24 heures du Mans 2016 #35 (WEC 2016): Minder Audi en Porsche

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Op donderdag 18 februari 2016 19:35 schreef Ferry_76 het volgende:

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Op vrijdag 19 februari 2016 17:46 schreef JimmyManna het volgende:
fraaie livery

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Op woensdag 24 februari 2016 19:39 schreef M90 het volgende:
Positieve financiële resultaten van PSA Peugeot Citroën zorgen her en der tot geruchten over mogelijke terugkeer Peugeot in lmp1 vanaf seizoen 2018. Yes please

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Op woensdag 24 februari 2016 19:39 schreef M90 het volgende:
Positieve financiële resultaten van PSA Peugeot Citroën zorgen her en der tot geruchten over mogelijke terugkeer Peugeot in lmp1 vanaf seizoen 2018. Yes please

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Op zaterdag 27 februari 2016 09:08 schreef Sinister-D- het volgende:
Hmm, Frijns gekoppelt aan een 17 jarige rookie met maar 1 jaar race ervaring. Ik zou kunnen klagen dat het op niets gaat uitdraaien, maar afgelopen jaar is er ergens in een redelijk bekende single seater klasse het tegendeel bewezen

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As announced on 13th November 2015, a support race for LM P3s in the ACO Series and GT3s in the Michelin GT3 Le Mans Cup will take place at the 84th Le Mans 24 Hours on 18-19 June 2016. The first running of this race called Road to Le Mans organised by the Automobile Club de l’Ouest with the collaboration of Le Mans Endurance Management (promoter of the Michelin GT3 Le Mans Cup Series), will be held in the late morning of Saturday 18th June on the legendary 13,629-km Sarthe circuit. Here are the details.

Road to Le Mans, the second round of the Michelin GT3 Le Mans Cup reserved for cars from the GT3 category, will be part of five of the six rounds of the 2016 European Le Mans Series, and a curtain-raiser to the Le Mans 24 Hours.

For the LM P3s, prototypes that enable teams and drivers to access the first step of the endurance pyramid created by the ACO, it is a single event and won’t count for any championship. Only prototypes racing in the ACO Series (ELMS and Asian Le Mans) will be allowed to start.

The ACO reserves itself the right to invite other GT3s and LM P3s to compete in this new supporting race to the Le Mans 24 Hours.

Entries for the Road to Le Mans will open on Monday 18th March and close on Friday 15th April. A selection committee will meet after entries have closed to draw up the list of cars allowed to start Road to Le Mans.

Full season entrants competing in the Michelin GT3 Le Mans Cup will be given automatic entries. For the others (LM P3s and invitations) the entry fee will be 12 000 euros (+ tax if applicable). The number of cars allowed to start will be confirmed on 25th March.

The start of this race (50 to 60 minutes maximum, confirmation on 25th March) will be given on Saturday 18th June at 11h10. Beforehand, scrutineering and administrative checks will take place on Tuesday 14th June from 4 p.m to 6 p.m and Wednesday 15th June from 9 a.m to midday. Two 1-hour free practice sessions will be held on Wednesday 15th June from 8.30 p.m to 9.30 p.m, and Thursday 16th June from 2.30 p.m to 3.30 p.m followed by a 30-minute qualifying session on Thursday from 6 p.m to 6.30 p.m.

The format of the race foreseen for one or two drivers* will impose a minimum driving time of 20mn per driver, and a pit stop (minimum time fixed by the regulations) within a given time window.

For safety reasons slow zones will be used, but the system will be different to that of the Le Mans 24 Hours. Eight to ten zones will be in place with signalisation and control of the average speeds.

For this new event Shell will be the official fuel supplier, and in compliance with the regulations refuelling will be forbidden during the practice sessions and the race.

There will be no limit on tyres. A single slick specification will be available for each category and Michelin will be the sole supplier.

The whole field will have a paddock and a dedicated hospitality unit on the Maison Blanche circuit.

Road to Le Mans reinforces the determination of the ACO to consolidate the development of the endurance nursery and to highlight the promotional categories in this branch of the sport.

Reminder: the support race programme for the Le Mans 24 Hours will be completed by the Ferrari Challenge.

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WEC - Pascal Vasselon (Toyota): “The right technology at the right time”

Last week, Toyota tested the 2016 package of the all-new TS050 Hybrid at the Motorland Aragon circuit in Spain. Major changes have been introduced compared with the 2014 World Endurance Championship-winning TS040, especially a turbo engine and Li-ion batteries to store the energy recovered by the hybrid system. A revolution more than an evolution, as Pascal Vasselon, Toyota Technical Director, explained.

