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Category Archives: Lemans

The Young and the Techless – F1 Vol. 1

In an effort to apprise ya’ll readers of the off-track action from around the world, I bring you my new weekly column: The Young and the Techless.  With just about every racing series worldwide moving to ever more restrictive regulations in an effort to make racing more competitive, I figured the title would be fitting (1. And you folks are car people… 2. Yes, I did jack the title idea from Ross, but he approved!)

FIA Formula One World Championship – Rules Changes and Off-Season Testing Update

Certainly the biggest story this F1 off-season has been the rule change the FIA enacted to lower the cars’ noses to make them safer in a nose-to-side impact.  The trend since the early 2000s has been to continuously raise the height of the cars’ noses to aid in under-car airflow.  This trend necessitated massive compromises in suspension geometry (lending us to the suspension arms having more anhedral than a Harrier – good God I’m a nerd…) and also necessitated nose-cones being almost at level with the top of the monocoque (and hence the drivers’ heads).

Under pressure from the designers, the FIA kept the rule for height of the monocoque at 625mm but mandated that maximum nose height not exceed 550mm causing most teams to design a horrid step in the nose:

2012 Reb Bull RB8 - Photo courtesy of TechReviewToday

Thankfully, Vodafone McLaren-Mercedes have gone with a gently curving nose, which is far more aesthetically pleasing:

2012 McLaren MP4/27 - Photo courtesy of Motorward.com

The pre-season testing has been rather uneventful, save for two major storylines:

Lotus-Renault F1 Team had to pull out of the second testing session at Barcelona because of defective front suspension mounts.  They discovered at the first test in Jerez (with chassis 1)that the car’s handling wasn’t responding as expected, then with the higher loads of Barcelona’s corners the front suspension on chassis 2 failed.  They immediately pulled out of the test and went back to their factory at Enstone, England and set about a redesign to rectify the problem.

Another bombshell (read: sarcasm): The token backmarker-reject team HRT (Hispania Racing) had its new 2012 chassis pass 17 out of 18 FIA crash tests, thereby failing homologation and not being allowed to attend the first two tests.  Just last week the HRT finally passed the 18th crash test and was homologated.  HRT hope to debut their new crapwagon car this Sunday.

Testing times amongst the other teams have been just as sporadic as they always are in testing (small teams running on low-fuel just to post fast times to attract sponsorship money).  General consensus is that Reb Bull Racing will still be the team to beat (read: another Vettle championship), but many pundits are saying McLaren’s “radical” non-stepped nose car might pose a challenge to Reb Bull at the hands of Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton.

Stay tuned later today for TYatT V8 Edition, and also a look at the new World Endurance Championship.

@theSAABwriter — cody.verge@gmail.com

OMG CRASH!!

Watch this video from the running of the 24 Hours of LeMans.   As many of you know, I love the AUDI LeMans team and Allan McNish is my favorite Audi driver – so I really glad to see he was not hurt.

The new R18 car was trying to pass a slow car when he made contact and sailed across the gravel trap – it didn’t seem to slow him down at all.  He hit the barrier and the car desintigrated – and some magical force pushed the car from clearing the wall – it is amazing none of the photographers were injured either.

WOWZA!

Corvette Racing boss Doug Fehan confirms new 5.5L V8 for Sebring debut

[ via AutoBlog.com ]

image Via Autoblog.com

image Via Autoblog.com

Back in August when General Motors introduced the all-new GT2 class Corvette C6.R, it ran downsized 6.0-liter version of the 7.0-liter V8 from the long-dominant GT1 car. At the launch, Corvette Racing program manager Doug Fehan told us the 6.0-liter was just an interim engine. With revised GT rules on tap for 2010, GM was already planning a brand-new engine for its race Vette. 

Unlike the 6.0/7.0, which is a ground-up race engine that only shares basic architectural dimensions with the production small block, the 2010 C6.R’s V8 is a new 5.5-liter unit that will indeed be derived from the production engine found in roadgoing Corvettes. In fact, the 5.5-liter race engine will be built at GM’s Performance Build Center alongside ZR1 and Z06 V8s. 

