Video Post: Porsche at Le mans, 1980s

Great tune too.

Porsche returns to Le Mans: 2014

Well this is exciting news - I wonder if they'll battle with Audi or if this is part of a master plan to let Audi bow-out and Porsche step back up?

_WRS

It's getting close

A fantastic bit of advertising by Audi. One of the true greats, Mr Allan McNish takes us through some of what it takes to win at Le Mans, the world's greatest motor race. As much as it is about Audi and their effort to repeat their victory of 2010, it's really a better advertisement for Le Mans itself. June 11th, 2011. It'll be one for the history books.

By the way, Allan is answering questions over at the Fourtitude.com Audi Sport forums, quite candidly I might add. Stop on by and see what has already been asked, ask your own questions, and if you submit the best question Allan just might pick you to receive an autographed copy of Truth in 24, the tale of Audi's victory at Le Mans in 2008.

_WRS

Video Post: Audi at Le Mans, 2003

An excellent look at the Audi Sport UK's run at Le Mans in 2003. With no factory / Joest Audi team, the group from England had Frank Biela on board and seemed to be in a prime position to challenge the Bentley boys for the overall win. Watch their rise, and tragic fall at Le Mans, in this excellent video. Bonus points for lots of great Sebring footage, which is just 52 days away and counting down...

_WRS

Audi - Le Mans 2003 from gt4zone on Vimeo.

Video Post: Le Mans 1982, with Derek Bell

An excellent period piece of video from the 1982 Porsche win at Le Mans. The debut of the 956, Derek's 3rd Le Mans win (he would go on to win a total of 5, all with Porsche), and lots of excellent footage of the Circuit de la Sarthe. Highly recommended.

_WRS

Le Mans 1982 from gt4zone on Vimeo.

Unleashed: The Audi R18

Amazing. While the new R18 may not win any beauty contests in the most traditional sense, as soon as it puts a notch in the win column any doubts will be set aside. The aero concepts, if I'm looking at the car correctly, are perhaps most interesting.



The car is unbelievably low, with the air channeled over the top of the very low side pods, with pronounced channels directing the air back to the rear wing. It almost looks as though the entire car has been transformed into a sort of ground-effect tunnel of sorts, with the now-mandatory fin playing a large part in the process.



It's easy to see how the airflow will enter the front, above the splitter, channel around the greenhouse of the coupe, which it will most likely then be complimented by airflow entering from the side of the car as well, before being directed to exit between the rear wing and bodywork.



The sharp edges of the channels are clearly visible here, and it's not hard to see how this will work. Basically imagine that the extremely flat top of the side pods are the ground, and the rear wing and very end of the body work are like the ground effect tunnel on the back of this 962:



It doesn't look as slippery as I was expecting, but there's not a whole lot of wing on the back of the car either. Regardless I can't wait to see it on the track. It's a bummer it won't be there for Sebring, but at least I'll finally get to see the R15 now the R15++) in person.

_WRS

Audi manages the impossible, wins 2010 Le Mans with 1-2-3 sweep

In what turned out to be a brutal race of attrition and failures, the trio of Audi R15s forced all four of the Peugeot 908 HDI FAP cars into retirement, and held on to win, taking the top three spots in LMP1 and win the overall. The #9 car of Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas and Mike Rockenfeller encountered zero problems and ran a flawless race, finishing in a well-earned first position. It seemed highly unlikely that Audi would be able to take a podium spot, let alone the win, but the Peugeots all succumbed to terminal problems, indicating their blistering fast qualifying pace may have been more of a bluff than most would have assumed.



Clicking off 3:20 laps was not a problem for the Peugeots, who were as much as 5-6 seconds a lap faster than the revised R15 on Wednesday, but it was pace they simply could not keep up. After the top-qualifying #3 908 went out early with tub failure, the #2 car held a commanding lead, hunted by Audis in second, third and sixth. Early Sunday morning the #2 gave up its lead with a blaze of fire from the right bank indicating terminal engine failure.



The #1 Peugeot was then in full attack mode, running lap after lap at qualifying pace before it too went out with a bang just before 7 o'clock. The final remaining #4 908 of Team Oreca Matmut was the lone wolf in the silver Audi herd, and was pressing even harder than the #1, setting fastest lap of the race and very nearly catching the #7 Audi for third position before blowing up in exactly the same spot as the #2 did, with flames from the right back on the out lap from a pitstop.



Clearly they were focused on an all-or-nothing result, and in the end they got nothing.



GT2 saw Porsche return to the winner's circle at Le Mans after many years of missed chances and a complete absence from the podium last year, with the #77 Felbermayr Proton Porsche RSR of Marc Lieb, Richard Lietz and Wolf Henzler, from Team Falken Tire, taking the class win.



