ACO have just postponed the initial deadline for submitting an entry form to january 31st. (initial 18). Maybe something interesting coming...

Quote from MoMo92i :

Wurz-Lapierre-Nakajima->rookie

Nakajima, yes.

Lapierre and Wurz, no. The former did four LM24h races and two seasons in LMS. The latter did five LM24h races with two wins.

Was only talking about nakajima wurz is one of the few drivers (<10 including 1923's Lagache and Leonard winner) to win as a rookie. So basically only few chances to see such a line up winning.

Quote from MoMo92i :

Was only talking about nakajima wurz is one of the few drivers (<10 including 1923's Lagache and Leonard winner) to win as a rookie. So basically only few chances to see such a line up winning.

It's highly unlikely that Toyota will win, even with a veteran line-up. It took Peugeot three seasons to beat Audi. With a petrol engine and untested hybrid system, Toyota could take longer. They might as well give one of their most successful junior programme graduates a chance.

Well they have Rebellion for that

Quote from RiseAgainstMe! :

Those lights are terribly ugly. I suppose they will be rather functional though, and that's really all that matters

I read that they're having poor night time visibility problems because of the headlights

Never mind then

Just strap some massive rally lights on it, problem solved

would be awesome for Mulsanne straight

Quote from MAGGOT :

I read that they're having poor night time visibility problems because of the headlights

from the pics it looks like ordinary Halogen lights. Wonder why they didn't choose LEDs.

btw, anyone noticed the GoPro? Those cameras are everywhere.

Go Pro cameras were everywhere at the rally I was at this weekend too... we watched some of the stage video with the co-driver and crew that were staying in the same place as us. The quality was pretty awesome. I'm a fan.

The organizers had some of them set up on the edges of the snow drifts to catch the cars whizzing by... people had them in the crowds, some on poles that they could stick out to get closer.

They really seem to have a hold on the action camera market now. They are everywhere, and not even just in racing.

Quote from RiseAgainstMe! :

They really seem to have a hold on the action camera market now. They are everywhere, and not even just in racing.

Sno*Drift? I follow one of the teams from their cars build thread

GoPro cameras are great, easy to use, not overladen with settings, and they are build for a type of usage that other cams where never meant for (and fail at). A friend of mine has one for his Seven.

Quote from ACCAkut :

Sno*Drift? I follow one of the teams from their cars build thread

GoPro cameras are great, easy to use, not overladen with settings, and they are build for a type of usage that other cams where never meant for (and fail at). A friend of mine has one for his Seven.

Yeah Which team?

Finnish Fury Motorsports, stumbled upon the build thread for their 240SX rally car a while back.



back on topic, german Sportauto spreads the rumour that

• 1) Honda is considering returning to the LMP1 class now that Toyota is in it and
  
• 2) Mazda is in development of a LMP1 themselves.
  

Apparently they go another route of green racing, by use of a Hydrogen Rotary. Which in my eyes is realistic since its their masterpeice atm, and they were developing in that direction already (the Furai was basicely a Courage LMP1 chassis with a mindboggling hull)

Quote from ACCAkut :

Apparently they go another route of green racing, by use of a Hydrogen Rotary. Which in my eyes is realistic since its their masterpeice atm, and they were developing in that direction already (the Furai was basicely a Courage LMP1 chassis with a mindboggling hull)

but how will they be able to afford to harvest enough hydrogen to run it a full season?

put up a windmill somewhere windy at the coast and let it run 24/7, no problem. I guess thats the smallest problem they have.

not a full season, 24 hours ^^. Btw would be surprised to see Mazda in LMP1 since heir engine was really unreliable and underpowered...(basically AER)

Minassian and Bourdais joins Pescarolo-Dome for Spa and LeMans this year.
http://www.dome.co.jp/e/news/news120202e.html

great news about dome,

re hydrogen, just think of it as an electicity storage medium, you pump elec into water, save the hydrogen, burn the hydrogen to generate power and water, if you burn it in a power cell you create the power as electricity for motors, if you burn it in an engine you get lots of lovely noise

hopefully we'll see more people backing hydrogen for road use and therefore racing, after the UK gov followed california's lead, it offers a far more practical method of fueling a car (indirectly) from electricity as the refueling time is a couple of mins rather than 6 or 8 hours and it also allows manufacturers the choice of fuel cells/ electric drive or to retain internal combustion engines for types of cars that suit that engine such as sports cars and competition

Quote from ACCAkut :

back on topic, german Sportauto spreads the rumour that

• 1) Honda is considering returning to the LMP1 class now that Toyota is in it and
  
• 2) Mazda is in development of a LMP1 themselves.
  

Apparently they go another route of green racing, by use of a Hydrogen Rotary. Which in my eyes is realistic since its their masterpeice atm, and they were developing in that direction already (the Furai was basicely a Courage LMP1 chassis with a mindboggling hull)

The print version?

Quote from MoMo92i :

not a full season, 24 hours ^^. Btw would be surprised to see Mazda in LMP1 since heir engine was really unreliable and underpowered...(basically AER)

You mean in the '09 Oak Racing car?

I think Mazda's done fairly well in ALMS with the MZR-R powered Dyson Racing Lola car. A 2 liter turbocharged 4 cylinder taking on the AMR-Lola with the n/a 6 liter V12. I'd love to see Mazda return to LMS/WEC though with a LMP1/2 car, or even a GT car. There's several RX8s running in the Grand-Am series, I think that they could be competitive in the GTE-AM category too.

Wishful thinking.

Quote from ACCAkut :

back on topic, german Sportauto spreads the rumour that
[LIST]
[*]1) Honda is considering returning to the LMP1 class now that Toyota is in it and
[*]2) Mazda is in development of a LMP1 themselves.

Quote from deggis :

The print version?

probably correct, radio lemans and daily sportscar have been aware for a while of at least one probably 2 more japanese factory efforts that may be entering on top of the toyota and the nissan engine / future LMP1 privateer program but they won't say who but given there's only 2 of the big 4 left it's not hard to work out

Quote from deggis :

The print version?

yep

they also wrote that, should the programm turn out to be too expensive, they would extend their LMP2 programm from the ALMS, maybe with a diesel.
But for me that doesn't fit the sporty image that Mazda tries to maintain.

Mazda runs a hydrogen wankel programm since at least 2003 (RX-8 Hydrogen RE, Premacy Hydrogen RE Hybrid) There is an intersting quote on the Wiki page for the Mazda Wankels:

Quote from On November 16, 2011, Mazda CEO, Takashi Yamanouchi :

"So long as I remain involved with this company... there will be a rotary engine offering or multiple offerings in the lineup."

afaik there is only the Premacy atm

Entry lists for Le Mans and WEC:

http://www.lemans.org/wpphpFic ... 4_heures_du_mans_2012.pdf

WEC: http://www.lemans.org/wpphpFic ... son_entry_List_310112.pdf

4x Audis! This must have been greenlighted when Peugeot was still onboard.

well it is a result of the rules. WEC-Manufactors may enter a 3rd car for 24h of LeMans. Still the Rulebook of the 24h allow manufactors one more car^^ that sums up to 4