24 Hours LeMans 2005

[666fast]

Did you see FIA GT mate? Tons more money there, their races are as packed as F1 races, FIA GT weekends are full great support races, plus WTTC. I see no reason for any European teams to run there when they can run in FIA GT were there is tons more money.

There isn't more money in FIA. Maybe in total field value. Check the ROI on ALMS, one of the best ratings in motorsport.

As much as I would love to see ALMS turn out into anything good, its not happening.

Dead wrong. PCM has two Vettes coming, Bell bought two Astons, Rahal is supposedly going to run 2 Astons, MAM has two of something (C5R's supposedly)
That doesn't even come close to the new LMP teams.

Want Ferrari or Porsche in GT1? Tell Ferrari and Porsche to get off their butts and build a GT1 car. Prodrive can't do everything.

We should have a big Le Mans series. WLMS, NOT LEMS, and not ALMS. There should be a big world championship like back in the day. Anything thats even close to that is this one Le Mans race we get once a year

And raise prices to be competitive so high, it'll be a repeat of the "glory" days, when it damn near killed off sportscar racing for good.

Seems knocking the ALMS is just as fashionable as knocking american cars, regardless of how good it is. :roll:

Many of the ALMS teams are more than able to run circles around the majority of the European teams, yet ALMS just isn't as good. :roll:

[SnakeBitten]

Originally Posted by 666fast Seriously though, I really wish there was real competition for the Vettes it would make the class a bit more exiting. Ahem, Aston Martin is real competition! They may have had some problems, but they are a serious threat to the Vette team. Not all races are 24 hours. The Astons ARE faster. Had the ACO not pulled thier usual nonsense, they Saleen might have been there. The new engine package with it's new tires, the Saleen is much quicker.

When some one beats the Vette team consistantly[read more than once] then I consider that competition...Who cares if the Aston or Saleen is faster..Remember this is an endurance race not a drag race..None of them are there at the end to challenge the Vettes....We all know on paper they are capable of competing with the Vette but it take more than speed to win these races....The only cars that gave the Vettes are real run for the money, actually beat em up good, was the American factory backed Oreca Vipers...Would love to see how the factory Vipers would stack up now..I think they would be swapping wins. I miss those days.

[666fast]

Originally Posted by SFDMALEX Originally Posted by 666fast The Corvettes are going to probably do some changes to their cars to get them just that little bit faster than the Aston's I mean they are a Factory team and have backing up the ass so there is no way they are going to let Aston pull a quicky on them that easily. but we will see... The Vettes were way down on power. When they race here, they are supplied with 110octane race gas. At LeMans, they were given 94octane fuel. The Vettes had to lower the compression of the engine and no doubtedly, lost a lot of power. That said, you can bet Fehan will do whatever it takes to win. Yeah the Vettes were down quite a bit, it was interesting to watch when the Vette was 1 car length behind the 550 and could never close in with all that draft...... Were they the only team supplied with the lower octane fuel? And why?

All teams got the same fuel, it's just that the ALMS teams are used to using 110octane, where as the European teams use 94 octane all season. It's a rather big disadvantage for the ALMS teams.

[666fast]

Originally Posted by SnakeBitten Originally Posted by 666fast Seriously though, I really wish there was real competition for the Vettes it would make the class a bit more exiting. Ahem, Aston Martin is real competition! They may have had some problems, but they are a serious threat to the Vette team. Not all races are 24 hours. The Astons ARE faster. Had the ACO not pulled thier usual nonsense, they Saleen might have been there. The new engine package with it's new tires, the Saleen is much quicker. When some one beats the Vette team consistantly[read more than once] then I consider that competition...Who cares if the Aston or Saleen is faster..Remember this is an endurance race not a drag race..None of them are there at the end to challenge the Vettes....We all know on paper they are capable of competing with the Vette but it take more than speed to win these races....The only cars that gave the Vettes are real run for the money, actually beat em up good, was the American factory backed Oreca Vipers...Would love to see how the factory Vipers would stack up now..I think they would be swapping wins. I miss those days.