The BMW Art Car M3 did not do well, ending up with several punctures and multiple problems before finally being retired. It will also go down in infamy as it caused Tom Kristensen to go off at the Porsche curves on one of those occasions. Still it looked great, even if the results were not such.



Sadly none of the teams from the ALMS fared well, with strong runners such as Corvette and Risi running each other into the ground and allowing the Porsches to step into the win. Highcroft had cooling problems, and Autocon and Jaguar barely managed to start, let alone finish. As they say to finish first, first you must finish, and nothing exemplifies that like this year's 24.

_WRS

Pictures:

www.speedtv.com

Le Mans official Facebook

In case you've been under a rock, Le Mans is this week

The greatest, most highly anticipated race of the year (at least here in the household der rennsport) is upon us. Le Mans. Saturday, June 12th. Mrs WRS (no longer the future Mrs, I made her an honest woman) is highly anticipating any and all screen time of 'Mr. Le Mans,' Tom Kristensen, while I will be following the GT2 battle like some sort of sad, nerdy train-spotter, hoping Porsche can break their bad-luck spell of the past few years. What can I say, at least I'm honest. I know I am not the only one.



Needless to say the big battle at the sharp end of the grid is going to be between Audi and Peugeot, and we will be supporting the Audi Team 100%. Ultimately I don't have a ton of passion for that battle, primarily because the 'petrol' cars as the Brits call them are not competitive and I'd like to see that added variety, but also because those cars lack the pure excitement of the days gone buy.



The coverage is already well underway, and with the Twitter / Facebook / etc / connectivity of 2010, everyone has content available. From these pictures, take from the ACO official Le Mans Facebook page, to hours and hours of content from the crew at Radio Le Mans, there is plenty to fill up on. Not to mention 25 hours of live coverage from Speed TV.



I think I can honestly say if this sort of content was available back in the late 90s, I would have died from lack of sleep, or at the very least gotten fired.



I personally will not be attempting to compete, as I have Jury Duty this week and well, it takes up a lot of mental capacity, and so will be leaving it to some fairly minimal posts after qualifying and during the race. However, you know where to go:

Radio Le Mans (live 24 hours+ and countless pre-shows with a lot of great info)

Speed TV (Live for 25 hours starting at 8:30am eastern on Saturday)

ACO / Le Mans official on Facebook.

_WRS

Jeff Koons' BMW Art car = Awesome

I've never hid my affection for the BMW Art Cars of the late 70s and early 80s, they are in a word, awesome. After a few rather dull and (in my opinion anyways) uninspired examples in the 90s and 00s, BMW and Jeff Koons have righted all wrongs of the recent past.



For those that follow or are 'into' art, you already know that Koons is a weird guy. He was married to a porn star for a while and has a rather interesting collection of work. The man has some original ideas, that is for sure. I think perhaps what is most interesting is that he had contacted BMW all the way back in 2003 about doing an art car, which means he is also extremely cool. (anyone who actively seeks out the completion of a BMW Art car is by default, extremely cool no matter what else they are.)



The car looks fantastic, if a shockingly similar to something I did on that Toyota 'Sponsifier' website a few months ago. (pure coincidence I'm sure) I'm a little disappointed that it is vinyl wrapped rather than painted, which is supposedly lighter than paint, and time was a factor for completion so BMW made that call.



The E92 GT2 M3 will not have an easy victory in class at Le Mans this year, but it will have as good a shot as any others, and could pull off a feat that no other BMW Art Car has done: victory at Le Mans. They have gotten excruciatingly close with the Roy Lichtenstein 320i Turbo and the Andy Warhol M1 both placing on the podiums, but never a victory. 2010 could be the year, I sure hope so.

More at BMW Motorsport.

_WRS

Man I wish I was going to Le Mans this year

That is all...



_WRS

Le Mans '88" Mulsanne

Even with millions of dollars of high definition cameras, televisions and equipment at their disposal, broadcasts of any race generally fail to capture the essence of being at the actual motor race. They present it like football or baseball, or some other less visceral experience. Auto racing is nothing like those. It is full on sensory overload, with not only the visual element of speed, but the force of cars pushing a wall of air, like a wave slamming into you as they scream past. The auditory experience is also extremely important...no matter how many times you watch footage of a car moving down the Mulsanne at over 200mph, if you're watching on TV, chances are you're hearing the announcer more than the sound of the engines.

This video does away with all that. It's just a camera on the side of the world's most famous straight away, the Mulsanne. In 1988 the Mulsanne was a 3.7 mile journey at full throttle, before they installed the chicanes. This video is low tech and fairly low quality, but it captures the essence of sports car racing, the essence of actually being there. The Group C cars (Porsches, Mazdas, etc) are in top gear, probably north of 200mph as they go past, which is impressive in and of itself, but the sound! Listening to the engine note rumbling throughout the country side, long after the car is out of visual range, you can still hear it. Once you can no longer detect a note, the car is over two miles away, and close to 240mph. But then another comes along and the symphony begins again...



