2006 24 Hours of Le Mans

[gandini]

This seems to be the appropriate place to raise the issue of the 2006 LeMans race which will be held this Father's Day weekend. I have claimed the entire weekend for myself, to sit and watch the race, and see if those damned Audi engineers can do it again, but this time with a diesel!
I am a certified Audi GT prototype fan, even when they were called Bentleys! The R8 had an incredible run of great performances which gave Tom Kristensen all those wins to place him up amongst the absolute best endurance racers (with Ickx and Herbert and others.)
And I couldn't stand it if a Frenchy won LeMans. Just like it's been eons since a Frenchy won Le Tour de France, neither should they be allowed to win the premier motor race in the world!
Anyway, place your bets...
I'm for Tom Kristensen in the Audi R10 to win on Sunday afternoon.

[hollis3]

I am going to try to watch as much as possible!

[iDiaz]

My eyes will be glued to SPEED channel! Sucks, 'cause I'll be enjoying a payday beer binge the night before, and coverage starts at 6:30 AM Pacific. A schedule, for your convenience...

All times Pacific (GMT -8), starting on Saturday, 06/17/2006:

• 6:30AM-7:00AM: Le Mans Test Day
• 7:00AM-7:30AM: Le Mans Pre-Qualifying
• 7:30AM-12:00PM: 24 Hours of Le Mans - The Start
• 12:00PM-5:00PM: Ivan Passes Out On the Couch (NASCAR)
  
• 5:00PM-9:00PM: 24 Hours of Le Mans - Night into Day
• 9:00PM-3:00AM: 24 Hours of Le Mans - Day Racing
• 3:00AM-8:30AM: 24 Hours of LeMans - The Finish

[iDiaz]

Here's who I'll be rootin' for:

• LMP1: Audi Sport Team Joest - Audi R10

• LMP2: Intersport Racing - Lola AER

• GT1: Corvette Racing - Chevrolet Corvette C6-R

• GT2: Flying Lizard Motorsports - Porsche 911 GT3 RSR

[gandini]

Ivan: You're the man! But why an R8, when there will be R10s there? Those new diesels are bad to the bone...absolutely rocket science applied to a really simple, old, clunker idea. Only Audi would be *AUDACIOUS* enough to try to win LeMans with a diesel. They won Sebring, of course already, but it's the pleasure of beating the Frenchies that's so thrilling.
I like your other picks, even though I'd like to see a Ferrari beat a Porsche, just once.
My times are just 1 hour later than yours, being on Mountain time.
cheers,

[iDiaz]

Originally Posted by gandini

Ivan: You're the man! But why an R8, when there will be R10s there? Those new diesels are bad to the bone...absolutely rocket science applied to a really simple, old, clunker idea. Only Audi would be *AUDACIOUS* enough to try to win LeMans with a diesel. They won Sebring, of course already, but it's the pleasure of beating the Frenchies that's so thrilling.
I like your other picks, even though I'd like to see a Ferrari beat a Porsche, just once.
My times are just 1 hour later than yours, being on Mountain time.
cheers,

Whoa, bad typo! R10, indeed.



The ACO actually made a bunch of rule changes that wound up encouraging LMP race teams to use diesel:

Originally Posted by Audizine

The LM P1 category is not only the “top class” at the 24 Hours of Le Mans – it is currently the most technically interesting category in motorsport. No other class offers an automobile manufacturer so many possibilities to implement new technology and to test these for production, particularly in the engine sector.

Additionally, the organising Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO) place increasing value on environmental compatibility. The ACO’s target is to promote the development of environmentally friendly, quieter and more economical high-performance engines from which production cars can also benefit in the future. Therefore, the regulations stipulate that engine speeds must lie in a similar rev range than production cars. A direct technology transfer from motorsport to production is therefore possible – unlike the extremely high-revving Formula 1 engine.

...

Audi R10 - Engine In detail
The heart of the Audi R10 is a completely new V12 TDI engine with a cubic capacity of 5.5 litres – the maximum permitted at Le Mans. Audi ventures into previously unexplored diesel-engine terrain with power exceeding 650 hp and torque of more than 1100 Newton metres [811 lbs/ft] from the V12 power plant. “This engine is the specifically most powerful diesel there is in the world and, up until now, the biggest challenge that Audi Sport has ever faced in its long history,” explains Ulrich Baretzky, Head of Engine Technology at Audi Sport. “There has never been anything remotely comparable. We started development with a clean sheet of paper.”

The V12 TDI used in the R10 is the first Audi diesel engine with an aluminium crank case. The cylinder-bank angle is 90 degrees. The V12 TDI has, like Audi production car engines, four valves per cylinder and twin overhead camshafts. The fuel induction is made by a modern “Common Rail System”. The injection pressure easily exceeds the 1600 bar [23,206 psi] achieved in production cars. The ignition pressures also reach values never previously seen in any Audi engine.

The turbo pressure produced by the two Garrett turbochargers is limited by the regulations to 2.94 [42.6 psi] bars absolute, the diameter of both engine air intake restrictors, stipulated by the regulations, is 2 x 39.9 millimetres. The engine management is controlled by the latest generation of Bosch Motronic (MS14).

