Monday 18th June 2007
The winning R10 crosses the finish lineAudi braved the weather to win its seventh successive Le Mans 24 hour race and the second for the ground-breaking R10 TDI diesel powered racer.
Le Mans
The 75th edition of the Le Mans 24 hours
The winning R10 crosses the finish line
Nevertheless, the other two Audis were eliminated in accidents and the works Peugeot team – making their debut with the 908 HDi FAP – set some impressive lap times during the course of the race. The Lamy/Sarrazin/Bourdais No.8 Pug made it home in a creditable second place, although the sister car retired towards the end of the race.
The first petrol-powered car to finish was the third placed Pescarolo Judd of Collard/Boullion/Dumas.
Aston Martin finally managed to break the Corvette stronghold at Le Mans by triumphing in the GT1 class. The winning Brabham/Rydell/Turner works DBR9 also claimed fifth spot overall ahead of the second placed Corvette of O’connell/Magnussen/Fellows. Aston also scored third, fourth and sixth in the GT1 category.
The LMP2 class saw a very severe rate of attrition with the win eventually being claimed by the Binnie Motorsports Lola of Binnie/Timpany/Buncombe despite the car having serious mechanical woes.
Porsche triumphed in the GT2 class with the IMSA team 997 RSR of Narac/Lietz/Long, although the Risi and Scuderia Ecosse Ferraris both led for a while before dramas.
The race ended with a very wet final hour that was run under the pace car until the final ten minutes. Although Audi only had one car running at the end, its lead was considerable and the victory a commanding one. Once again, the eerie whoosh of diesel power has proved victorious at Le Mans.
For the final results, click here
Discussion
Jackie Stewart,in EVO,described his 'Ring win in the pouring rain as "the most terrified he's ever been in a race car"
Seeing the in-car footage during the deluge,at a speed not much off dry pace, brings home the skill and bravery of everyone who competed at Le Mans.
Stunning drives guys.
Seeing the in-car footage during the deluge,at a speed not much off dry pace, brings home the skill and bravery of everyone who competed at Le Mans.
Stunning drives guys.
Strawman said:
How close to a road car is the GT2 class, and what happened to P2 class 
GT2's aren't much, GT3's are closer.In the LMP2 class they used to run 675kg car weight against the 900kg of the LMP1's and in qualifying they were on LMP1 pace but the ACO didn't want to see an LMP2 challenging for the win so increased their weight to 775kg. Now with more weight the smaller less powerful engines and other parts have become strained and tend to break more.
Officially
"For the 2007 season, the ACO has mandated a 1.5% performance advantage of LMP1s over LMP2s" Which means there is no parity in performance, the LMP1's will always be the quicker package even without the mechanical problems the LMP2's now have.
Having just done both the Nurburgring 24hrs and Le Mans 24hrs, I have to say that Le Mans was a real disappointment this year and I'm not talking about the cars or the weather (yes we all got wet). This event is now so commercialised in favour of big corporates that joe public and general enthusiasts are forgotten in the organisation.
Got there Thursday so first stop tickets: no Parking Bleu, or Arnage; no Grandstands anywhere; €62 for general entrance which from the village means you can see naff all, and everywhere else the crowds were so well up on any previous years with each sodden campsite benefitting from a couple of dirty toilets which meant you had to fight for position and again, got to see naff all. To sum it up, this will be the last year I go (excludng Classic Le Mans). By contrast the Nurburgring 24hrs was just one huge party (despite the thunder showers) with consistent (good value) pricing on everything and plenty of amenities; a much better organised event.
Cheers,
Dave.
Got there Thursday so first stop tickets: no Parking Bleu, or Arnage; no Grandstands anywhere; €62 for general entrance which from the village means you can see naff all, and everywhere else the crowds were so well up on any previous years with each sodden campsite benefitting from a couple of dirty toilets which meant you had to fight for position and again, got to see naff all. To sum it up, this will be the last year I go (excludng Classic Le Mans). By contrast the Nurburgring 24hrs was just one huge party (despite the thunder showers) with consistent (good value) pricing on everything and plenty of amenities; a much better organised event.
Cheers,
Dave.
davejw said:
Having just done both the Nurburgring 24hrs and Le Mans 24hrs, I have to say that Le Mans was a real disappointment this year and I'm not talking about the cars or the weather (yes we all got wet). This event is now so commercialised in favour of big corporates that joe public and general enthusiasts are forgotten in the organisation.
Got there Thursday so first stop tickets: no Parking Bleu, or Arnage; no Grandstands anywhere; €62 for general entrance which from the village means you can see naff all, and everywhere else the crowds were so well up on any previous years with each sodden campsite benefitting from a couple of dirty toilets which meant you had to fight for position and again, got to see naff all. To sum it up, this will be the last year I go (excludng Classic Le Mans). By contrast the Nurburgring 24hrs was just one huge party (despite the thunder showers) with consistent (good value) pricing on everything and plenty of amenities; a much better organised event.
Cheers,
Dave.
thats why we go to spa 24 in july, you get to see 95% of the track and can walk it easily Got there Thursday so first stop tickets: no Parking Bleu, or Arnage; no Grandstands anywhere; €62 for general entrance which from the village means you can see naff all, and everywhere else the crowds were so well up on any previous years with each sodden campsite benefitting from a couple of dirty toilets which meant you had to fight for position and again, got to see naff all. To sum it up, this will be the last year I go (excludng Classic Le Mans). By contrast the Nurburgring 24hrs was just one huge party (despite the thunder showers) with consistent (good value) pricing on everything and plenty of amenities; a much better organised event.
Cheers,
Dave.
emicen said:
Unbias the rules to make petrol vs diesel a fair competition and it would be far better viewing.
What is the equivalency factor for diesel to petrol in the Le Mans classes? In a lot of other series I know its 1.4 which does strike me as a tad high when you take into consideration the advances in diesel technology recently.
davejw said:
Having just done both the Nurburgring 24hrs and Le Mans 24hrs, I have to say that Le Mans was a real disappointment this year and I'm not talking about the cars or the weather (yes we all got wet). This event is now so commercialised in favour of big corporates that joe public and general enthusiasts are forgotten in the organisation.
Got there Thursday so first stop tickets: no Parking Bleu, or Arnage; no Grandstands anywhere; €62 for general entrance which from the village means you can see naff all, and everywhere else the crowds were so well up on any previous years with each sodden campsite benefitting from a couple of dirty toilets which meant you had to fight for position and again, got to see naff all. To sum it up, this will be the last year I go (excludng Classic Le Mans). By contrast the Nurburgring 24hrs was just one huge party (despite the thunder showers) with consistent (good value) pricing on everything and plenty of amenities; a much better organised event.
Cheers,
Dave.
I agree with the cost of the tickets going up and the camping facilities are not great, but i have to ask why you are moaning that there were no tickets available on the gate when you arrived on thursday? People book tickets for it a year in advance! I think you just need to book them before if you want a particular ticket!!Got there Thursday so first stop tickets: no Parking Bleu, or Arnage; no Grandstands anywhere; €62 for general entrance which from the village means you can see naff all, and everywhere else the crowds were so well up on any previous years with each sodden campsite benefitting from a couple of dirty toilets which meant you had to fight for position and again, got to see naff all. To sum it up, this will be the last year I go (excludng Classic Le Mans). By contrast the Nurburgring 24hrs was just one huge party (despite the thunder showers) with consistent (good value) pricing on everything and plenty of amenities; a much better organised event.
Cheers,
Dave.
I have been going to Le mans for ten years and every year you have to book camping permits and grandstand seats earlier and earlier. Last three years we have booked our tickets at the practice for the following year.
We didn't go this year because of crowds, crap toilets, police restrictions, speed traps etc etc, just went to practice which was fantastic with very few people there although police were out in force.
