World Endurance Championship - Silverstone

World Endurance Championship - Silverstone

Author
Discussion

entropy

5,403 posts

202 months

Tuesday 14th April 2015
quotequote all
marshall100 said:
I could be wrong but I thought one of the Gulf Astons was keeping a couple of the LMP2 cars honest? or was it just at that given point in time?

I'll upload my video of the Vette when I get a chance.
ACO likes to keep speeds in check via air restrictors. It has got to the point that GTs are about a match for straightline speed with P2 cars. This has been going on for years with the moaning how P2s struggle with GTs in traffic.

anonymous-user

53 months

Tuesday 14th April 2015
quotequote all
First time attending a motorsport event and took my 12 year old nephew and I must say...WOW!! You really don't get an appreciation for the cornering speeds on TV at all, watching the F3 cars through Abbey was impressive enough, but the LMP1 cars were simply incredible.

Being able to wander the track and view from many of the grandstands was brilliant, was quite surreal being on the bus struggling to get over the Hangar Straight bridge as cars were whizzing 2 or 3 abreast underneath you at 150+ :-) Pitwalk was great too, being up close and personal to the cars and drivers is a great idea, although the queue for 5 seconds with Webber was too long to bother with.

Corvette was nephews favourite car too, simply as it was the loudest!

outnumbered

4,067 posts

233 months

Tuesday 14th April 2015
quotequote all
entropy said:

No better than previous years. IMHO.

Desperately needs pedestrian tunnel/bridge access to Wing.
Agree on the Wing access, there's still room for improvement... But if you've been going every year, I think you have to concede it's better than it was say 4 years ago. Back then there were less grandstands open, you couldn't even walk to the wing as a security guard would stop you, no "fan zone" to speak of, etc.

entropy

5,403 posts

202 months

Tuesday 14th April 2015
quotequote all
outnumbered said:
Agree on the Wing access, there's still room for improvement... But if you've been going every year, I think you have to concede it's better than it was say 4 years ago. Back then there were less grandstands open, you couldn't even walk to the wing as a security guard would stop you, no "fan zone" to speak of, etc.
The fan zone used to be at Woodcote/pit straight.

Grandstands open depending on demand and the need for stewards. Blatantly lot more people attending this year. I usually turn up in time for the start and this year the main car park was full whereas in recent years there was about a third left of gravel parking; peak attendance was 2007/8? with the Audi & Peugeot promo and I parked behind Club/Vale.



marshall100

1,124 posts

200 months

Thursday 16th April 2015
quotequote all

Great Dane

2,719 posts

165 months

Great Dane

2,719 posts

165 months

Thursday 16th April 2015
quotequote all
http://www.racer.com/more/viewpoints/item/115594-p...

A well respected American journalist about the Silverstone event and WEC

jurbie

2,339 posts

200 months

Thursday 16th April 2015
quotequote all
Here are a few photos, well more than a few but there's a lot of time to shoot.
































moribund

4,030 posts

213 months

Thursday 16th April 2015
quotequote all
jurbie said:
Here are a few photos, well more than a few but there's a lot of time to shoot.

Very nice. I've tried a few times to get that style of shot but you've nailed it there.

TheHoof

269 posts

171 months

Thursday 16th April 2015
quotequote all
I rented a lens for the weekend - here are a selection (with more here: https://flic.kr/s/aHsk9EJcyu). I think I have enough for an entire set of prints titled "Flagrant Disregard for Track Limits at Copse"
















marshall100

1,124 posts

200 months

Friday 17th April 2015
quotequote all
I know I've said that the Corvette was an amazing noise, however the Aston and the 458 were both fairly special.

I kind of 'get' why Aston are involved with this kind of thing now. I was watching Brian Johnson on cars last night and you have to wonder if Jaguar are going to re-appear in this soon?

outnumbered

4,067 posts

233 months

Friday 17th April 2015
quotequote all

Someone's running a Jaguar XKR in Blancpain Endurance I think... although not very successfully. I'd imagine Blancpain would be a more likely place to start than WEC for a factory effort, if they ever go that way.

Great Dane

2,719 posts

165 months

Friday 17th April 2015
quotequote all
The Aston cars are run as a mainly commercial operation otherwise they couldn't afford it.

McSam

6,753 posts

174 months

Saturday 18th April 2015
quotequote all
A fantastic event once again this year, I really enjoyed it and despite the wind the weather was so much kinder than last year! The 2014 running was the first race I'd ever brought my fiancée to, and she was really excited to come back which says something for the appeal of WEC. If you can hold the attention of someone who's not really a racing fan for six hours, you're doing something right.

P1 was visibly, shockingly faster this year. To me, it stuck out most of all in the Village complex - if any of the P1s were alongside a GTE car as they came out of The Loop, the punch to get past was phenomenal. When you watch a really serious 600bhp GT car get annihilated like that, you really start to appreciate what these cars can do!

My Canon bridge's photos pale next to some cracking work in this thread, Jurbie's in particular, but if you fancy a look they're here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/131792388@N02/sets/7...



Must get some video sorted too. Right at the start of the race, the noise put me straight back to 4am on the pit straight at Le Mans cloud9

ETA - This sort of thing is what I mean for pure acceleration.

Edited by McSam on Saturday 18th April 15:32

marshall100

1,124 posts

200 months

Saturday 18th April 2015
quotequote all
The start? well that hairs on the back of my neck stood to attention. Astonishing sight.

https://youtu.be/CSS_0UUd50g

ecsrobin

17,022 posts

164 months

Saturday 18th April 2015
quotequote all
Some incredible photos thank you for sharing. Certainly on my list of events to get to next year.

dafeller

599 posts

189 months

Saturday 18th April 2015
quotequote all
I missed the race but have seen some youtube clips and am really sorry I didn't tune in. The battle between the Porsche and Audi up front looked amazing; the clips I saw showed the Porsche with unreal power on straights, giving back time in corners to the Audi. Le Mans is going to be a real dog fight.

Great Dane

2,719 posts

165 months

Saturday 18th April 2015
quotequote all
For the anoraks... name the drivers with no help.... I did it all who are missing?





PS I thought Nick L looked quite the scruff :-)

Great Dane

2,719 posts

165 months

Saturday 18th April 2015
quotequote all
More 'anorakdom'...
Individual drivers' times. Can give you an idea of speedy and slower drivers within each car.

P1:


P2:


Pro:


Am: