Acura/HPD's future plans

[Victor_RO]

Graham Goodwin reports...

RML ARX01d now branded as a Honda

http://twitter.com/#!/dsceditor/stat...31438847180800

So... thread title update in order to reflect this? Or does the HPD cover it?

[CTD]

Originally Posted by Victor_RO

Graham Goodwin reports...



http://twitter.com/#!/dsceditor/stat...31438847180800

So... thread title update in order to reflect this? Or does the HPD cover it?

HPD still covers it as there are other HPD/Acura's than RML's.

[Victor_RO]

Originally Posted by CTD

HPD still covers it as there are other HPD/Acura's than RML's.

I suspect that Strakka's car will go through the same rebranding before the beginning of April...

[Simmi]

The Honda branding is really good news I think. They must fancy their chances against Nissan and want to get some marketing mileage out of it. Hopefully it's just the first small step in Honda fully coming out of the closet.

[joeb]

Originally Posted by Victor_RO

I suspect that Strakka's car will go through the same rebranding before the beginning of April...

That is interesting in that the Highcroft car still says HPD on the front. Although you are right, it would be quite easy to put a big H up there instead.

All in all I see this as good news as far as Honda's involvement goes. If you say the word Honda to most people in the world they will know what Honda is, but say HPD and most people won't have a clue. So rebranding the ARX cars as Hondas will only increase the series' exposure.

[AGD]

Originally Posted by joeb

That is interesting in that the Highcroft car still says HPD on the front. Although you are right, it would be quite easy to put a big H up there instead.

All in all I see this as good news as far as Honda's involvement goes. If you say the word Honda to most people in the world they will know what Honda is, but say HPD and most people won't have a clue. So rebranding the ARX cars as Hondas will only increase the series' exposure.

I thought the plan all along was to badge the LMP2 cars (at least the engines) as Hondas since they are production derived engines. For example, the Level 5 Lolas are listed as having Honda, not HPD, engines. That's interesting if they want to call the whole package a Honda. They must be pretty confident about winning in LMP2 so why not?

Any word on what tires RML plans on running in 2011? I believe the LMS/Le Mans entry lists still list the tires as being TBD. The drivers were wearing Dunlop patches on their shirts when they announced the program at the Autosport show, but the ARX-01s have always worn Michelins so it would seem more logical that they would go the Michelin rather than Dunlop route.

[Graham Goodwin]

Originally Posted by joeb

That is interesting in that the Highcroft car still says HPD on the front. Although you are right, it would be quite easy to put a big H up there instead.

All in all I see this as good news as far as Honda's involvement goes. If you say the word Honda to most people in the world they will know what Honda is, but say HPD and most people won't have a clue. So rebranding the ARX cars as Hondas will only increase the series' exposure.

The change in branding came late on today with some details still to be ironed out.

Does this mean a sea change in the programmes - No, but it does indicate that Honda are moviong from being sensitive about motorsports involvement during the financial downturn to being more up front once again about programmes that they feel reflect their brand values.

[Graham Goodwin]

Originally Posted by AGD

Any word on what tires RML plans on running in 2011?

The car is on Dunlops

[JAG]

Is the Acura brand no longer being pushed with this program?

Acura means nothing in Europe but there's a history going back to IMSA GTP in the US.

[dj4monie]

Looks great. My dark horse and should be on-pace, surprising pace.

[AGD]

Originally Posted by Graham Goodwin

The car is on Dunlops

Wow, thanks. This should make the competition between Strakka and RML more interesting.

Originally Posted by JAG

Is the Acura brand no longer being pushed with this program?

Acura means nothing in Europe but there's a history going back to IMSA GTP in the US.

I believe Acura pulled all marketing support of the program after the 2009 season. The Comptech Acura Spice BFG GT Lights car sure was a competition crusher back in the early 90s. Of course, Honda has a bit of history at Le Mans as well with the NSX (running under the Honda badge) winning GT2 at the 24 hours in 1995.

[gwyllion]

I found this picture of the RLM ARX-01d from the LMS Paul Ricard testing: http://www.lemans-series.com/ml/imag.../__001_640.JPG

The car features two turbo snorkels. A closeup of the air inlet: http://pitlane-vision.com/images/sto.../12.03/3/3.jpg

I am not sure whether this is the low drag aero: no Zytek like turning vane, but 2 huge dive planes.

[Victor_RO]

Originally Posted by gwyllion

I am not sure whether this is the low drag aero: no Zytek like turning vane, but 2 huge dive planes.

It can't be the low-drag aero, the car was slow in terms of trap speed compared to the competition at the end of S2 (and that timing point is on the Mistral).

