2014 24 Hours of Le Mans

On pace alone, Toyota should be the favorites as they've won both of the first six
hour races. And while Toyota may have the hot set up, 24 Hours is a bigger challenge.

I still have to go with Audi because of all of the intangibles that they'll be ready for. They
start doing their sums for Le Mans as soon as the new rules are published (and even after
the fuel rules were re-written for Audi at Porsche's behest) so on strategy, Audi is hard
to bet against.

Porsche should be fast but they've proven to have some reliability issues with that trick
suspension they're running.

Look for the top six cars to be within a second of each other in qualifying. It's all going
to be extremely close.

BHW

 

Toyota seems to have the package, we'll see if Audi can win on strategy...or if they have a trick up their sleeve

it's going to be a hell of a race!

 

Its definitely going to be a race not to miss.
I'm going with Audi

 

Does anyone know what the TV broadcast schedules are? In Autoweek magazines TV listings they only show at 6:30pm EST Sat on FS2 and at 1am Sun on FS1

 

Looks as though Le Mans will be broadcast by FOX Sports variants throughout the race.

Along with FOX Sports 1, there evidently is now FOX Sports 2 and FOXSportsGo.com which
is a live streaming option.

FOX Sports to Provide Flag-to-Flag Le Mans Coverage - Sportscar365

There are always the other live streaming options such as VIPBox.co and on-board camera
from Audi and Corvette which features Radio Le Mans commentary.

VIP Box | VIPBox TV - VIP Stand Sports On Demand For Free
Home
Corvette Racing

BHW

 

Maybe our friend from NOLA is on to something. Ferrari is set to make a major announcement Saturday morning from Le Mans.

I've never bought into these types of rumors especially when it concerns Ferrari joining LMP-1. But, this year, the rumors seem to gaining momentum.

Ferrari back at Le Mans: more hints | News | Motorsport.com

BHW

 

I'd love to see it, and certainly there's some crossover tech wise with the future of road cars; but Ferrari would be the only car maker on the planet with both an F1 and LMP1 team, and I wonder where the funds will come from. also a factory P1 team doesn't fit in with the last 25-30 years of Ferrari sports car programs (even the 333SP was largely a privateer program).

but we shall see. Ferrari raising their profile in sports cars is good for everyone.

 

Thanks Barton!

 

Porsche is celebrating its return to Le Mans with a special edition PDK Carrera S (all esthetics, no performance mods):

Porsche 911 Martini Racing Edition| evo

I pulled out my 1/18s of 917 #23 and the psychedelic GT1 . . .
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Trust the marketing guys to jump on/trample all over a good thing…..

 

Heres another article

http://bleacherreport.com/tb/ddgmS

 

Here is Alonso checking out the Audi R18 TDI e-tron quattro at the FIA awards in Paris
last year.

His interest appeared to more than just casual.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvcH8vs01rk]Fernando Alonso VS Audi R18 E-Tron ! - YouTube[/ame]

BHW

 

I don't think anyone can argue that the LMP1 cars are much more interesting than F1 cars with just as much technology

 

Nope, if anything I think the current LMP1 cars are more jaw dropping. They looks like ******** space ships.

 

Right up until they get BOP'd...... That is at the heart of what spoils them for me.

Cheers,
Ian

 

First time I saw the R18 prototype in all black I was like "holy cow they made darth vader into a racecar!" Looks insane and I was immediately interested in figuring out what other tech it had.

 

back to the race at hand, first qualy sessions tomorrow. Toyota seems to be dominating, but at La Sarthe Audi is very much at home. Allthough Peugeot have proven they can be beaten. Whatever happens, it is going to be close. The Toyota me have the performance edge, but Audi will Always be close.

 

Right you are..Porsche is the dark horse in all of this

 

I have that pic still and that was the most sinister looking thing at the time!

 

imagine this bearing down on you down the Mulsanne straight at 3am!


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huge practice crash for Duval in the #1 Audi.

 

Did you see what happened? Just saw a picture of the car, looks like what you would expect if a car hit a wall midair, incredible damage.. I am going to refrain from linking to it until we get word of his condition.

Praying all of the safety gear did its job.

 

didn't see the incident.

you can follow along here: dennis511 on Justin.tv

pic of the car. MASSIVE damage. prayers for Loic
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The amount of cockpit damage is discouraging, much more than this incident from '11:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zieVq1JDAEo

 

garage door closed for #1 Audi. car covered in tarp.

I don't have a good feeling about this.