RE: Peugeot reveals Le Mans challenger
Discussion
20vt_mk2dub said:
Surely they can still engineer the sound into these cars?
A quiet le mans track would be soo boring the race would definately suffer as thats half of the spectacle.
A quiet le mans track would be soo boring the race would definately suffer as thats half of the spectacle.
Exactly !
Imagine the well known 'Race start' scene from the Classic 'Le Mans' Steve McQueen Film...V8's & V12's thundering from idle to near redline reving, the atmosphere building, tension rising....now imagine that with a 'silent swish ' diesel line up...
Not quite the same spectacle at all....
If any one was watching Petit LeMans a few days ago they might have noticed that although the Audi won, the Zytek car was actually quite a bit quicker, overtakeing the Audi several times (more pit-stops). Despite poorer pit work leading to longer pit times it would have finished 3 laps ahead of the Audi if an exploding tyre hadn't kept them in for 4 laps. It did also sound much much nicer!
Audi come along with something a bit different and because they have proven the argument for Diesels and made the point by winning races, the racing body decide to strangle them by reducing the size of their fuel tanks. Why don't all the other teams just switch to diesel and play them at their own game or try harder with the petrol engines. So long as they can make them sound the part. Surely that makes sense. I thought the idea of Le Mans was to win races, no matter what. If you arent winning, do something different....like steam power or something. 
roop said:
Should be good. Peugeot, although their cars are invariably shite, produce the best car diesel engines in the world with far superior technology to the VAG units. Wonder if this advantage will translate to the racing track...? As has been mentioned, let's hope they can make it hammer out a tune through it's big Garretts...
Interesting what you say about the technology, I'd have thought it would be the other way around ? The VAG group makes PS look tiny.
AOC has done some good things with their regulations but would it not be interesting to see a change in the refueling speeds? I don't know but they seem to pump well over 40liters in less then some seconds. When we stand there it would take a good two minutes. This could bring fuel efficiency back into the equation without stopping competition. Comments?
I thought the same until I spoke with the bloke allegedly* responsible for VAG's diesel development. He admitted the PSA units were better in various ways. This is roadcars here of course, not racing.
* Anti-shafting insurance
Interesting what you say about the technology, I'd have thought it would be the other way around ? The VAG group makes PS look tiny.
* Anti-shafting insurance
DavidT said:
roop said:
Should be good. Peugeot, although their cars are invariably shite, produce the best car diesel engines in the world with far superior technology to the VAG units. Wonder if this advantage will translate to the racing track...? As has been mentioned, let's hope they can make it hammer out a tune through it's big Garretts...
Interesting what you say about the technology, I'd have thought it would be the other way around ? The VAG group makes PS look tiny.
scoobiewrx said:
Audi come along with something a bit different and because they have proven the argument for Diesels and made the point by winning races, the racing body decide to strangle them by reducing the size of their fuel tanks. Why don't all the other teams just switch to diesel and play them at their own game or try harder with the petrol engines. So long as they can make them sound the part. Surely that makes sense. I thought the idea of Le Mans was to win races, no matter what. If you arent winning, do something different....like steam power or something.
The racing body didnt do it to strangle it, they did it to make sure that no-one had an unfair advantage and diesel cars that can take longer between pits becuase their fuel is different to most others is not fair.
Is not strangling the competition is just making it MORE of a competition. Instead of a walk over.
tt280 said:
billy no brakes said:
Looks great but the ACO have restricted the size of the fuel tanks on diesels so they can not go further than the petrol cars thats where Audi had the edge last year.
Bill
Bill
....and the special formulation diesel that Audi made for themselves, the excuse being that std diesel foams too much on refulling.
Erm, it does. You'd lose a lot of time in the pits just trying to fill the tanks.
20vt_mk2dub said:
scoobiewrx said:
Audi come along with something a bit different and because they have proven the argument for Diesels and made the point by winning races, the racing body decide to strangle them by reducing the size of their fuel tanks. Why don't all the other teams just switch to diesel and play them at their own game or try harder with the petrol engines. So long as they can make them sound the part. Surely that makes sense. I thought the idea of Le Mans was to win races, no matter what. If you arent winning, do something different....like steam power or something.
The racing body didnt do it to strangle it, they did it to make sure that no-one had an unfair advantage and diesel cars that can take longer between pits becuase their fuel is different to most others is not fair.
Is not strangling the competition is just making it MORE of a competition. Instead of a walk over.
All for this. Much of the discussion after this year was the unexpected, to some at least, pace of the diesels. Now they've been seen then it will be interesting to see how this new handicap reels them in.
Anyone want to take some bets that Audi were sandbagging a little last year?
roop said:
I thought the same until I spoke with the bloke allegedly* responsible for VAG's diesel development. He admitted the PSA units were better in various ways. This is roadcars here of course, not racing.
* Anti-shafting insurance
Interesting what you say about the technology, I'd have thought it would be the other way around ? The VAG group makes PS look tiny.
* Anti-shafting insurance
DavidT said:
roop said:
Should be good. Peugeot, although their cars are invariably shite, produce the best car diesel engines in the world with far superior technology to the VAG units. Wonder if this advantage will translate to the racing track...? As has been mentioned, let's hope they can make it hammer out a tune through it's big Garretts...
Interesting what you say about the technology, I'd have thought it would be the other way around ? The VAG group makes PS look tiny.
Fair enough, thanks for confirming
victormeldrew said:
billy no brakes said:
Looks great but the ACO have restricted the size of the fuel tanks on diesels so they can not go further than the petrol cars thats where Audi had the edge last year.
Bill
I don't think this was actually the case. The cars were faster on track as well.Bill
should make for an interesting race between the diesels and petrol engine cars then counting down the days
Gassing Station | General Motorsport | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff