LeMans 2012 Thread

very sad toyota not having better luck, i would have liked to see them run with audi through to the end!

 

Hats off to AF Corse Ferrari, 1st and 2nd in GTE Pro. Forza!

Nice to see a Fezza win

 

one of those watches would be to have!
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sadly (unlike first reported) there was injury from this incident ....really to bad for toyota! i was cheering for them
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The world is now at peace. Audi wins, Germany is again the masters of endurance racing and we now know that innovation exsists in the real world of automobile racing and "contrived parity" only lives in the USA! Thank you LeMans, Thank you Audi !!!!

 

at peace, yes ...just not very surprised!

 

Audi deserves high praise for what they've achieved. They're quickly pulling themselves up among the legends. It another twenty years we'll probably look on them the same way we do Ferrari and Porsche today.

 

without doubt they have acheived amazing results & i for one greatly respect that ....racing really needs competition, which is why it's sad to see peugeot left, and toyota fall during the race

 

best act of the race
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfvkKRmd2X8&feature=watch_response[/ame]

 

+1 It's a shame the Toyota's couldn't keep it together. Have a feeling they'll be back next year and really contending.

 

Given the huge performances differences between the racing classes, the lower classes should get a radio message to allow higher class cars to pass. Given modern telemetry these messages could be automatically sent.

Furthermore there would be a known code of passing conduct so that both cars know in advance how to conduct themselves. For example overtaking car always does so on the outside and lower class car move to the inside and does not challenge.

Otherwise, senseless collisions like the Toyota and much slower Ferrari will continue to spoil the race and place drivers lives at risk.

 

they did start a new (optional) thing this year where the car being overtaken would signal which side of the track it would be going, saw several actually doing it.

 

the unwritten rule use to be based on the corner, inside passing side, slower car stay clear of line to the outside ......i can't fault the slower cars always, the P1-P2 cars come from behind at such a faster pace, like many drivers have said, thier not there one moment, and the next moment are right beside you ....i'm sure that's got to be difficult, especially when you're focused on your own driving

 

This has always been part of sportscar / endurance racing. I was thinking while I was watching the race this weekend though that you could design a very cheap solution using off the shelf components that would greatly help reduce this "surprised he was there" problem.

All you need is to feed GPS data from the cars back to a central server at race control that monitors the position of each car relative to each other on the track. That data could then be transmitted back via a radio signal to each car and translated into some sort of feedback loop to the driver. The cheapest, easiest way would be to sound a tone in the drivers earpiece (in stereo) that moves from L to R and gets progressively louder as the faster LMP1/2 car approaches from behind. As the LMP car driver pulls out the sound "moves" in the relative L/R field and gets loudest just as the car approaches to pass. (Think of the tones from the hearing tests we used to take in school and the same way a fighter jock gets a "missile lock" tone in the middle of a dogfight so he can keep his concentration on what's in front of him.)

A more expensive way would be to fit a HUD like BMWs or Corvettes have that show a L or R arrow that gets brighter as the cars come up behind them.

Or you could go heavier and more active and fit a series of vibrating pads or transducers in the back of the seat, starting from the shoulder area all the way down to the seat. Slight vibration that moves from left to right depending on the approaching car that gets heavier as the car gets closer.

Again, all of this could be done pretty easily and cheaply by integrating existing parts.

 

Great victory for Ferrari, proving that the 458 is an amazing racing car, like the 430 was...and special congrats to pedro lamy for winning his category...showing Quesnel how imcomptent he really was. I only wish Ferrari would retur to fight agains Porshe in Lmp1..that would really be epic!!!

 

Ferraris focus these days is on making money on their street cars (California and FF), it seems, so we can put that Porsche vs. Ferrari thought on hold...........

 

The video above shows that the Toyotas could hang with the Audis. It would be great to see more competition for Audi, I can only imagine a field of LMP cars from Toyota, Ferrari, BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, and Peugeot.

Good to see the 458 being reliable and competitive, also happy to see an Aston Martin do well in the GT class.


This Ferrari didn't fare as well, good thing there was a Nascar driver driving.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GZZoc3DFCU[/ame]

 

Can anyone explain to me why the Audi R8 GT's and BMW M3 GT's are not in the GT field?

 

I'm not sure about Audi but BMW sat this year out because they claim they want to concentrate on their return / renewed focus on DTM.

I don't think they've said anything about 2013 or 2014 yet. It's probably because the current M3 will be coming out of homologation this year and don't want to spend the money promoting / racing the old car. They'll probably return when the new M3 is ready, which is rumored to be with a forced induction I6 that would seemingly fit the new 2014 engine rules package well.

 

Photos Le Mans 2012
http://www.passionlemans.fr/

 

total BS if you ask me. Ferrari is fully commited to Formula 1, a choice made way back by Enzo himself. Competing in LMP1 requires another fully purpose designed and built racingcar. No one would be able to act competitivly in both series. Nor would it made any sense. Chosing Formula 1 over LMP1 has nothing to do with focussing on the California and the FF. And of course Ferrari is well represented at Le Mans in the GT-category.

 

With funding from the 'mothership' Ferrari could moveup a few classes and strictly focus on LM's, we would all love to see that happen but as mentioned F1 is Ferrari and a bird in hand is better than two in the bush.