Noted motorsport livery designer Andy Blackmore has once again come up trumps with his Spotter Guide in time for this weekend’s Le Mans 24 hour race. Click on the image above, or the source link below, to access the full resolution images covering all cars in the LMP and GTE classes. The guides represent excellent work from Blackmore and a massive thank you goes to him for managing to keep access to these guides free of charge.
[Source: Spotter Guides]
On the weekend the P4/5 Competizione had its second and final race at the Nürburgring before the 24 hour race in June. James Glickenhaus and his team will continue testing, most likely at the Hungaroring, to finalise their N24 preparations.
Mike Frison, respected Nürburgring blogger, and lately Save the Ring activist, caught up with Glickenhaus at the race and had a good chat. Two of the more notable points to emerge from that discussion were plans to race the P4/5 Competizione at Le Mans and Sebring in future.
Makes sense, really, you put all that money into making a racecar, you probably want to tale it around the world.
However, it was the revelation that Glickenhaus would also like to convert the P4/5 Competizione to run a diesel engine to help improve performance. That’s likely to cause a few disturbances of the force down Ferrari-way.
[Source: Mike Frison | Pic: Facebook]
It is Bastille Day today, after all. So what better way for this humble blog to celebrate than with these new images of the Citroën Survolt lapping around the famous Le Mans circuit.
The Survolt is an all-electric beast offering 224kW and a zero to one hundred time under five seconds. Perhaps more impressively the Survolt has a range of 200kms and, with a fancy adaptor thingy, can be recharged in as little as two hours.
Vanina Ickx was the lady at the wheel for the promo event and said, “I am very proud to have participated in this unique project. On the track it felt really good. It’s a real race car, with a very promising potential for the future.â€
Audi clinched an historic ninth Le Mans victory yesterday. They now join Ferrari at second position on the list of all-time Le Mans winners. Porsche tops the list with 16 wins.
Amazingly, Audi’s tally of nine wins have all come since the year 2000. In fact, since their first victory, Audi have won Le Mans every year with the exception of 2003 (Bentley) and 2009 (Peugeot). For Audi drivers Romain Dumas, Timo Bernhard and Mike Rockenfeller this win marks their first Le Mans title.
Audi’s success this year was built on reliability. For most of the weekend they were chasing the tails of the Peugeot 908 machines. Indeed, the four 908s in the field all qualified ahead of the R15s from Audi and for much of the race a back-to-back Peugeot victory seemed a formality. But one by one the factory Peugeots succumbed to mechanical issues.
In contrast the Audi Sport Team Joest cars ran like clockwork and were able to make the most of their opponents short comings by making a clean sweep of the podium. The only minor blip came on Saturday when Tom Kristensen was at the wheel of the #7 R15. He got caught up in an incident with the troubled BMW Art Car and was forced into the pits for repair work. The #7 car lost three laps in pitlane and such was the consistency of the winning #9 and second place #8 Audis that the lead #7 machine had no chance of gaining back lost time.
The winning #9 car covered 397 laps which equates to a total distance covered of 5,410 kilometers. This is a new mark and breaks the previous distance record set by the winning Porsche 917 back in 1971.
After the break you can see a full press release from Audi, including driver quotes. Also available is a picture gallery with over 40 images for you to enjoy. A full race report is available at Autosport.
Success at Le Mans demands efficiency and Audi have revised their R15 TDI prototype to improve its economy and maintain its power levels, despite new regulations. With eight wins in the last 10 years Audi would have come away from La Sarthe disappointed last year with just a third place finish.
This will be thelast outing for the R15 at Le Mans with new regulations forcing smaller more efficient engines from 2011 onwards. Proving there is no such thing as a rest in motorsport Audi have already begun work on their new R18 racer.
There’s still the small matter of the 2010 race to go first and Tom Kristensen, the most successful driver ever at Le Mans, is very happy with his new R15 plus machine, “Audi has made an important step from the R15 to the R15 plus. The ‘plus’ says that the R15 TDI has been updated in all areas in terms of efficiency and performance. Take the headlights for example. That may sound trivial but in a 24-hour race they’re extremely important.
“And obviously there’s the efficiency of the engine, which has become more powerful but uses less fuel now. Aerodynamics has been improved to generate enough downforce in the turns but without too much aerodynamic drag on the straights.
“The interaction between the suspension and the Michelin tires has been optimized too. Simply everything has been scrutinized and optimized so that the ‘plus’ will help us achieve our big aim at Le Mans.”
An extensive press release follows along with 25 images of the Audi Sport team in preparation. To close out the article there’s a new release from Audi where the drivers talk about various sections of the famous La Sarthe circuit.
The factory backed Peugeot 908 HDi FAP machines are all set to defend their 2009 Le Mans 24 hour crown. But seeing as the French team have demoted Australia’s David Brabham from the winning car to the LMP2 category AUSmotive’s full support will be behind the Audi R15 TDI.
Of course, Peugeot won’t care about that too much as they’re far too busy preparing the 908 for its fourth and final outing at La Sarthe. Indeed, Peugeot Sport’s Technical Director, Bruno Famin is expecting a close race with the R15s from Ingolstadt, “This is the 908 HDi FAP’s fourth and final year of competition. It is an outstanding car and I think we can look forward to an incredibly thrilling Le Mans 24 Hour; I believe it will be very close from flag to flag.”
