Time for the annual trip to: Huge Nissan presence all over the place: In the Nissan display: New prototype for the P3 class for next year:
Yet to see this one race:
back of the ZEOD RC that ran exactly 24 minutes at last year's race before grenading the transmission:
Nismo GTR... me like:
and Nissan returns to LMP1 with this thing:
3.0L Twin Turbo Front Wheel drive:
Just when I thought you couldn't make a Juke any uglier: Lego Porsche? lol: Down to the pits: I dig Toyota's lucky kitty on the top of the air scoop: Ze Germans... A little tape'll fix that light riiiight up:
The AF Corse team
As close as I could get to the 3.0L V6 TT:
A little walk up the track to the Historics Display: Unboxing the prize: Evening before race day, they have the driver's parade downtown: Chinese Dragons?!? Sure, why not: Mark Webber on the right: ... holding the kangaroo, lol: Man those French love a parade: Went through the old downtown... just a big rolling party: One of many had that night: OK... Race Day: Record crowd, 285 000:
Support race, Aston Martin:
Great looking bunch of car butts:
Droooooooool:
Drooooooooool X2:
This went by so quick I just about didn't get a shot of it:
Roll them out on the track:
Bib sighting:
One minute to go:
And they're off!
Battle Damage! He drove it into the pits with the wheel locked up and dragging sideways:
This Audi was hit and spun, lost the front and rear aero and drove into the pits for replacement... HARDCORE!
Dunno, as race cars go, they're pretty homely:
Hung on to win the Pro AM class after the leading Aston #98 crashed in the last couple laps of the race:
Audi and Porsche beat the crap out of each other from the start of the race right to the end:
But in the end... Porsche finished 1-2 with the Audi in 3rd... end of the Audi domination of Le Mans. In fact, of the years I've been going, it was one of the most competitive races in all the categories. Nobody just coasted and tried to conserve fuel, tires or brakes... one of the announcers remarked it was like watching a 24 hour sprint race, the lap times were fast from the start and continued throughout the entire race. Nobody had a clear lock on their class, places changed frequently and there were some surprise upsets (Corvette beating Aston for Pro AM). The only disappointment was: Nissan. The car wasn't developed or ready for the race. All three entries were slow, 20 seconds off the leading pace. The Brake Regen systems weren't set up or working and all 3 cars went through several front brake replacements during the race. The special tires from Michelin for the front wheel drive LMP1 cars weren't used as they changed wheel sizes before the race and the tires were made to fit the other wheels. The drivers were good, but the cars weren't ready. Darren Cox heading the Nissan team changed his tune throughout the race from arrogant 'we're here to win' to 'well, we just want to get a car to finish'. And after the other 2 retired, the third one did finish.... in 43 place. That's what happens when you try to run a race campaign focused on social media rather than through car development and testing. However, they did better than my rental car: Which got me exactly half-way to Le Mans and then sputtered to a stop and died:
Which is the exact reason I own a Datsun Roadster... lol
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