The engine’s power and the high torque are available to the driver practically from idling speed – a speciality of diesel technology, to which the Audi drivers must now become accustomed. The usable power band lies between 3000 and 5000 revs per minute.

Unfamiliar to the driver at this early stage, is the low noise level and, unique for a racing engine, the smooth running V12 TDI power unit. At high speeds the powerful 650 hp engine can not be heard from the Audi R10 prototype’s “open” cockpit while there is also hardly any vibration. On the outside, the modern twelve-cylinder produces a faint, but sonorous sound that quite possibly nobody would identify as a diesel power unit at first. The new R10 can only be recognised acoustically as a diesel-powered sportscar during the warming-up process or in the pit lane.

There are no visual signs that a diesel power unit is at work in the back of the R10. It goes without saying that the V12 TDI is equipped with a pair of diesel particle filters for the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Flashes of flame from the exhaust, which are created by unburned petrol in spark-ignition engines, are not seen coming from the R10.

One of the diesel engine’s biggest advantages is the low fuel consumption, especially at part-throttle and overrun. However, when compared to more classic circuits which demand a higher ratio of part throttle, the lower specific consumption will hardly be noticeable at Le Mans because the quota of full-throttle is almost 75 percent.

The enormous torque of over 1,100 Newton metres [811 lbs/ft] not only posed previously unforeseen demands in the development of the R10 drive train. Even the latest generation of engine dynamometers at Audi Sport had to be reequipped with special gearboxes capable of withstanding the unusual forces.

Inside the V12 TDI, the extremely high pressures in particular create forces never seen before in a racing engine. However, the main target of the Audi technicians is to reach the reliability level of the R8, which never recorded a single engine failure in the 77 races it has contested to date.

http://www.audizine.com/news/view.asp?linkid=348

[iDiaz]

Ah hah! Found this little jewel while reading the Wikipedia entry for 24 Hours of Le Mans:

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

The Le Mans start is also the reason why left-hand-drive Porsche street cars continue to have their ignition switches on the left of the steering column rather than on the more customary location of the right-side: this enabled the driver to start the engine with left hand while engaging the 1st gear with the right hand, depressing the clutch with left foot and stepping on the gas with right foot simultaneously thus allowing the Porsche to get off the starting line more quickly than other race cars.

More on the classic Le Mans start: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/24_hour...#Le_Mans_start

[Nardo]

Originally Posted by iDiaz

GT2: Flying Lizard Motorsports - Porsche 911 GT3 RSR

these guys are an awesome team to watch! i'll be over at the GFs house cuz she's the one with SPEED :p

[iDiaz]

Originally Posted by Nardo

these guys are an awesome team to watch! i'll be over at the GFs house cuz she's the one with SPEED :p

Werd! If anyone wants to come down to my pad for the all-nighter (Sat 5:00pm to Sun 8:30am), by all means, please do! We're gonna try to watch the entire thing, so we need all the help we can get in helping each other stay awake.

[iDiaz]

Another tidbit of info! Keiichi Tsuchiya, seen here strapping in with Spike at American Touge 2...



...came ridiculously close to winning the 1999 Le Mans in a Toyota GT-One...



...but wound up finishing second overall due to machine trouble, right behind the #15 BMW V12 LMR:

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

The only Japanese company to win the race so far has been Mazda, which won the 59th race in 1991 with its rotary-engined 787B prototype. Toyota almost took the overall win in 1999, but mechanical woes in the final hour relegated them to second.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/24_hour...es_and_drivers

Damn, that must have hurt his spirit!

[Rally]

Originally Posted by Nardo

these guys are an awesome team to watch! i'll be over at the GFs house cuz she's the one with SPEED :p

Word....very sick cars

[gandini]

Well, the R10s are on the front row, and lookin' fast. Of course, lots can go wrong in 24 hours at those speeds, so time will tell... The R10 is such a new car (nearly everything is different from the R8) that while speed is there, reliability is the big question. But, the Germans love to stick it to the Frenchies!
Saturday morning here we come.

[werD]

Yeah, but is anybody getting up to watch the Gumball at like 3:00 am and again at 4:00am? AutoWeek listed in their schedule in the latest edition (actually got it on time today... WTF? Somebody pinch me, this never happens - AutoWeek on Friday?!?!).

I wish I could record all of LeMans to watch at my leisure (heck the wife is even out of town this weekend!). Unfortunately, I don't have Speed anymore. Digital cable got waaaaaaaay too damn expensive. Had to give it up.... Sucks.

[gandini]

Drewmon: I'm with you on Nascar TV (oops, I mean, Speed TV) being so expensive, but compared to my wine tab each month, it's nothing... The 3 shows I see each month are worth it, because not seeing them means I get depressed, and then I spend more on wine... Oh, shite, there I go again.

cheers,

[iDiaz]

Originally Posted by gandini

Well, the R10s are on the front row, and lookin' fast. Of course, lots can go wrong in 24 hours at those speeds, so time will tell... The R10 is such a new car (nearly everything is different from the R8) that while speed is there, reliability is the big question. But, the Germans love to stick it to the Frenchies!
Saturday morning here we come.

Yeah, it looks like they may had have trouble with the fuel system, requiring a 20 minute pit stop. How about that Gulf car shredding apart after blowing a tire?! That was nuts!