Fehan has confirmed that the 5.5 is running on the dyno and will make its race debut at the 12 Hours of Sebring in March. We don’t have any additional details on the new engine yet, although we were told earlier that it is based on the next-generation production small-block, which we expect to see in the Corvette soon.

Hey Audi, Porsche is Coming for YOU!

[ via Autoblog.com ]

You might think now that Porsche is firmly ensconced in the Volkswagen Group family, challenging Audi for overall victory at Le Mans isn’t on the to-do list. Apparently, you would wrong. With 16 overall victories, Porsche has more wins at Le Mans than any other manufacturer. However, while Porsches have continued to do well in GT, the marque’s last overall victory came in 1998. Plans to build a prototype early this decade were abandoned, although the V10 engine developed for it eventually found its way into the Carrera GT. 

New Porsche CEO Michael Macht evidently wants more overall victories, and while Volkswagen will soon control Porsche, family member Ferdinand Piech is chairman of VW’s supervisory board. With the resources of the group available, Porsche could develop a new car to go for number one. No timetable has been given, but this actually wouldn’t be the first time that there has been an internal battle at Le Mans. Earlier in the decade, Bentley also ran a prototype coupe based on the Audi R8.

With the interest in promoting alternatives like diesel at Le Mans and Porsche soon to debut a hybrid, a prototype with a similar system is not beyond the realm of possibility.


Reader Profile

One of Queers4Gears’ readers, Shawn Kinnear,  recently worked on a race team at the ALMS race at Laguna Seca –  he took some pics and I asked him if I could share them on the blog.

Shawn worked on race teardowns and general pit support – and he is hoping to land a full time position with another team soon.  I can’t imagine how much fun it could be to make your living at the track.

He was working with the Patron Highcroft team on their Porsche.   That team’s prototype car won the championship at the track - see my earlier post.

I want to wish Shawn luck in getting hired with a new team and thank him for sharing these pictures.

If there are any other readers that have great pictures or stories to tell from their trips to track and you would like to share,  send me an email:  michael@queers4gears.com

here are a few more of Shawn’s pics:

.

Patron Highcroft Team wins ALMS Title

[ via autoracingdaily.com ]

Patron Highcroft Racing have been crowned as the new kings of the American Le Mans Series after Scott Sharp and David Brabham scored a second place finish today aboard their Acura ARX-02a to claim the driver’s, team’s and manufacturer’s title.

David Brabham started second aboard the Patron Highcroft Racing machine and despite being passed at one stage by the Lola of John Field, Brabham held second place during the opening stint.

However, shortly after the first pit stop on lap 35, the Australian was tagged by the Corvette of Oliver Gavin who slid down the inside of turn one, clipped the Acura and collected a number of GT cars.

Brabham was forced to make an unscheduled stop to remove a damaged piece of bodywork on lap 43 and had to make another stop on lap 55 to fix an electrical issue.

The two unscheduled stops pushed the Patron Highcroft squad down two laps but Brabham began a fightback, moving from sixth overall back into podium contention and second place in the LMP1 class by lap 87.              MORE……………………………….

Gil de Ferran to retire this weekend at Laguna Seca

[ via ALMS  / newsday ]

Two-time IndyCar Champion and 2003 Indianapolis 500 winner Gil de Ferran is preparing for a very special send-off when the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca venue in California plays host to the final round of the 2009 American Le Mans Series – the Monterey Sports Car Championships on October 10. The 41-year-old Brazilian announced recently that he will retire from professional driving at the end of this year’s season, though he will continue as President of de Ferran Motorsports, the front-running team he established in 2008.

To mark his final race, de Ferran will serve as the race’s Grand Marshal and will be supporting various high-profile, pre-event activities as well as giving the famous “start your engines” command.

Adding to the sense of occasion, the team is preparing a very special livery for his final race. In deference to motorsport legend Jim Hall – the man who gave de Ferran his first drive in IndyCar – the No. 66 XM Radio de Ferran Motorsports Acura ARX-02a will feature the famous white color scheme as displayed by Hall’s revolutionary Chaparral sports cars during the 1960s and 70s.