When faced with new technical regulations for the LM P1 class in 2014, Audi, Toyota and Porsche opted for radically different strategies. While the conservative approach adopted by Audi paid off at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Porsche’s strikingly innovative solution was beset with reliability problems. Toyota’s middle lane was the one that led to the World Endurance Manufacturers’ Championship title.

Fast-forward 12 months. Although the manufacturers had continued with the same technological concepts in 2015, the outcome was somewhat different – Porsche took the season by storm. Audi managed to compete in terms of performance but fell short on reliability, while Toyota had the opposite problem: a dependable car that lacked pure speed. An obsolete concept? “No,” retorted Pascal Vasselon, Technical Director of Toyota Gazoo Racing, “but times change. We had decided to use supercapacitors to store braking energy because, in our view, they were the best solution. We were proved right because, at the end of the day, we took the 2014 title. However, we knew from the outset that we’d have to switch to lithium-ion batteries as their development is progressing at a faster rate.”

Unlike road vehicles, for which storage capacity is the predominant criterion to cover the greatest possible distance, racing cars need high power density – the ability to deliver a lot of power very quickly – because energy is stored over a very short span of time, between two parts of a circuit where regulations allow the stored energy to be used.

Supercapacitors are electrochemical devices that hold one notable advantage over batteries: they release the stored energy more quickly. Unfortunately, as their industrial applications are relatively limited compared to batteries, research in this field is not moving as fast. “The hybrid culture is deeply rooted at Toyota,” Vasselon continued. “The department in charge of designing hybrid systems for production vehicles is also behind the development of the hybrid system for the endurance prototype. This means we can closely monitor progress in research and maintain strong ties with the manufacturers of all energy-related products. We have reached a point where batteries seem to be the most pertinent choice.”

While the supercapacitors are giving way to batteries, the Japanese constructor is persisting with its dual-axle braking energy recovery systems. “Although we are switching to a turbo engine, we do not feel that exhaust energy recovery is the best option,” Vasselon insisted. “Well, not for the time being at least.”

The TS050 Hybrid will be powered by a V6 turbo engine in place of the naturally aspirated V8 engine used since the early days of the project. “The naturally aspirated V8 engine served its purpose and, being reliable, it did not weigh too heavily on the development budget,” the former F1 Director at Michelin confided. “We could have gone down the V4 road, like Porsche, but we feel that the V6 offers the best compromise between reliability and performance. With the turbo, optimum output can be achieved anywhere, regardless of circumstances (altitude, temperature, and so on), whereas the naturally aspirated engine had a smaller performance window.”

While Audi have made few changes to their R18 (the flywheel technology has been axed, also in favour of Li-ion batteries) and are sticking with the same engine type, the TS050 Hybrid is radically different to its predecessor: “you have to choose the right technology at the right time,” Vasselon concluded. Will the TS050 Hybrid bring Toyota a long-coveted victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans? We shall find out by 3pm on Sunday 19 June!

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Op vrijdag 11 maart 2016 17:35 schreef Jigzoz het volgende:
Hm. Toch best wel kut dat de financiën het dit jaar niet toelaten om weer naar Spa te gaan voor het WEC. Voor iedereen die het wel overweegt: echt doen. Heel, heel veel race voor heel, heel weinig geld. Vergeleken met de F1 zijn de kaartjes en belachelijk goedkoop, je mag overal komen (inclusief pitwalk!) en deze hybrides klinken, in tegenstelling tot de F1, wél echt fantastisch.

Maar ja, reis, hotel en eten erbij en we zitten al snel op dik 500 euro. Woon je dichterbij en kun je gewoon thuis slapen, dan scheelt dat een paar honderd euro. De hotels in Spa rekenen namelijk wel echt de hoofdprijs.

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Op vrijdag 11 maart 2016 22:06 schreef Fir3fly het volgende:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BC0jIusGhSF/

En Toyota rijdt maar door en door.... een volledige 24 uurs test met de nieuwe auto. Heerlijk .

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Op vrijdag 11 maart 2016 22:08 schreef TargaFlorio het volgende:

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Ik heb wel vertrouwen in Toyota voor dit seizoen.

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Op woensdag 16 maart 2016 11:31 schreef sasquatsch het volgende:
Jeroen Bleekemolen doet toch mee aan de 24 uur van Le Mans.. Dit keer niet met de Dodge Viper (die ergens onderaan de reservelijst staat), maar met een LMP2 wagen van Murphy Prototypes. Teamgenoten zijn dezelfde als in de Viper, namelijk Ben Keating en Marc Goossens.

Hiermee komt het aantal Nederlanders in de 24 uur op 4, allemaal in de LMP2. Naast Jeroen Bleekemolen zijn dit Nick de Bruijn (Eurasia), Giedo van der Garde (Jota Sports) en Ho-Pin Tung. (DC Racing).