Need to do other things now, so any advice on Nurburgh ring x 24 or Spa would be much appreciated.
Thanks
We didn't go this year because of crowds, crap toilets, police restrictions, speed traps etc etc, just went to practice which was fantastic with very few people there although police were out in force.
Need to do other things now, so any advice on Nurburgh ring x 24 or Spa would be much appreciated.
Thanks
heelantoe said:
davejw said:
Having just done both the Nurburgring 24hrs and Le Mans 24hrs, I have to say that Le Mans was a real disappointment this year and I'm not talking about the cars or the weather (yes we all got wet). This event is now so commercialised in favour of big corporates that joe public and general enthusiasts are forgotten in the organisation.
Got there Thursday so first stop tickets: no Parking Bleu, or Arnage; no Grandstands anywhere; €62 for general entrance which from the village means you can see naff all, and everywhere else the crowds were so well up on any previous years with each sodden campsite benefitting from a couple of dirty toilets which meant you had to fight for position and again, got to see naff all. To sum it up, this will be the last year I go (excludng Classic Le Mans). By contrast the Nurburgring 24hrs was just one huge party (despite the thunder showers) with consistent (good value) pricing on everything and plenty of amenities; a much better organised event.
Cheers,
Dave.
I agree with the cost of the tickets going up and the camping facilities are not great, but i have to ask why you are moaning that there were no tickets available on the gate when you arrived on thursday? People book tickets for it a year in advance! I think you just need to book them before if you want a particular ticket!!Got there Thursday so first stop tickets: no Parking Bleu, or Arnage; no Grandstands anywhere; €62 for general entrance which from the village means you can see naff all, and everywhere else the crowds were so well up on any previous years with each sodden campsite benefitting from a couple of dirty toilets which meant you had to fight for position and again, got to see naff all. To sum it up, this will be the last year I go (excludng Classic Le Mans). By contrast the Nurburgring 24hrs was just one huge party (despite the thunder showers) with consistent (good value) pricing on everything and plenty of amenities; a much better organised event.
Cheers,
Dave.
Last year we had to have a Red instead of a Green ticket, no big shakes, but whats worse is when you shell out and find you still can't get into "your" car park due to gate-cock-ups.
Have to agree with Dave, there were SO many people this year, everywhere was just chocka (in particular Arnage, even at 2.00am). Tetre Rouge has lost "something" in terms of atmosphere since culling the tree-tunnel, although to be fair the corner now flows very well (and 'kin fast!).
I kinda like the "old" look af the circuit, with the old village rather than the new shopping mall style buildings, the new grandstands and new Dunlop curves (after bridge) down to Tetre Rouge.Unfortunately I never got to see the old pits.
Think I'll give the Classic race and N24 race a go next year, having never done either before.
Seeing the weather I was kind of happy to be at home, but even still, the coverage from MotorsTV was fantastic. In all I watched approx 20 hours of the race, tried to do the full 24hrs but must be getting older now!!
Well done to the commentators as well, it must have been hard work but you still managed to keep us informed and entertained through the race. maybe 'The Cock' should sit down and watch all 24hrs and learn how it is done correctly!! I don't remember their ever been the phrase 'the Audi's are looking racy' used once.
Quality TV all the way
Hope to be down there next year...
Well done to the commentators as well, it must have been hard work but you still managed to keep us informed and entertained through the race. maybe 'The Cock' should sit down and watch all 24hrs and learn how it is done correctly!! I don't remember their ever been the phrase 'the Audi's are looking racy' used once.
Quality TV all the way
Hope to be down there next year...
emicen said:
Unbias the rules to make petrol vs diesel a fair competition and it would be far better viewing.
Err are you saying that the teams running a petrol motor are at the limit of what a petrol motor could do??? Not being disrespectful but if Peugeot had come with a petrol engine then they would have been in for the win.When you look at the 2007 LMP1 catagory petrol entrants who was there? Pescarolo only had one car with a strong line up and that was it.
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