24 Hours of Le Mans, June 17-18

Here's the official website.
http://www.lemans.org/24heuresdumans/live/pages/accueil_gb.html

Green flag is about 10 am EDT. And the Speed Channel will have a lot of coverage, but not flag to flag.

I heard that a Ausi TDI will win the race ...

Actually, the green flag is at 11 am EDT (8 am PDT) on Saturday. The Speed Channel will have live coverage for the entire race EXCEPT for 3-8 pm EDT (noon-5 pm PDT).

Wednesday is practice and qualifying, Thursday is final qualifying.

uberdiesel said:

Stop! You're going the wrong way!!! (Actually, the street sign must be for another road below and to the right ogf the photograph. )

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Maybe not. Part of the Le Mans circuit is public road when no racing activity is taking place

uberdiesel said:

Stop! You're going the wrong way!!! (Actually, the street sign must be for another road below and to the right ogf the photograph. )

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Ummm the sign is for the road they're racing on. They close public roads to race on them.

Also http://www.0157.org/live.php and www.radiolemans.com to listen live on the web. No visuals but multiple times better than anything Speed can produce.

I heard that Audi R10 Tdi are running in 1-2 position respectively! Good news! Race starts tomorrow morning at 8:00am pst. There is a chance of rain in the forecast for the rain; we'll see the drivers skills at that time. I also heard through a friend of mine in France, that they are not running true diesel fuel; I am trying to get a copy of the article in french to try to understand better what type of fuel it actually is.

Shell V Power diesel fuel is being used in the Audi R10's. It is actually made from processing natural gas.
To read more go to Shell Motorsport or google Shell V power diesel. The official site indicates that a link cannot be used without permission, so I'm being cautious in not posting it directly. Sorry!
The site also lists countries where this fuel is available. Obviously not in the states!

What just happened?

I heard something about one of the R10s suffering drivetrain failure during warm-up...

They're saying that the grid is complete, with all 50 cars, though...

OK, it was a diff...

So they replaced BOTH cars' diffs.

It's Five O'clock, And This Is Le Mans Starting Right Now!

After 9 laps, the 2 Audis were 1st and 2nd, with 11.5 seconds on the Pescarolo car 17. http://www.lemans.org/24heuresdumans/live/pages/chronos_fr.html

The Audis are running 15 laps between fuel stops (about 3 minutes per lap), the Pescarolas are only making 13 laps.

Also, Peugeot will probably have a diesel entry in 2007.

It's great to see all the "V-Power Diesel" signage around the track.

Making History

When the French flag was waved by Jean-Martin Folz, President of PSA Peugeot-Citroen, on the stroke of 5pm, the action got under way in the 24 Hours of Le Mans; and, less than four minutes later, history was made when a lap was led by a diesel-powered car for the first time ever. Allan McNish, in the No.7 Audi Sport Team Joest R10, had the honour of leading that first lap.

Currently 00h39 in LeMans, with Audi sitting 1st and 4th. #7 Audi required injector(s) changed 3-4 hours into the race, losing 6-7 laps. Tom Kristensen promptly set fastest race lap on the next fuel stint. Meanwhile #8 is on pace for beating the 24hr distance record at LeMans.

00h57... Audi, now sitting 1st and 3rd. The diesel train hasn't derailed after all.

I looked awhile back at the #7 car was 12th. He sure has made up some lost time.

whitedog said:

I looked awhile back at the #7 car was 12th. He sure has made up some lost time.

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I was wondering what was up with the 1st and 3rd, sounds like it will 1 and 2 before long!!!

Not that quick... has been in the garage twice more. The #7 was tagged by a slower car while passing and now for a cracked front splitter. Looks like Kristensen won't have win #8.

In the pits for 19 minutes, ouch, but back at it now! 12 laps down.

guys, log into tdiclubchat. le mans discussion in the room.... myself, i'm not really watching, but might be more fun that posting on the board

Someone in chat said #8 just went into the garage... shifting issue...

*Points to chat link in his sig*

TDI wins LeMans!!!! Came in third as well!

The article from here makes it sound as if it's a miracle that a diesel won, given the number of times they use the word"unlikely in the first paragraph... Guess they did not pay attention to Sebring...

"In the final hours of the 74th running of the 24 Heures du Mans, there were no more surprises - unless one counts the unlikely eventuality of the world's premier endurance race being won by a diesel-engined sports car. Unlikely as it may seem - and it would have been deemed impossible until recently - diesel is not just economical, not merely practical, beyond unexpectedly torquey, it is now a type of engine with a Le Mans win to its name."

jmasciulli said:

TDI wins LeMans!!!! Came in third as well!

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Wow... from 12 laps down to 3rd. Thats pretty amazing

coachgeo: They were 13 laps down when they finished the race in third.

coachgeo said:

Wow... from 12 laps down to 3rd. Thats pretty amazing

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Third place was 13 laps behind. Second place was 4 laps behind.
http://www.lemans.org/24heuresdumans/live/pages/chronos_gb.html

The circuit is 8.482 miles long, the leading Audi finished 380 laps, for a total of 3223 miles -- 134.3 mph on average. 13 laps behind was 110 miles. In an endurance race, time is lost in the pits, not on the track.

The Audis and Pescarola Judds were setting typical lap times of 3:35-3:42.

A typical pitstop, fuel and tires only, maybe a driver swap, took 1-2 minutes.

The Audis could go further between pitstops, theoretically 15 laps. The #17 Pescarola could go 13 laps between fuel stops; it ended up making 32 pitstops, an average of one every 11.75 laps. The #8 Audi only made 27 pitstops, an average of one every 14.07 laps.

So victory was a combination of factors: reliability and better fuel economy. Good work in the pits, too. Got a burnt-out headlight? Just swap out the entire front section of the body, in less than 60 seconds.

I can't remember which Audi had a transmission problem. Rules say you can't swap out an entire gearbox. But it took only about 8-10 minutes to remove the gearbox, open it up, replace the defective parts, and mount it back on the car. It cost about 2 or maybe 3 laps, but it could have been a lot worse.

Transmission Problem and V power Shell Diesel

The Audi fix was fast, It took a GT1 car with the same number a mechanics an hour to do just a little more Tranny work mid way through the race.

GO TDI Racing

The Shell V power diesel fuel is available or going to be available soon in 4000 stations in the U.K.

Normando