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90 seconds?

He did run Lazzaro off and then block right across to the other side.

Hindaugh said 90 seconds. Which dropped him to 5th in class.

Since I cba to open another video thread today


Filename: MT89_2011_ALMS_LimeRock_Race_GT_PileUp.mkv
Duration: 2 min 47 sec
Filesize: 69.696 KB

Le Mans racing future just keeps looking brighter and brighter



http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/93066

_________________
"An idea whose time has come cannot be stopped by any army or any government"


3x TBKL rFactor Hillclimb champion

The return of the battle between Porsche and Jaguar.

Epic!

Awesome.

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-Joe.
Atlanta United FC | Cincinnati Reds | Atlanta Falcons | Tennessee Titans

Sweet

Lotus Sport USA will be headed to the American Le Mans Series in 2012 with both a Lotus Evora GTE car and an LMP2 car.

http://www.lotuscars.com/news/en/lotus-sport-usa


They posted this picture on Facebook:

Good news. Is Level 5 doing ALMS anymore in P2?

They are on the entry list for Mosport. The Autocon Lola LMP1 is also entered.

Level 5 has withdrawn both of its LMP2 cars for Mosport and are evaluating their plans for the remainder of the season. They say they should be back, depending on how logistics shake out with the ILMC.

United Autosports are planning to run an LMP2 with an established team at Petit Le Mans - they say they're pretty interested in the WEC.

Dailysportscar has posted a column regarding the factory prospects for the future in LMP1, the thoughts there are pretty enticing. I won't repost the article here as I really respect their work and encourage all of you to consider subscribing - $45 for a year is well worth it. To cover the basics, however:

Honda look out of a factory program for the forseeable future, a major casualty of the tsunami/earthquake. The ARX-01e will be racing next year, however... Speculation anyone?

Nissan look set to tie in with Oreca, the 03 having run exceedingly well this year with the NISMO engine. The Oreca 02 coupe would likely be the chassis to take Nissan to LMP1, that being one of the worst kept secrets this year if it comes true. Interestingly, marketing folks within Nissan have said the exposure from running at Le Mans with LMP2 was significantly higher than a season and a half of FIA GT1. No surprises there...

Jaguar has already been talked about here - maybe they return with the Wirth coupe?

Toyota rumours have been flying for the last little while... They look the most likely to return in 2012 alongside Nissan. Toyota with Lola? Toyota with Dome?

Ferrari don't look likely to return to LMP1 just yet, but an LMP2 engine looks pretty likely. Suspicions are that an LMP1 would follow some time later - maybe for 2014 alongside Porsche's return?

Rumours at Imola suggested Bentley might return. A small brand for sure, but the sales boost from their LM effort in the early 2000's turned more than a few heads. A third VAG brand however might be too many?

Morgan have an anniversary in 2012 - DSC says to watch this space! My personal suspicion wouldn't be a full factory program (they're far too small) - but maybe a "factory" run chassis such as a Lola, similar to MG's efforts?

McLaren have counted themselves out of efforts that don't involve road cars as a base. For sure though they'll be in GTE next year.

The final rumours surround Red Bull. Reallocated funds from the forgone Nascar efforts finding a new home, perhaps? Red Bull fits the endurance racing concept perfectly. Rumours "continue to circulate" they they're doing much more than just considering a program.

Definitely a lot of promise coming up...

EDIT: The picture posted above is the old Radical SR9 that ECO/Libra ran at Petit last year with the Nissan/Infiniti/IES engine. It's been significantly upgraded Libra struck a deal with LNT/Ginetta to redesign the car's aero for LMP2 spec. Looks like it has a load more downforce and the chassis itself has a fair amount of potential. Wonder what the plans for that car are, then... Maybe Petit? Could they run a Lotus LMP2 engine in that car for next season, perhaps, as a precursor to Lotus' planned LMP2 coupe for 2013 or so?

That's going to be a sick entry list in a couple of years

Wow, that's a lot of interesting titbits. Looking forward to seeing Lotus in the ALMS - they're pretty popular here I was surprised to discover.

Looks like we'll be getting a return to the Group C engine regulations. Open regulations, with limited fuel amounts.

drools..................

_________________
"An idea whose time has come cannot be stopped by any army or any government"


3x TBKL rFactor Hillclimb champion

RLR will be getting official backing from MG, effective now. The MG story since 2001 has been very strange, with the old Lola B01/60 being badged as an MG Ex264 initially with an AER 2.0L turbo. RML kept the MG backing through various iterations of Lola chassis and AER engines, and the RLR chassis is the old "MG" Ex265 (actually a Lola B05/40). It now has a Judd/BMW engine instead of the old "MG" AER 2.0L turbo... So...

I'm not really sure where that leaves things. Is this just MG pumping money into the RLR program or do they have bigger aspirations? A MotorsTV article states that this involves a technical partnership, even though they can't do development work on the chassis or the engine as both are outsourced. It goes on to suggest that perhaps this could be a proper factory effort as early as 2012.

Additionally, in rather important news, Level 5 has dropped the Lolas and will be running new ARX-01g's (what happened to f?). The first will debut in the ILMC round at Silverstone, with the second one coming in time for the team to enter two cars at both the 6 Hours of Laguna Seca and Petit Le Mans. The ARX-01g runs to the cost-capped LMP2 regulations, meaning 900kg instead of 910 and a larger restrictor, which should provide big performance gains.

Wonder where that leaves all three Level 5 Lolas? Surely they can't be headed for the dustbin already, even though they're not cost-capped...

The MG branding on the RML cars made no sense to me for the longest time.

I'm not sure I understand. Will they run HPD LMP2 engines as well (2.0 V6 turbos), since I don't think the 3.4 V8 is production based and thus eligible for LMP2 regulations? Maybe they're going to sell their Lolas to a new team, at least the open top chassis is fully compliant to 2011 regs.

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That's correct - the product is essentially the same as the ARX-01d with some minor changes as I understand it, keeping the 2.6L V6 Turbo.. However, since the ARX-01d that Strakka and RML run is not cost capped, that cars weighs 10kg more and has a smaller restrictor. The 01g fits the new regulations so as to drop the weight and up the horsepower. Same engine, same chassis, just some minor changes... That includes a fin, too, btw...

More news coming out, this one is significant.

The LMS is going through a fundamental change, made official today. As of next year, LMP1 will no longer be accepted. The two prototype classes will be LMP2 and FLM. Similarly, two GT classes will exist, GTE and GTC. GTE will be made up of GTE-Am and GTE-Pro (not sure if they'll be combined or split), but GTC will include Porsche Cup cars as well as Ferrari Challenge cars.

This is pretty good news for the LMS I believe - they struggled for LMP1 entries since 2008 when Peugeot and Audi stole the thunder, and have had a solid grid of proper LMP2 cars this year. FLM has been shaky, but having stability should help. GTC ought to be mighty interesting...