Actually, I don't believe the ACO has a set of rules for the closed cockpit protos yet; except for the fact that they are required to run an airconditioner effective this year.
GTPs are so much cooler than LMPs... besides, come 2010, all the top class cars will be GTPs because of the mandate :P GTPs forever!
of course they do ranging from thinner tyres than lmps to a lot of other stuff ... its not like gtps have been around for only a few months with everybody at aco frantically running round the office trying to get some rules set for them
No I realise that, but I didn't think the ACO had a set rules set for them; just some additional guidlines. I thought this years GTPs had to run with LMP rules, but had some additional things to follow. (like the mandated air conditioner, etc.) but it was essentially an LMP chassis with a roof at this point, until the official GTP rules for 2010 started.
Not anymore. Since last year, both GTP and LMP can run the same size of tires. Additionally, GTPs get a weight bonus (iirc 25kg) in order to compensate for the air conditioning system, which costs weight AND power. A closed top car is also more aerodynamically efficient meaning better topspeed while running the same amount of downforce. That is quite a big factor at an ultra fast track like Le Sarthe. On short twisty tracks you can generate a bit more downforce with an open top car, but the Pug was developed for Le Mans. However, this all has nothing to do with the 2010 regulations which have not been drafted yet.
Regarding the sound: the Audi is substantially more silent since Audi uses it for promoting Diesels in the US where people still think a Diesel is loud and dirty, which is, as the Audi proves, far from the truth. The Pug, by design, can't have the snorkling sound of the 905 since it is a turbo engine in contrast to the 905's n/a 3.5l engine.
Audi was the key in getting that extra 25 kgs I've read. When they realised they couldn't get the R10 down to 900 kg, they took note of that mandatory air conditioner rule for the GTP cars and decided the open tops should get a weight addition to compensate for not having the air conditioner installed.
There was a rumour going around that the rule stipulated only those cars without an airconditioner had to have the added weight; Pescarolo got cheeky and installed an airconditioner unit. Because of the open cockpit, they never had to turn it on to get the cockpit temp below the limit, and thus, it didn't cost and power. Plus, it weighed less than 25kgs so they came in with less weight than the other LMPs. Of course, that was all just a rumour that I have not seen verified.
So, after almopst 3 weeks I received an answer from Peugeot Switzerland to my question about the 90x range: It was like :
Nice reaction time from Peugeot Switzerland
Porsche has no rights on car types with "9xx".
Some decades ago Porsche wanted to call a car the "901" but this name was already given to a Peugeot, so they called it "911".
So there is no problem for Peugeot using the 90x because they were the first calling their cars that way.
908 is first of all a number. Numbers themselves normally cannot be registered as a trademark since they are too general and too little describing. They can only be registered as a logo-trademark where the logo is the part that makes identifying the trademark possible. Therefore, both companies most probably can (and have) register a logo with a 908, but they cannot just register the number itself.
They could register "Porsche 908" or "Peugeot 908" as a whole since in that combination the number servers to identify a specific item (in this case a car).
If so, why was Porsche threatened with a lawsuit when they planned to build the 901 and why was it serious enough to cause Porsche to change the name of the vehicle even after it's presentation?
Just asking, so I understand the relation, since you seem to know.
Maybe at that time this issue was handled differently. Besides, from the info in this thread, I don't see where Porsche was threatened with a lawsuit? Also, Porsche could have chosen to use a different name voluntarily in order to avoid confusions.
With just one line of info it is hard to really judge anything.
I digged around a bit on the topic.
Yes, Porsche was forced to change the name of the 901, because Peugeot owns the right to vehicle names with an 0 in the middle.
However, Porsche was allowed to keep the 90* series for pure racing vehicles, because they can't be mistaken for Peugeots (who didn't build prototypes at the time).
Now Peugeot uses the name 908 because the Porsche stopped using those names for their racecars (-> RS Spyder), and thus there is no chance of confusing them.
So basically, the rule about that is: "Is it possible to confuse the names?" If yes, a lawsuit is possible.
Actually funny how these LM prototypes are again evolving... the current relatively boring looking open cockpits resembles the protypes in 70's, and now were again going back to closed cockpits like in 80's and 90's. At least ACO tries to do something refreshing unlike FIA.
Perhaps they're really in Bern.