“It’s going to be an emotional occasion and a great honor to be Grand Marshal,” said de Ferran. “Along with Roger Penske and Jackie Stewart, Jim Hall has been one of the three greatest mentors during my career. Interestingly, I won my first IndyCar race with Jim at Laguna in 1995 and enjoyed two successful seasons racing for him when I first came to America. And it’s in respect of what Jim did for me that since we established de Ferran Motorsports, our Acuras have been running the same number 66 that he used on so many of his iconic Chaparrals. Now we are going one step further by recreating the famous Chaparral livery for my final race in California.”

more……………………………………


even more amazing than the Acura crash… REBUILD

In the next post below you can see the horriffic Scott Sharp crash at Road Atlanta during Thursday’s practice at the Petit Lemans.  But the video of the rebuild is simply amazing.  Only two of those cars exist anywhere in the world.  But Acura did find a “tub” at it’s R&D  center in California and it was flown to Atlanta………. in less than two days they built a new car from scratch – literally.  check the time lapse video:

Rain makes Petit LeMans more Petit-ier

via autosport.com

via autosport.com

[ via Autosport.com ]

Peugeot has scored a one-two victory in the Petit Le Mans after the 2009 race was finally called off three hours after the red flag came out as a torrential downpour set in. The officials had desperately hoped that conditions would relent enough to allow racing to resume, but they gave up waiting just after 8pm local time and waved the chequered flag on a field that had stood silent in the pitlane for three and a quarter hours.

Franck Montagny and Stephane Sarrazin took the win ahead of Nicolas Minassian and Pedro Lamy, the #08 crew having hit the front just before the stoppage after earlier falling two laps down following a strategic miscue.

But there was huge disappointment for Audi, as Allan McNish and Dindo Capello lost the lead when the Scot spun under yellow shortly before the red flag came out. The result marked the end of Audi’s nine-year undefeated run in the event.        for the rest of the article………………….

Results:

Pos  Drivers                       Class    Car                 Time/Gap
1.  Sarrazin/Montagny             P1   Peugeot         4h48m11.557s
2.  Minassian/Lamy                P1   Peugeot             + 2.011s
3.  Capello/McNish                P1   Audi                + 3.465s
4.  Luhr/Werner                   P1   Audi                + 1 laps
5.  Panis/Lapierre/Dumas          P1   ORECA               + 3 laps
6.  Brabham/Sharp/Franchitti      P1   Acura               + 4 laps
7.  Dyson/Smith                   UNC  Lola-Mazda          + 7 laps
8.  Melo/Kaffer/Salo              GT2  Ferrari            + 14 laps
9.  Muller/Milner/Muller          GT2  BMW                + 15 laps
10.  Henzler/Werner                GT2  Porsche            + 15 laps
11.  Beretta/Gavin/Fassler         GT2  Corvette           + 15 laps
12.  Bergmeister/Long/Lieb         GT2  Porsche            + 15 laps
13.  Leitzinger/Franchitti/Devlin  P2   Lola-Mazda         + 16 laps
14.  Magnussen/O’Connell/Garcia    GT2  Corvette           + 16 laps
15.  Law/van Overbeek/Neiman       GT2  Porsche            + 22 laps
16.  Sutherland/Drissi/Bell        GT2  Riley Corvette     + 27 laps
17.  Field/Field                   P1   Lola               + 32 laps
18.  Farnbacher/James              GT2  Panoz              + 32 laps
19.  Burgess/McMurry/Willman       P1   Lola               + 40 laps
20.  Murry/Robertson/Robertson     GT2  Doran Ford         + 42 laps
21.  Fernandez/Diaz                P2   Acura              + 45 laps
22.  Pickett/Graf/Maassen          P2   Porsche            + 48 laps
23.  Sellers/Cicero                GT2  Porsche            + 48 laps
24.  De Ferran/Pagenaud/Dixon      P1   Acura              + 48 laps
25.  Hand/Auberlen/Priaulx         GT2  BMW                + 51 laps
26.  Feinberg/Hall                 GT2  Dodge              + 55 laps
27.  Drayson/Cocker/Bell           P1   Lola               + 61 laps