Famin also explains a bit about the changes made to the car since its 2009 success, “Our work initially focused on adapting the 908 HDi FAP to the new 2010 regulations, which essentially meant the engine and bodywork. The only aerodynamic change is the result of having to adjust to this year’s new engine power levels.
“We have endeavoured to recover some of the power lost because of the rule changes, which involved working with Bosch on improving engine combustion, reducing power losses through friction with Total and improving the flow efficiency of the intake and exhaust systems with Dow.”
There’s more from Peugeot and their three-car team after the break. For Australian readers television coverage of the 2010 Le Mans 24 hour race will be provided by One HD on free to air, and the EuroSport channel on Foxtel will also have extensive coverage of the race, including practice and qualifying sessions. Check your local guides for details. A live online radio broadcast, with English commentary, is also provided for free by Radio Le Mans.
Below is a YouTube clip advertising live coverage of the 2010Le Mans 24 hour race this weekend direct from Audi tv. Clearly, the coverage will focus heavily on the three R15 TDI bearing the four rings. But, for those of us with limited access to full race coverage this footage from Audi could be a very valuable thing indeed.
Can Audi win their ninth outright victory, or does Peugeot have what it takes to defend last year’s success?
[via The German Car Blog]
BMW and Jeff Koons have unveiled the latest addition to the BMW Art Car range. The seventeenth in the series will race in next weekend’s Le Mans 24 hour race.
The bold colours and strong graphic nature of Koons’ design were inspired by images of racecars, speed and explosions. Koons says his Art Car evokes bursting energy, motion and power. It should look fantastic on the racetrack.
“These race cars are like life, they are powerful and there is a lot of energy,” said Koons. “You can participate with it, add to it and let yourself transcend with its energy. There is a lot of power under that hood and I want to let my ideas transcend with the car – it’s really to connect with that power.”Koons was named as the artist chosen to produce the latest BMW Art Car back in February and both he and BMW have been on a tight schedule to ensure the car is ready for Le Mans. The artwork was applied with specially designed adhesive vinyl. Wearing number 79 the M3 GT2 will be driven by Andy Priaulx, Dirk Müller and Dirk Werner.
More from BMW after the break, including a couple of videos, pictures and text.
There’s a bit over one week to go until the 2010 Le Mans 24 hour race and the chaps at Jaguar are celebrating their 75th anniversary by entering an XKR GT2.
It is the company’s first appearance at Le Mans for around 20 years and Managing Director, Mike O’Driscoll says, “Motorsport has always been important to Jaguar. Our domination of Le Mans in the 1950s was a foundation stone in our history and our success in the late 80s and early 90s reinforced our reputation as one of the great sports car manufacturers.
“As we look to the future with our new range of high performance ‘R’-branded cars – the XKR and XFR – we aim to make the Jaguar brand synonymous with motorsports once again. It’s good to be back.”
The XKR GT2 has been prepared by the JaguarRSR team and will be driven by Marc Goossens, Ryan Dalziel and Paul Gentilozzi. Featuring a supercharged 5.0 litre V8 with over 500 horsepower the Jag will be doing its best mixing it with the likes of the BMW M3 GT2 fresh off its Nürburgring 24 hour success.
More after the break.
Audi Sport is in full swing with its preparations to win back the Le Mans 24 hour race. However, rather than boasting of new technical changes, or improvements to Team Joest’s R15 racer, they are announcing the car has a new paint scheme. Along with the image shown above, there are detail images shown after the break.
Supposedly the new paint job demonstrates “pleasure in efficiency”. Markus Auerbach and Tobias Drews from the Audi Design Team tell us, “We wanted to add a dash of surprise when the Audi leaves the pits at Le Mans. We practically opened up the bodywork and are exposing the light-weight construction and its uncompromising technical development – and with a little rock’n’roll for good measure.†Okay, then. Moving right along.
The R15 will continue its development during an 8 hour race at Paul Ricard later this week, so we can expect to see more of this car soon. In the meantime, check out the teaser pics below along with Audi Sport’s press release.
Here at AUSmotive we’re pretty chuffed with the news that Aston Martin Racing is chasing outright success at this year’s Le Mans 24 hour race. Not so much because we like Astons, of course we do, but we also appreciate beautifully crafted machines. The inspiration for Aston Martin’s 2009 assault, the DBR1, certainly fits that criteria.
One of the most stunning racing cars of its era it also proved its credentials by powering Carroll Shelby and Roy Salvadori to victory in the 1959 Le Mans 24 hour race.
You can read more about the DBR1 at Wikipedia, while enjoying a couple of press gallery images (click each image to load 2000 x 1320px super image). Also included after the jump is a brief YouTube clip showing Stirling Moss behind the wheel of a DBR1 and discussing his memories of the car.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of Aston Martin’s sole Le Mans 24 hour race victory. To honour the feats of Carroll Shelby and Roy Salvadori the British company are chasing outright success with this stunning LMP1 racer. Racing cars with iconic Gulf livery always look great, but this creation from Aston Martin takes the look to a whole new level. It’s just brilliant!
Trouble is, there’s a lot more to racing than simply looking the part. Aston is the current Le Mans holder of the GT1 class, but to show how serious they are with their outright assault they will not be running any GT1 cars in 2009. It’s all or nothing in the outright category.
The LMP1 will use the proven V12 engine from the class winning DBR9 GT1 cars. The chassis is based on the 2008 Charouz Racing System Lola.
The 2009 Le Mans 24 hour race will take place over the weekend of 13–14 June.
Full press statement after the jump.