_WRS

Pic post: (A recommendation)

So I've been dipping into the old-school sports car stuff pretty hard lately. With big things happening in the ALMS, I've been reflecting back on the past as a way to look towards the future, and next season..if that makes any sense. Does it? Maybe not. Anyway, google is our friend in all these things, and it seems like more and more great stuff can turn up with each search. It boggles the mind to think none of this content, or at least very little of it, would have ever seen the light of day had the internet not become as easy and accessible as it is.

For those who have either been reading for a while, or have been kind enough to check the back catalog here at Der Wolfsburg Rennsport, you may recall when we visited the BMW Art Cars while they were here in NYC. I've looked for video of those cars, pictures in action at Le Mans, all that stuff, and it's usually hard to find decent ones. They are out there, but not as easy to find as you might think. Well thanks to JCC Photos we have those images. Now...I would post them up, but I can't link to them (all rights reserved and all that) and well, I don't blame the guy. He has some pretty amazing shots, pretty much all the the 24 hours of Le Mans. So go check em out, I can't say I've ever seen such a complete collection anywhere else...

JCC Photos Le Mans Collection

_WRS

Expand your mind, man

I'm all for learning new things. It's like I always say, if you're not learning something new you're just getting dumber. (or is it more dumb? I never claimed to be an English teacher) Also, I have made no secret of the fact I like sports car and endurance racing in general. One of the cooler sites around, for those who are technically minded anyways, is Mulsanne's Corner, which centers around sports prototype / Le Mans racers in the LMP categories. Much of the site is dedicated to aerodynamics and the details of car design, and it's endlessly fascinating to a nerd like myself. The how's and why's of a new car, flaws that are never discussed until years after the fact, an inside look at a lot of the really classic cars from the last 20 plus years. There are interviews with drivers, designers, and multiple pages on nearly every car you can think of....and probably some you've never even seen!

I've been checking out the site for a few months, and finally my curiousity has gotten the best of me and I bought a book about aerodynamics. I want to know exactly HOW those aero add-ons work, and why I should or shouldn't use similar devices on my street car. Don't think I'm going to go around putting ridiculous spoilers and rear diffusers on my Mk3, or even the Scirocco, but it would be interesting to put some of this stuff to the test. Maybe those DTM splitters from back in the 90's will make the front end stick more...who knows? I highly recommend checking out Mullsanne Mike's page...it's a good read.

So I decided, since I was talking about WSC / LMP sports prototypes, why not drag out the old photo album from the 2000 Rolex 23 at Daytona, scan in some pics, you know, just for the post? Well...I got a little carried away and I scanned in a ton of pics, only a few of which are posted here. Is that an Enron sticker? Probably so, since the Risi team is based in Texas...

Check out the Wolfsburg Rennsport Flickr Page for the full set. Please. Enjoy, I spent a lot of time with the damn scanner tonight...Some of the cars, such as the short-lived Cadillac LMP project, are probably fairly rare to see, and I was happy to add to the few that are around of that car while it actually raced.

The rest, such as the Ferrari 333SP, are more readily uncovered, but it makes for a nice little stroll down memory lane. Cool stuff abounded at the older Daytona races...before they threw out the real race cars and made it an exercise in boring, with ugly spec racers taking to the high banks. Me? I'll take something like this Porsche 917 any day of the week. (this car was the Le Mans winner in 1970...)

I suppose there are some times when the good old days really were better...

_WRS

Wolfsburg Rennsport Flickr Page

Peugeot wins at Le Mans, and other junk

By now everyone with a brain knows that Audi was unable to continue their amazing winning streak at Le Mans, but that's ok. It was pretty clear from the get-go that the R15 was out-gunned and out-paced by the monstrously fast and (now) reliable Peugeot 908 HDi FAP. The fact the cars were not able to keep up with the Pug's was one thing, but the other hiccups in the program, from fueling problems to overheating, and handling problems to some off-course excursions, well,the R15 just wasn't going to win.

That's pretty much the view that the Audi's had of the Pugs all race.

I suppose I should be bummed about this, but I'm not. Whenever any team / car / brand / whatever is too dominant (I'm looking at you, LA Lakers) it gets boring. The other reason I'm not bumming about the loss is that the R15 shouldn't have won. It was only the second race for the R15, and it was clear that the race condition development that Audi would have done if they had been smart enough to compete in the ALMS series this year hurt them. My suggestion? Aim for a 2010 win and commit to the ALMS. Everyone wins I think. The series, the fans, the manufacturers and the next 24 heures du mans.

The thing I AM a bit bummed about end the results in GT2. Porsche, as my good friend said, stepped on their dicks again and ended up without a single car on the podium, and in fact only one car finished the race in GT, and that was LAST PLACE out of the cars still running at the end. I think this picture of the lone, running at the finish 911 is an accurate portrayal of how the race went for the Porsche GT2 guys...

