Sportscar/GT (and Le Mans) Rumours and Repetition

[CTD]

Originally Posted by Dented Table

What about that Porsche 918 Spyder Hybrid thingamabobber they were talking about at Planetlemans.com? 2014.

Originally Posted by Spyderman

The Porsche 918 Spyder Hybrid thingamabobber is not a LMP.

It was mentioned as a possible 56th entry, but never considered.

[DeathOrGlory]

Thanks for that Mr. Goodwin sir, I stand corrected.

So its Toyota (with ORECA in the shadows).

Ever since i upgraded my internet connection I can listen to MWM now. And I say there's nothing more informative and fun to listen to.

[Mal]

Dagys has tweeted about another Japanese manufacturer being represented on the LMP1 grid at Le Mans in 2012 and its not Honda or Toyota.

Surely that can only be Mazda or Nissan? I have never heard of any interest from Mitsubishi or Suburu and who else is there?

[CTD]

Originally Posted by Mal

Dagys has tweeted about another Japanese manufacturer being represented on the LMP1 grid at Le Mans in 2012 and its not Honda or Toyota.

Surely that can only be Mazda or Nissan? I have never heard of any interest from Mitsubishi or Suburu and who else is there?

Suzuki

A Nissan powered Pescarolo?
Or Dome!? (that would be a surprise!)

[Pandamasque]

Originally Posted by Mal

Dagys has tweeted about another Japanese manufacturer being represented on the LMP1 grid at Le Mans in 2012 and its not Honda or Toyota.

Surely that can only be Mazda or Nissan? I have never heard of any interest from Mitsubishi or Suburu and who else is there?

Mitsuoka perhaps?

[Graham Goodwin]

Dyson Mazda

[CTD]

Originally Posted by Graham Goodwin

Dyson Mazda

Is this a guess or an fact? If it's a fact, my dad might just hope for three brands this year

[courageous]

Fact inso far as Dyson have auto invites which they are considering taking up - nothing definite, but with the middle eastern money & renewed Japanese interest this is the best chance at getting a headline grabbing result (helping Mazda beat Toyota & Honda) Dyson are ever going to have

The drums are being banged by Dyson on this rather than the story being forced upon them

[AGD]

Originally Posted by courageous

Fact inso far as Dyson have auto invites which they are considering taking up - nothing definite, but with the middle eastern money & renewed Japanese interest this is the best chance at getting a headline grabbing result (helping Mazda beat Toyota & Honda) Dyson are ever going to have

The drums are being banged by Dyson on this rather than the story being forced upon them

Actually, Mazda might be best off requesting that Dyson pulls the Mazda logos off the cars if they take them to Le Mans. Those cars were pathetic at best even compared to the Lola-Astons when they were running closer in regulations and that was even with Dyson having a pretty significant weight break. Even with the massive BoP that IMSA gave Dyson towards the end of the year, the Lola-Aston (which also received some restriction breaks, but not nearly as much as Dyson) still seemed to be faster in race trim. Granted, Aston seemed to give Cytosport parts from the Lucas parts bin the last few races. Add to that the likelihood of gentleman drivers and I'm not so sure how much positive publicity Mazda would get out of this venture. It's different in the ALMS where they will get favorable regs and much less competition.

[Rodger Davies]

makes perfect sense I suppose, if Mr Al Masaood wants to take Oryx Racing there, there's an auto-invite awaiting him. With a bit of funding from maybe Mazda and the Dysons it might not be competitive for the overall but would make good sense and be a welcome addition.

Do Dyson have three chassis?

[The Badger]

Well , Mazda should show a little more interest . Rebadging engines has been their game since 1992 . What do they expect ?

Perhaps if they want to be taken seriously , they should behave in a more serious manner .

[AGD]

Originally Posted by The Badger

Well , Mazda should show a little more interest . Rebadging engines has been their game since 1992 . What do they expect ?

Perhaps if they want to be taken seriously , they should behave in a more serious manner .

I don't think Mazda wants to be taken seriously. At least not by the race organizers. What they want are charity regulations. That propelled them to victory in 1991 and it has helped them since as well. Their success in the ALMS last year arguably was attributable to charity regulations as well as the better reliability of the AER badged fake MZR engine.

