Test day and beyond.
Well, here we are again, happy as can be! The weather is doing its best to mess things up but otherwise your team is mostly up and running.
Testing was rather more interesting than we had expected. It is hard to believe that, with Peugeot taking a sabbatical and nursing the wounds inflicted by their wobbly road car sales, anybody will beat the Audis. So this is turning into the year of alternative technologies. It came as shock to this ‘old fart’ when Audi and Peugeot went down the blindingly quick ‘oil fired’ route so imagine the state he is in with the new breed of ‘Hybrids’. Their development has been spectacular. It started with the quaint concept that a hybrid had to be able to propel itself along the whole length of the pit lane and is now giving us a four-wheel drive Audi that seems to as quick as its standard oil burning chums!
As Peugeot left the scene, bingo, Toyota sprang out of the woodwork .. We wonder what the deal was that brought them to Le Mans. Some reckon they have arrived a year earlier than expected. Also have you seen the 2012 Le Mans poster? Umm.. That Toyota is clearly overtaking the Audi mmm.. We kind-of feel that might not have impressed Audi!
After testing it became very clear that Toyota were not here just here for the wine and hospitality! Maybe Audi were sandbagging, who knows, but the Toyotas were bang on the pace. Let’s see how they go in qualifying but there are some that think they might/could even take pole.. they might last for several hours.. they might get plenty of TV and media coverage.. but what if they hold together? There are rumours that they might capable of doing a couple more laps between stops than the Audis. However during testing they were quicker in a straight line than Audi.. but that is a classic way of hiding a car’s potential! Quite a lot of 'mights' but this is early days!
Next up in the ‘fascinating’ stakes is the Nissan Delta Wing. We gather from reliable sources (probably the Harlequin Bar in Arnage) that the ACO suggested a ‘target’ time that the Nissan should aim at and not to go any quicker to save embarrassing the LMP2 brigade. Interesting thought. They cruised along and ended up 3 or 4 secs off that time straight out of the box with only Snetterton testing behind them. It would be embarrassing if a 1.6 litre engine based on the one in the Nissan Juke was able to beat the highly sophisticated LM P2 machinery. The Delta Wing really is rather curious beast but it works.. rather well it seems. The specification is very ‘un Le Mans like’.. The engine is a 1588 cc four cylinder turbo.... Power output 300 bhp at 7400 rpm .. five speed sequential gear box. .. top speed 196 mph. . fuel economy 12 mpg. .. unladened weight 475 kgs and a chassis that owes quite a lot to the ill-fated AMR One, but with a dragster-style front end. We also wondered how well it would see in the dark , some pics we have seen show that there are a couple of thumping great headlights built into each rear wheel arches. . not sure why they won’t dazzle the driver in his wing mirrors. . Other gems of useless info are that a 0-62 mph time of 3.3 secs is claimed ...the front wheels are set 24 ins apart and measure 15x4 ins. . same as on a Citroen 2CV. .only a quarter of the weight is over front wheels.. ..and the front dampers are the same size as the ones you might find on a mountain bike. . (eek!)
The next ‘big thing’ looks like the Green GT. This seems to be basically a controlled hydrogen bomb on wheels, that dribbles water not exhaust gas.. We went to the launch and the first impression is ‘Wow.. what a bloody great huge thing it is’! But on closer inspection the engineering is superb and this is one serious bit of kit . As one might expect some 5 million quid down the line. It has the added bonus that it could double up as an aircraft carrier should the need arise. The two tanks for the hydrogen will possibly unhook and would be replaced at pit stops. The team reckon that this would take no longer than conventional refuelling. The ‘bombshell’ (maybe an unfortunate turn of phrase), was that the ACO have invited The GreenGT to take part in Le Mans 24hrs 2013. This caused the odd raised eyebrow amongst the team! However they have told us that they will fire it up at Silverstone in August and all that compressed air whooshing around makes it sound like a fighter jet on take-off.
With your scribe temporarily stuck in UK ‘sans passport’ ...long story ! The rest of the Team have been dodging the showers at scrutineering so more info will follow.
So, it may well be a rather more interesting race than some of us expected.. but as you know by now we have a 100% track record for getting things hopelessly wrong. Let’s see what occurs during qualifying.
As Peugeot left the scene, bingo, Toyota sprang out of the woodwork .. We wonder what the deal was that brought them to Le Mans. Some reckon they have arrived a year earlier than expected. Also have you seen the 2012 Le Mans poster? Umm.. That Toyota is clearly overtaking the Audi mmm.. We kind-of feel that might not have impressed Audi!
After testing it became very clear that Toyota were not here just here for the wine and hospitality! Maybe Audi were sandbagging, who knows, but the Toyotas were bang on the pace. Let’s see how they go in qualifying but there are some that think they might/could even take pole.. they might last for several hours.. they might get plenty of TV and media coverage.. but what if they hold together? There are rumours that they might capable of doing a couple more laps between stops than the Audis. However during testing they were quicker in a straight line than Audi.. but that is a classic way of hiding a car’s potential! Quite a lot of 'mights' but this is early days!
Next up in the ‘fascinating’ stakes is the Nissan Delta Wing. We gather from reliable sources (probably the Harlequin Bar in Arnage) that the ACO suggested a ‘target’ time that the Nissan should aim at and not to go any quicker to save embarrassing the LMP2 brigade. Interesting thought. They cruised along and ended up 3 or 4 secs off that time straight out of the box with only Snetterton testing behind them. It would be embarrassing if a 1.6 litre engine based on the one in the Nissan Juke was able to beat the highly sophisticated LM P2 machinery. The Delta Wing really is rather curious beast but it works.. rather well it seems. The specification is very ‘un Le Mans like’.. The engine is a 1588 cc four cylinder turbo.... Power output 300 bhp at 7400 rpm .. five speed sequential gear box. .. top speed 196 mph. . fuel economy 12 mpg. .. unladened weight 475 kgs and a chassis that owes quite a lot to the ill-fated AMR One, but with a dragster-style front end. We also wondered how well it would see in the dark , some pics we have seen show that there are a couple of thumping great headlights built into each rear wheel arches. . not sure why they won’t dazzle the driver in his wing mirrors. . Other gems of useless info are that a 0-62 mph time of 3.3 secs is claimed ...the front wheels are set 24 ins apart and measure 15x4 ins. . same as on a Citroen 2CV. .only a quarter of the weight is over front wheels.. ..and the front dampers are the same size as the ones you might find on a mountain bike. . (eek!)
The next ‘big thing’ looks like the Green GT. This seems to be basically a controlled hydrogen bomb on wheels, that dribbles water not exhaust gas.. We went to the launch and the first impression is ‘Wow.. what a bloody great huge thing it is’! But on closer inspection the engineering is superb and this is one serious bit of kit . As one might expect some 5 million quid down the line. It has the added bonus that it could double up as an aircraft carrier should the need arise. The two tanks for the hydrogen will possibly unhook and would be replaced at pit stops. The team reckon that this would take no longer than conventional refuelling. The ‘bombshell’ (maybe an unfortunate turn of phrase), was that the ACO have invited The GreenGT to take part in Le Mans 24hrs 2013. This caused the odd raised eyebrow amongst the team! However they have told us that they will fire it up at Silverstone in August and all that compressed air whooshing around makes it sound like a fighter jet on take-off.
With your scribe temporarily stuck in UK ‘sans passport’ ...long story ! The rest of the Team have been dodging the showers at scrutineering so more info will follow.
So, it may well be a rather more interesting race than some of us expected.. but as you know by now we have a 100% track record for getting things hopelessly wrong. Let’s see what occurs during qualifying.
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