[LM24] Biggest upsets or surprises at Le Mans

[MorganFan]

I was thinking, having now been to 4 consecutive Le Mans, that, despite them all being great in their own way (even with the rain in 2001!!), that it was generally always totally obvious/predictable who was going to win, i.e Bentley in 2003, Audi every other year, with this year posing a slightly tougher choice as to which Audi team would win.

So, as I am a relative novice to this LM stuff, my question is, has it always been like this in recent years? Will it continue to be like this? Will any major manufacturer seriously commit to an LMP programmme now unless they have a damm good chance of winning. Seems to me that several of the manufacturers now look at GTS as a better chance of glory whilst the likes of Audi are still around;I mean, who would seriously countenance the kind of multi-year investment that is needed to build an LMP that could win outright at LM?

Bentley could surely only do it because they were effectively the same company as Audi and there was internal agreement over who got all the funding that year, Cadillac made a complete mess of it, Chrysler stood a chance but got cold feet, and MG realised that they had a seriously good car that could frighten the Audi's but had a stick of dynamite where the engine should have been.

I have heard rumours that Porsche held off their LMP programme due to mutual 'agreement' with Audi due to the VAG/Porsche tie-up over the Cayenne/Touraeg, so....when/will we see two major, competing manufacturers develop LMP programmes at the same time?

Interested to hear everyone else's thoughts,comments,etc.

[Kicking-back]

This year's Le Mans was one of the closest for a long time - when was there last a genuine race to the flag?

[MorganFan]

Yeah, I agree, this year was as close a race as I've seen, but if we're being totally honest, who woudn't have bet their house on an Audi taking the chequered flag? I am thinking more of disperate makes being in with a serious chance of victory in the same year, rather than having to settle for a best-of-the-rest car having "a chance of victory" if the dominant make that year blew-up/crashed/etc.

I think LM needs to move away from that sort of perceived predicatability, but I don't know how realistic or likely that is in the near future.

[jhansen]

It depends on how you look at. Three very independant teams battled it out this year. Quite fiercely in fact. The end result was great. I would say 1998 and 1999 were very good years as far as guessing who the winner would be. Both years saw a number of high profile manufacturers. We tend to have short memories though.