Damnit guys, slow down! Everytime I make a post, there is a new one to answer!

The Astons are pretty much brand new cars. Very few races under their belt and to do this good at their first LeMans, you can bet it's a damn good car. We won't see the DBR9 back in ALMS this year, save for maybe one or two races, so we'll have to wait for next year to see how they do against each other.
I believe the ACEMCO Saleen is more than able to beat the Vettes. They always have bad luck and stupid problems though. They got royally screwed this year when the ACO said their wing was too big, only to give it back and say it wasn't.

The Vipers were good, but despite rumors, I don't see them coming back to ALMS, LMES, or LeMans. Unless someone like Prodrive, picks one up and does the development work themselves. The Speed World Challenge is packed to the gills with Vipers, so maybe we'll see one eventually, but not a factory backed program. If it happens, then YAY!! but I'm not counting on it.

[SFDMALEX]

Originally Posted by SnakeBitten Originally Posted by 666fast Seriously though, I really wish there was real competition for the Vettes it would make the class a bit more exiting. Ahem, Aston Martin is real competition! They may have had some problems, but they are a serious threat to the Vette team. Not all races are 24 hours. The Astons ARE faster. Had the ACO not pulled thier usual nonsense, they Saleen might have been there. The new engine package with it's new tires, the Saleen is much quicker. When some one beats the Vette team consistantly[read more than once] then I consider that competition...Who cares if the Aston or Saleen is faster..Remember this is an endurance race not a drag race..None of them are there at the end to challenge the Vettes....We all know on paper they are capable of competing with the Vette but it take more than speed to win these races....The only cars that gave the Vettes are real run for the money, actually beat em up good, was the American factory backed Oreca Vipers...Would love to see how the factory Vipers would stack up now..I think they would be swapping wins. I miss those days.

Regular ALMS races arent 24 hours long though, and the Astons can do a 3 hour race.....but still........2 cars fighting? I want more :cry:

[gucom]

Hey guys... Le Mans was absolutely awesome, i had never been to a race before, and this was a GREAT way to start I didn't take many pictures, but the pics i did take will be uploaded ASAP...i have about 40 of em...

The cars were nice, the ppl were nice, the noise was incredible but nice, even the track officials were nice when they kicked me out of the pit lane
The sun was not so nice tho...saturday i was sitting in the sun thinking "i wish it would be like this in holland more often", not wearing any sunblock...boy did i pay for that on sunday...my neck is totally burnt, my arms and everything hurts as soon as a tiny bit of sunlight hits them...crrrap...
Anyway, those cars were insanely fast, on the straights when they were doing 335 or something...WOW and in the corners they were great too...porsche curves ROCK

And ofcourse many of the visitors had nice cars, after awhile i caught myself thinking a TVR was nothing special...ive seen probalby hundreds of TVR's, dozens of Lotuses, a Gallardo, a Mosler, 2 Ultima GTR's (and ive sat in 1 8) ), some ferrari's, a Miura in a car park that i wasn't allowed to go into :cry: , lots of caterhams, lots of porsches, well just lots of everything except super high end supercars...altho there were a Invicta, a Zonda F, a Koenigsegg CCR and an Edonis on showcase so i shouldn't complain And also some old cars from the Le Mans Historic race, including a GT40 8)

Ah well i'll wait for my mom to get home so she can show me how to get the pics from the camera to the computer (ive never used this digital camera b4)

[Bugattiart]

Two very special prints that Tom Kristensen (7 times Le Mans winner)signed yesterday for my Fiancé Tina, and for me with his personal thanks for the drawing that I made as a tribute to him!!!
Translated from Danish to English it says: "Hi Carsten"
"My Big Race....forever immortalised by your pen ....Thank you!"

"TOM K "








You will find more on this at my website:http://www.bugattiart.com by entering the site and looking in the "Automotive Legends Gallery"!!!



Carsten Christiansen
Automotive artist