LeMans 2017

[Cook&Dunning]

Neel Jani is kicking butt in LMP. Great in car coverage at Porsche.com.

[Stahler]

What a drama 3 hrs before end of race! Poor Porsche guys...

[PilotFrog]

Back in the lead.

[Jack Stands]

Great victory to add to their long list.

[tirwin]

Hat trick!

[wolds]

Need a "hat trick" tee shirt.

[Dmitry at Pelican Parts]

What are your thoughts on that LMP Ferrari "bump"? - don't think it was as innocent as it seemed...just my 2 cents.

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by Dmitry at Pelican Parts

What are your thoughts on that LMP Ferrari "bump"? - don't think it was as innocent as it seemed...just my 2 cents.

Just to make sure, we are talking of the number 82 Ferrari that was butt effed ferociously by the LMP car passing, off track on the right, sans demonstration of car control?

I reserve comment.

[prebordao]

Nowadays, a lot of the guys driving LMP2's are "gentleman drivers", that is, more or less moneyed people with average skills... and LMP2 got significantly faster this year...

This kind of stuff will happen more and more unless the rules are revised.

[Cook&Dunning]

At the dealership today one of the guys there said Porsche could start building engines for F1 next year - I wonder if that means they will stop participating in LMP1? Not really much more to accomplish in LMP1 now - or at least until someone else gets close to 19 wins.

[Mike Andrew]

Bump?? That was just plain reckless and reminded me of NASTYCAR. Seems like Rubbing is Racing is taking over IMSA and LeMans. Money cannot buy skill or courtesy. Toss in BoP and my interest is waning as my feeling is if you can do a tweak and win consistently, good for you. Let the others up their game. Ah, I miss CanAm and look forward to seeing a handful at RA next month.
Saw an article that indicated Porsche's participation in LMP may be done soon due to a number of factors including $ to produce the next incarnation car. Seems that $ are scarce for such things due to the VW cheating issue. This would up their game in production based efforts.

[tirwin]

Originally Posted by Cook&Dunning

At the dealership today one of the guys there said Porsche could start building engines for F1 next year - I wonder if that means they will stop participating in LMP1? Not really much more to accomplish in LMP1 now - or at least until someone else gets close to 19 wins.

I don't remember where I saw this but there was a rumor the other day that Porsche might indeed be pulling out of LMP1 after this season.

[Stahler]

I was with AUDI Marketing when they first went to Le Mans in 1999. I remember the annual budget for developing an LMP1 car and running the team was similar to F1. I reckon it's still the same today. But back then BMW and Mercedes were still competing, and there were 20 or so LMP1 cars (don't remember exactly - too long ago ). Today there's Toyota and maybe Peugeot coming back, that's not really Porsche competition, is it?

[DeRRis]

Forget the lmp cars. The GTE cars was the most exciting spectacle. I was fortunate to attend the race. The new factory 911 GTE car sounded the best of the whole field. Followed by the Corvette and the Astons. The Ferrari 488 did not impress me with its sound. And they used to howl which would make your hair standup.

The GTE cars battled right to the end. Great race LMP not so much so.

I've been going to Le Mans for the last 15 years or so and I had the impression that the crowds were smaller than previous years. A lot of the vendors, which I've seen every year, were not pressent. It might be just a dip but the WEC and the ACO have some work to do.

[Cook&Dunning]

I agree. Porsche needs to win with the RSR car

[tirwin]

I would like to see a GTE race without the "balance of power" stuff. I get it but at the same time if the cars are supposed to be homologated then let's take the gloves off.

[tirwin]

Huh.

Porsche to attend F1 engine meeting at Austria GP

[safe]

The budget for an LMP team is in excess off 100 million euros, about the same as the smallest F1 teams. The big F1 teams have a substantially larger budget (400-500)...

[prebordao]

It seems Formula E is also on the cards...