Is it possible that they will receive charity regulations from the ACO? I sense it to be less likely, but they could always push that the isobutanol rules are way off ala what the petrol runners say about diesel. Maybe they could get some charity from that. I don't see the ACO really buying into that though, but maybe they will to gain Mazda's favor.

[joeb]

Originally Posted by Rodger Davies

makes perfect sense I suppose, if Mr Al Masaood wants to take Oryx Racing there, there's an auto-invite awaiting him. With a bit of funding from maybe Mazda and the Dysons it might not be competitive for the overall but would make good sense and be a welcome addition.

Do Dyson have three chassis?

Ther is talk of Dyson getting new lolas for LM.

[19dodge]

Originally Posted by AGD

Actually, Mazda might be best off requesting that Dyson pulls the Mazda logos off the cars if they take them to Le Mans. Those cars were pathetic at best even compared to the Lola-Astons when they were running closer in regulations and that was even with Dyson having a pretty significant weight break. Even with the massive BoP that IMSA gave Dyson towards the end of the year, the Lola-Aston (which also received some restriction breaks, but not nearly as much as Dyson) still seemed to be faster in race trim. Granted, Aston seemed to give Cytosport parts from the Lucas parts bin the last few races. Add to that the likelihood of gentleman drivers and I'm not so sure how much positive publicity Mazda would get out of this venture. It's different in the ALMS where they will get favorable regs and much less competition.

Read the article. Dyson will be getting new cars if they go to Le Mans:

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/artic...g-lm24-effort/

[AGD]

Originally Posted by 19dodge

Read the article. Dyson will be getting new cars if they go to Le Mans:

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/artic...g-lm24-effort/

I know, but is that really going to solve Dyson's performance woes when running to ACO regs? If anything, it takes away their weight break. Granted, improved aero might make up for that, but we'll see. I'm interested to know what Dunlop has up their sleeves (if anything) in terms of wide front tires. But, anyway, even the finest chassis in the world won't make up for a lack of horsepower and I think that is where the problem lies. The MZR-R may have the horsepower, but I don't know if they can run the engine hard enough to make use of that horsepower without jeopardizing reliability.

Speaking of the chassis, are they "new" new chassis (freshly poured tubs) or are they converting their old chassis to /60 specs? Obviously they may have to buy a new chassis if they want to run 3 cars, but I don't know what definition of new we are using.

[FstrthnU]

Originally Posted by AGD

I know, but is that really going to solve Dyson's performance woes when running to ACO regs? If anything, it takes away their weight break. Granted, improved aero might make up for that, but we'll see. I'm interested to know what Dunlop has up their sleeves (if anything) in terms of wide front tires. But, anyway, even the finest chassis in the world won't make up for a lack of horsepower and I think that is where the problem lies. The MZR-R may have the horsepower, but I don't know if they can run the engine hard enough to make use of that horsepower without jeopardizing reliability.

Speaking of the chassis, are they "new" new chassis (freshly poured tubs) or are they converting their old chassis to /60 specs? Obviously they may have to buy a new chassis if they want to run 3 cars, but I don't know what definition of new we are using.

According to the article, they will likely be "Lola-B12/60" chassis. Those will be updated versions of the Lola-B10/60 chassis run by Rebellion Racing. Funny, both Toyota and Mazda using similar chassis.

[FstrthnU]

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/artic...g-lmp2-return/
This might also be of interest, Level 5 Motorsports has commited to ALMS LMP2. They said that they chose the ALMS because the WEC doesn't have a driver's championship (yet?), and also because they're afraid of the logistics for a global racing series. They're also optimistic that the ALMS will see at least 2-3 other LMP2 cars (OAK Racing and a Radical SR9 were named).

[Fogelhund]

Originally Posted by FstrthnU

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/artic...g-lmp2-return/
This might also be of interest, Level 5 Motorsports has commited to ALMS LMP2. They said that they chose the ALMS because the WEC doesn't have a driver's championship (yet?), and also because they're afraid of the logistics for a global racing series. They're also optimistic that the ALMS will see at least 2-3 other LMP2 cars (OAK Racing and a Radical SR9 were named).

I see the same post now in four threads.... Level 5 has NOT committed as of yet, and your link does not say they have.

