous wallpaper, but the full camo would be great. :lol:
 
Spectre said:
On the other hand, McLaren wasn't totally new to LeMans, having consulted with companies on earlier Le Mans cars. As far as I know, Honda's never been there before and they didn't provide their expertise to other LM entrants prior to this race.
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I seem to remember seeing in the 1994-95 reviews Hondas at Le Mans, particularly variants of the NSX ran in GT1 and GT2. Kremer Racing ran them in '94, '95 might have been a semi-works or even full factory effort. Although they didn't provide any expertise to any entrants in recent years, they certainly took French expertise, the ARX-01 tub is (totally, not basically) a Courage LC75 tub, with a Honda/HPD engine bolted in the back and draped in new bodywork designed by Wirth Research.

Highcroft Racing's chassis, according to RacingSportsCars.com, is a tub ran by Oreca in 2008 in LMP1, given to them as a spare for Petit Le Mans, and then ran in 2009 in Europe again in LMP1 by Signature-Plus.
 
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The ARX-01 isn't really a new car, what is it, three years old now? There was also the notable absence of the RS Spyders.
 
Twerp128 said:
The ARX-01 isn't really a new car, what is it, three years old now?
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The base LC70/LC75 Courage started off in 2006, the ARX-01 bodywork first rolled out in '07.

There was also the notable absence of the RS Spyders.
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Only Cytosport are running them in the ALMS now, and nobody in the LMS, factory support for it has pretty much ceased, so it's going to quickly fade out of competitiveness.
 
Twerp128 said:
The ARX-01 isn't really a new car, what is it, three years old now? There was also the notable absence of the RS Spyders.
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Blame the ACO and their crippling of it. It was too good of a car and a threat to the Peugeot so the FIA and ACO banned it in 24LM and LMS.
 
argatoga said:
Blame the ACO and their crippling of it. It was too good of a car and a threat to the Peugeot so the FIA and ACO banned it in 24LM and LMS.
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Sorry, but it was never competitive to challenge for overally wins on the long straights of Le Mans, not with a 3.4 liter engine against the diesels, the 5.5 liter Judd V10s and the AM V12; in 2008 the winner ran 381 laps, the P2 winning RS Spyder 354. People ran them very succesfully in terms of LMP2 in the LMS in 2008, the leading RS Spyder always in the top 8 overall, but at the end of the year Porsche ceased factory support of it (Penske stopped running them at the end of '08 and that was that).

It may have been "crippled" by having to run to the exact same regs as the other European P2 cars, but it was still far and away much faster than all of them by several seconds a lap. In the ALMS the cars generally got weight and restrictor breaks, and coupled with their handling, meant that on tight tracks they were able to give Audi headaches. On wide open tracks, the RS Spyder doesn't really stand a chance against big P1 cars, both diesel and petrol.
 
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