New Lola B08/60 Coupe

[ger80]

Good performance from the Speedy "Baby" Lola in the "Formula Holland" class.
Hope we will see one B08 Lola in ALMS soon.

[Tim the Grey]

How long before someone over there bolts a Chev V8 in the back of one...?

[Evil Fuzzy]

On the first shots from the build up to the test day, it seems that the engineers have relocated the front brake ducts on the Charouz Lola Aston. They've stuck two extra lights in the raised nose and relocated the brake ducts to either side of the nose. Interestingly, the coupe's predessor, the B06/10, debuted with brake ducts on either side of the nose before updating to the raised nose design.
Any thoughts on the reason? My guess is either the difference between the two locations is fairly minimal which enabled the guys to fit the extra lights (as a precautionary or perhaps decreased visibility at night because of the closed cockpit design) or the duct in the nose is more likely to get clogged up with marbles.

[cdsvg]

I noticed that at Spa and Monza the car ran with both the side ducts and the central nose duct, unlike at Barcelona where only the nose duct was used. Perhaps the nose duct was blocked off at Spa and Monza, I would assume enough air is grabbed from the side ducts alone.

[protopuma]

These ducts have been on the car since Monza. Picture from EI at Le Mans http://www.endurance-info.com/2008_L.../Paddock27.jpg But the lights in the nose are new. The ducts had an interesting flap (I guess that what you could call it) placed on top of them at Spa. http://motorsport.com/photos/lms/200...pa-lh-0063.jpg

[WMUCarGuy]

How come Charouz is the only team whose Lola has brake ducts above the rear wheels? Other NA powered Lolas don't have them.

[cdsvg]

Originally Posted by WMUCarGuy

How come Charouz is the only team whose Lola has brake ducts above the rear wheels? Other NA powered Lolas don't have them.

This one does: http://www.endurance-info.com/2008_L.../Paddock26.jpg

On the other Lolas, in place of the radiator venting in front of the rear wheels is an intake, that is probably where the rear brake ducts are located.

See here: http://www.endurance-info.com/2008_L.../Paddock31.jpg

[The Badger]

Charouz has headlights bedded inside the centre nose intake ..... pics in LM2008 thread compliments of TOM .

[vorsprung]

Originally Posted by cdsavage

This one does: http://www.endurance-info.com/2008_L.../Paddock26.jpg

On the other Lolas, in place of the radiator venting in front of the rear wheels is an intake, that is probably where the rear brake ducts are located.

See here: http://www.endurance-info.com/2008_L.../Paddock31.jpg

You're right about the brake duct for P2 Lolas. Mulsanne's Corner has excellent pics of the ducts. All P1 Lolas have rear brake ducts above the rear fenders, turbo cars also have engine intake in the same spot.

[MulsanneMike]

The P1 Lola's that utilize turbo motors (AER) use the space that is typically for the "coke-bottle" duct as an area to put the coolers/intercoolers and vent them out the side of the car in that rea. It's a packaging issue for the turbo LMP1 cars.

[cmk]

Stefan Mucke stated to E-I that this was a learning year for the team, with the new package and a motor never before used in a prototype. This makes it sound like the project will continue for 2009 - but will they keep the Lola coupe?

[HORNDAWG]

Someone thinks that they have already purchased a second chassis!(?)
http://www.project-lemans.de/


L.P.

[deggis]

Originally Posted by HORNDAWG

Someone thinks that they have already purchased a second chassis!(?)
http://www.project-lemans.de/


L.P.

http://www.google.com/translate?u=ht...F8&sl=de&tl=en

[JAG]

There's a feature on the Lola Aston Martin in Racecar Engineering this month.

Prodrive designed the whole of the rear, it uses an Xtrac box compared to the HT box of other Lolas. The Aston also uses Brembo brakes, the regular Lolas use AP.

Prodrive have been doing aero work on the car, in addition to Lolas work, while the V12 will be optimised for the Coupe and it's restrictors later in the season. Right now it's basically in GT1 spec.

Lola also stated open cars can be upgraded to coupe spec, and they expect this to happen in some cases.

I guess that could apply to RML, Cytosport, and Field in the ALMS, who may be moving to two cars.

[SebringMG]

Very interesting that the open cars can be upgraged to Coupe spec - impressive design from Lola to be able to achieve that! Suspect more than a few teams will take them up on that - RML and ASM would be my main bets!!