Didn't know Long was from Thousand Oaks and his Birthday is a day before mine, albeit 8 years after mine.

 

Well done! Ok, I have to admit there was some pillow drool during my 4am stint that lasted an hour or so

 

Thanks and yes, the factory 911 RSR's are hard to figure these days. I believe at one point it set fastest lap in practice and qualy but they are no longer the measure of the Aston's and Ferrari's on race day. It has been a good few years since they have been class leading. Wish I knew more about this. We will now have have a lightweight mid engine Ecoboost turbo 4 in the new Ford to deal with. That car will be a demon. Then again, the Aston's defy the trend of the lighter mid engine turbo cars?

Any experts please chime in on the GT class wars!

 

I was lucky enough to watch it unfold in person, the LMP1 battle was epic. I watched Weber being chased at night by the #7 Audi and the gap between them never changed for several laps, until he had to go in and serve a prior driver penalty.
The other really great win was for the corvette Factory lonely car resulting in a Nascar inspired performance infront of the Grand stand, I thought that was the best burnout ever.
Nissan on the other hand had the most embarressing present, oh yeah and they did win the race as they have previously advertised , the Obama way.

 

You never really know what they are holding back during practice and qualifying. Even race day is not a great indication. They will show only what they need to. If a team appears to have a big advantage they will get weight penalties. Sometimes that will happen during the week of LeMans practice and qual, so they are very careful about showing too much. LeMans is a 24 hour race so noone runs all out for speed. They usually have a strategy that means running specific lap times which in total for the entire race will put them in the winners circle. You will note that the Astons were very quick in qual but had mechanical issues which put them in the back at the finish. I think you are right about the new Ford GT. It's aero is almost like a prototype. If they can build a good race car out of it they will be a major factor.

 

Thanks..

It sounds like you don't think pace is a factor with the Porsche cars? That good to know....

 

It is clear they have to make it to the end but the old enduro strategy is out. It seems like multi lap sprint runs time after time over the full 24 hours. It was so aggressive that a couple of the Audis set all time lap records in the middle of the night. They were so fast that they approached the Porsche qualifying times.

At this year's Daytona I was fortunate to be able to chat with some of the Porsche Motorsports bigwigs. I remember words to the effect that development of the 918 and the 919 had essentially sucked up the available corporate engineering talent. To me this clearly implied that the 911s had been left behind in the process but maybe their time for development is now. Hope so!

 

Ford GT will use an EcoBoost V6

 

Well I am not exactly saying that. I think it was obvious that Ferrari and Corvette were holding back their best cards. I also think Porsche is not as well off as those other teams. I believe Porsche needs to find a little more performance. Porsche GTE Pro did not really have the opportunity to show what they had with all of their fire issues. I think they found themselves just trying to hold on against the competition. Aston did everybody a favor by burning themselves up over the 24 hour race. The rest of the season will be interesting.

 

Porsche knew they didn't have a chance in GT. Halfway through the race they interviewed one of the 912 drivers. He pretty much said they would be very happy with third as they did not even expect that much. Luck was not with them.

 

I am not expert. Just an observer of a trend...and this one is not a particular favorable one for Porsche Motorsport!

Here is the list of entrants in the GTE Pro and GTE AM on the year I attended Le Mans in 2011. Look at the number of Porsche RSR's competing at Le Mans as recently as 2011:




Eight private teams (paying customers) competing with Porsche RSR's!



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Here is the list of entrants in the similar lower classes at Le Mans in 2015:



Six RSR in the entire field. Two are factory owned (Porsche Team Manthey) holding up the corporate banner in the battle field! Only two paying customers - Dempsey/Proton and IAA - with two RSRs apiece. And it would not surprise me to learn that at least Dempsey was somewhat subsidized by Porsche...and with some borrowed Porsche factory driving talent too!

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So as Jim McKay used to say:

The thrill of victory....

2nd Place in GTE AM


And the agony of defeat!

5th Place GTE - PRO...



And these two back of their respective field...





And then the DNF's...



#92 - Porsche Manthey - "Get out of the car...out of the car!"




#88 - Dempsey/Proton Racing








http://video.eurosport.com/wec/le-ma...77/video.shtml

or Google:'Second Porsche Catches Fire at Le Mans 24hr'

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Those are the stats. You tell me if you think Porsche is making progress or gaining customers to their RSR racing motorsports program! As the Führer of our Motorsport division is captured in this photo, things did not go as well as planned for the 991 RSRs at the Circuit de la Sarthe this year!



See post #26 for more banter on the two RSRs that caught fire at Le Mans:
https://rennlist.com/forums/991-gt3/...e-fires-2.html

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The answer to this dilemma is to introduce the FeFi - the mid-engined 960 / 988 model! And I am a firm believer that Porsche will introduce such a model in the NOT too distant future...regardless reports of its demise due to 'Sudden Infant Death Syndrome' (SIDS) at some VW Group crib at a corporate board meeting in Wolfsburg!



https://rennlist.com/forums/porsche-...m-porsche.html

Just my dos centavos...

Saludos,
Eduardo
Carmel

 

I went to Le Mans in 2011 as well. As you mentioned, there were many more Porsches in gt pro and amateur. The car count in general has been steadily decreasing since that time, especially in GT Pro. Seems like porsche has been focusing on the prototype category much more of late- at least that paid off! I'm not sure why Rahal's bmw team from Tudor series is not going to Le Mans (not sure if they weren't invited, but most likely chose not to go due to $).

By the way, if you were ever thinking about going to Le Mans, but haven't yet, go! It's an amazing time. Next year should be interesting with the Ford gt's in GT.

 

From what I'm hearing it will be a turbo RSR 992 or 960 depending on ACO rules. The GT is essentially a purpose built prototype and will walk the true "street" based cars if that diffuser and other tricks are allowed. The 960 would certainly have a strong stance from the marketing view as it would steal back some sales from 458/488/Mclaren's.

 

This is what it's supposed to look like? Hmmmm... I'd need some more angles but that one looks too much like a Jag to me...

 

Thanks, makes way more sense. Good catch..