Really? Really Porsche? The best you can do is last? That has to be some sort of a record at Le Mans, that the only remaining Porsche (not counting the RS Spyder in LMP2) was officially not classified. So not one 911 classified...the car that was running did only 176 laps, the Endurance Asia Team. I quite liked the looks of this car, and I wished they had done better, but that's the way it goes.

Granted, I did say that I was routing for the Risi 430 to win, and in fact it did win GT2, but the main reason I was hitching to the Ferrari bandwagon was because I didn't really have any Porsche teams to get behind. I did like the IMSA performance / Matmut car quite a lot, and was disappointed when the car with Patrick Long went out.

A lot of the 911 RSR's had fuel pump problems, which seems odd to me, as it's a pretty basic system, and for more than one car to have problems to that end it was rather unusual.

Anyways, the race was still a good one in my book. There were some exciting moments out on the track and in the pits, and ultimately we got a pretty good show. I spent the vast majority of the time listening to Radio Le Mans and watching feeds from Eurosport or Speed TV. The internet came through and for the first time in many years I was tuned in for the majority of the race. I think I probably bugged Melody a bit much with my constant, unprompted updates on just what was going on every five seconds, but she did offer her iPhone to check standings when we were out Saturday night, so it can't have been too bad. Just wait until I actually attend the event...I won't stop talking about ever. One day, one day...


Check out plenty more awesome shots from Marshall Pruett at Speed TV's gallery.

_WRS

The first desktop image from WRS, BWM Art Car 320i

In honor of Le Mans, I'm posting up two large, desktop-friendly images from the BMW Art Car post. My favorite, the Roy Lichtenstein Group 5 320i. Finished second in class in 1977. So download and enjoy! I hope to bringing some better, more professional desktop images in the future, but until Josh gets back from Europe this will have to do.

Download the high resolution file 1 here!

Enjoy your weekend...

_WRS

Download the high resolution file 2 here!

This weekend there is only one thing that matters

Le Mans. This weekend. Awesome. Audi and Peugeot have the gloves off and are ready to duke it out to be crowned the king of diesel race cars and winner of the world's greatest race. Qualifying just ended and although Allan McNish was on the pole position initially, Peugeot was able to claim the fastest time with Stephane Sarrazin turning in a 3:22.888 with only ten minutes remaining in the session.

I'm a huge fan of the Audi's as any sane VW or Audi devote would be, but my heart is never really in that fight as much as it is in the slower classes. I love the GT2 spec class, and as much of a Porsche fan as I am, I have to give a nod to the Risi Competizione F430. I've never heard anything bad about the Risi guys, no shady back stories, just hard work and solid results. I was always cheering for them when they campaigned a 333SP back in the old days of the WSC classes at Daytona, so you can bet I'll be paying close attention to them this year.

By the way, be sure to download the Spotters Guide to this year's race. Very cool, and an easy way to keep track of the cars and classes this year.

I have to admit to being a bit of a poor bastard and I don't actually have a cable or satellite TV service with Speed TV or anything like that. Luckily for me there is Radio Lemans.com, plus Speed TV is going to be streaming select feeds on their website during the day. Now if you're like me, the feed at radiolemans.com may not work for you. I have a Mac, with Firefox, with plug ins yadda yadda yadda. No worky. Thankfully there are soutions, namely a direct link to the feed.

Open up Quicktime, open a new URL, and paste this link into the address bar:

http://tx.sharp-stream.com/tune.php?c=radioshowltd&.waxr

Problem solved! Don't forget to go to Speed TV for live video, driver blogs and pictures throughout the weekend. I'd also highly recommend checking up the Midweek Motorsport Listener's Collective on Facebook. It's got a ton of great threads for resources on viewing and watching content online. Plus check out the Radio Le Mans twitter page at twitter.com/specutainment

Now you have no excuse for not keeping up with the most exciting race of the year.

_WRS

A Second Look: Roy Lichtenstein 320i Group 5

I was really taken with the Roy Lichtenstein Group 5 320i that was on display a couple weeks back here in NYC. It combines a lot of elements I love...underdog status, big turbocharged power from a diminutive 4-cylinder engine, boxy and extreme aerodynamics...plus things I don't typically associate with Le Mans racers. i.e. a world famous artist.

Seeing these cars inside of the elegant confines of Grand Central Terminal really brought them to life in a way that other settings might not have. Grand Central feels enough like an art gallery as it is, so it wasn't much of a stretch to appreciate them as such.

Be sure to stop on over to the WRS Flickr page to check out a bunch of additional pictures, in addition to this shown here....enjoy! I will also add a section of desktop sized / resolution images to the account pretty soon, so if anyone has a favorite let me know and I'll get them loaded in the near future.

_WRS