[Graham Goodwin]

Originally Posted by Victor_RO

It can't be the low-drag aero, the car was slow in terms of trap speed compared to the competition at the end of S2 (and that timing point is on the Mistral).

The car isn't running the low drag set-up here (at ricard) but that has very little to do with the lack of straight line speed this weekend

[Victor_RO]

Originally Posted by Graham Goodwin

The car isn't running the low drag set-up here (at ricard) but that has very little to do with the lack of straight line speed this weekend

So just the consequence of a long familiarisation run with the car?

[gwyllion]

Or engine related issues?

[Graham Goodwin]

Originally Posted by Victor_RO

So just the consequence of a long familiarisation run with the car?

No, the engine is strangled by a restrictor that means the car struggles to get by GTE cars on the straight and is beaten out of corners for speed by FLM cars - and no they aren't sandbagging either.

I know not everyone is a dsc subscriber (if only!!!) but we've mentioned this repeatedly over the last 2 days - You can though take a look at the RML website which either now, or pretty soon, will have their test report up.

[gwyllion]

That does not explain why the TDS Oreca Nissan was quite a lot faster. In the first session the top speed in sector 2 was 273 km/h for TDS and only 260 km/h for RML.

It has been said repeatedly that in the GT2 rules turbo engines have a disadvantage compared to NA engines. The LMP2 engines rules are effectively caried over from GT2. So did HPD make a bad choice by going turbocharged?

[gwyllion]

I just saw that the RML report is online: http://www.rml-adgroup.com/racing/LM...eview_2011.htm

If there is a cause for concern it is one shared by several other teams in the LMP2 class, where the speed differential between the prototypes and the leading GT and Formula Le Mans cars is seriously blurred. The HPD appears to have suffered even more under the new regulations than the rest, and the speed trap figures cannot hide the fact that the car is significantly disadvantaged along the straights.

That implies that the car is down on power compared to the Nissan and Judd powered cars. Having a high downforce aero probably also did not help.

BTW the turbo snorkel looks like a smaller version of the R15 one: http://www.rml-adgroup.com/racing/LM...view_pic02.jpg

[dj4monie]

Originally Posted by gwyllion

I found this picture of the RLM ARX-01d from the LMS Paul Ricard testing: http://www.lemans-series.com/ml/imag.../__001_640.JPG

The car features two turbo snorkels. A closeup of the air inlet: http://pitlane-vision.com/images/sto.../12.03/3/3.jpg

I am not sure whether this is the low drag aero: no Zytek like turning vane, but 2 huge dive planes.

You forgot the G in jpg and your link is broken because of it.

[dj4monie]

Originally Posted by gwyllion

That does not explain why the TDS Oreca Nissan was quite a lot faster. In the first session the top speed in sector 2 was 273 km/h for TDS and only 260 km/h for RML.

It has been said repeatedly that in the GT2 rules turbo engines have a disadvantage compared to NA engines. The LMP2 engines rules are effectively caried over from GT2. So did HPD make a bad choice by going turbocharged?

No because they are bringing their own air, always a good thing. ACO can basically do whatever they want in front of the air inlet of the turbo, but can't do much with what comes out.

Restricted Engines are built differently and I'm not going to go into a drawn out discussion of fluid dynamics, cam shaft specs and other things you need to do in order to get some of the power back from having to use a smaller inlet restrictor. HPD now has a benchmark, they'll make adjustments.

[cdsvg]

01e out on track: http://www.highcroftracing.com/news/...the-track.html

[Bentley03]

Originally Posted by dj4monie

You forgot the G in jpg and your link is broken because of it.

Fixed.

[CTD]

Originally Posted by cdsavage

01e out on track: http://www.highcroftracing.com/news/...the-track.html

Wow!, that looks - I don't quite know...

[Félix]

Originally Posted by dj4monie

No because they are bringing their own air, always a good thing. ACO can basically do whatever they want in front of the air inlet of the turbo, but can't do much with what comes out.

Restricted Engines are built differently and I'm not going to go into a drawn out discussion of fluid dynamics, cam shaft specs and other things you need to do in order to get some of the power back from having to use a smaller inlet restrictor. HPD now has a benchmark, they'll make adjustments.

Restrictors limit the volume of air that can ultimately enter the engine because air passing through said restrictor can't go faster than the speed of sound. Why would they use restrictors for turbos if they have no effect? Besides, that engine was probably tested with that restrictor size from the very beginning so it must be close to fine-tuned when you look at how long it took HPD before to get it right.

I guess we'll know more when Level 5's Lola hits the track against a bunch of LMP2 V8s. But even then, we'll never see different engines in the same P2 chassis until LM, so the ARX's high drag nature will always be a possible cause.