We shall see on the other entries.............. Hopefully they aren't smoke and Chicken Soup.

[Coach Ep]

Well, entries for this year´s Le Mans will be very rare once the WEC entry list is announced, leaving just a couple of spots to be filled by ALMS/ELMS/others. Especially the ´adventurous´ gentlemen drivers - aka amateurs - will realize that a Le Mans-entry-only will be hard to get hold off and with some of these guys not being able to do the full WEC because of business obligations, Dyson (or other teams with auto entries) could be an opportunity to fulfill their lifetime dream.

Their auto entries isn´t hurting Dyson either when it comes to finding extra sponsorship, especially when they do commit to Le Mans (same probably with Pegasus), although it remains to be see what the extra value is for an American sponsor to invest in the Le Mans trip.

With the (possible) back-up from Mazda, could we perhaps see a tie-up between Dyson and Dempsey at Le Mans? Dyson´s Lolas are closed so Patrick would be allowed to race that car.

Related question: the auto entry is granted to a team in a certain class, does this have to be with the same car or can the team bring something completely different (say Audi instead of Lola)?

[Acid09]

Originally Posted by Coach Ep

Related question: the auto entry is granted to a team in a certain class, does this have to be with the same car or can the team bring something completely different (say Audi instead of Lola)?

I think officially they´re bound to a certain car but the ACO usually gives teams leeway when switching cars.

[Victor_RO]

Originally Posted by Acid09

I think officially they´re bound to a certain car but the ACO usually gives teams leeway when switching cars.

Theoretically they're allowed to switch cars, just look at Audi and Peugeot accepting their auto invites but turning up with new cars this year. I think the only limitation is to stay in the same class that they get the invite for.

[deggis]

About Honda:

http://translate.google.com/translat...ance-8898.html

Chassis will stay HPD but engines will be branded as Hondas. At least that's something.

But: "Here is the situation as it was communicated to us yesterday by Honda Performance Development. The only official commitment to date is:"

The optimist in me looks at those bolded words.

[AGD]

Originally Posted by deggis

Chassis will stay HPD but engines will be branded as Hondas. At least that's something.

But: "Here is the situation as it was communicated to us yesterday by Honda Performance Development. The only official commitment to date is:"

The optimistic in me looks at those bolded words.

FWIW, the Strakka ARX-03a renderings have a big Honda logo on the nose. If I remember correctly, the Strakka and RML LMP2s had Honda logos on their cars as well, but not the Highcroft LMP1. I don't think the Level 5 ARX-01gs had Honda logos either. Well, if nothing else, maybe it won't be so hard to guess that Honda had a hand in these new cars than they did in 2010 or in 2011 on some of the cars.

[NelisB]

Originally Posted by AGD

FWIW, the Strakka ARX-03a renderings have a big Honda logo on the nose. If I remember correctly, the Strakka and RML LMP2s had Honda logos on their cars as well, but not the Highcroft LMP1. I don't think the Level 5 ARX-01gs had Honda logos either. Well, if nothing else, maybe it won't be so hard to guess that Honda had a hand in these new cars than they did in 2010 or in 2011 on some of the cars.

The logo is no bigger then they were at Le Mans for Strakka.


Strakka Racing, HPD ARX-01d, LMP2 #42 by Niels.Breider, on Flickr

[AGD]

Originally Posted by NelisB

The logo is no bigger then they were at Le Mans for Strakka.

Yes, and as far as I remember, the Strakka and RML cars (which also wore the Honda logo) were badged Hondas at times. At least the engine was. The Highcroft P1 was not. I don't know if the Level 5 ARX-01gs were ever referred to as Hondas, but I did find this tidbit on the HPD page about the HPD engines that were in Level 5's Lolas at the time:

Two of those programs begin this weekend, as the 12 Hours of Sebring heralds the start of the American Le Mans Series and serves as the opening round of the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup. Highcroft Racing, coming off back-to-back ALMS championships with HPD power, will debut the new HPD ARX-01e in LMP1; while Level 5 Motorsports unveils an ambitious program that sees the Wisconsin-based team field Honda-powered Lola LMP2 prototypes in both the ALMS and ILMC championships in 2011.

http://racing.honda.com/hpd/press-re...spx?id=5942-en