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its sad Audi won't be around, but to tell you the truth, they have nothing left to prove in the prototype category, they won as the favorite and the underdog. they won 8 times overall in 10 years (9 if they didn't let the sister brand win). they won with a gasoline car, a diesel, and a diesel-hybrid.
I do see possibly Audi back at Lemans in the GT2 category with the R8 TDI.
The R8 LMS will be run next by a couple of privateer year so Audi wont be completely gone.Quote:
Originally Posted by harvick#1
Could be a very empty hospitality area if both the Porsche and Audi Dealer groups scratch ALMS from the 2009 budgets.Quote:
Originally Posted by rob01
Audi arent doing the ALMSQuote:
Originally Posted by pits4me
My point rob01. When the factory withdraws their support, the dealer associations, regional dealership partners, key clients, VIP guests, etc. all go by the wayside. ALMS attracts a lot of marquee followers.
ok fair do's. misunderstood what you meant tis all
Audi didn't have anything to prove by competing in the ALMS. But given that they struggled so much with Peugeot I thought they'd be in trouble with a P1 effort by Honda, who would have, I think, designed a car for the street courses. While the R10 was built to compete at Le Mans, from what I remember hearing.
Its a real shame that the ACO didnt stick to thier guns regarding the closed cockpit cars as closed cars look waaaaaaay better than the open top ones, plus people tend to associate closed cockpit cars with actually giving a damn about sportscar racing (Group C my friends, Group C - pre Bernie sticking his oar in and destroying it by making it a trojan horse to get manufacturers into F1!). Its all well and good that a couple of manufacturers threatened to withdraw if they were forced to run closed prototypes, but on Audi's part I don't get it, they have the capability to do closed prototypes, indeed, both the closed version of the R8 and the Bentley Speed 8 came from the VAG stable. And they are doing a new car anyway and were given a few years notice, I really don't see what the issue is. As for Acura, I don't think that the ACO said anything about P2 which blows the lid on the worse kept secret in history - Acura's P1 ambitions.Quote:
Originally Posted by harvick#1
I hope the ACO do not penalise the closed cars in any way, in the past the closed cars had to run narrower tyres, though despite this Bentley still wiped the floor at Le Mans once they had switched to Michelin that did them some nigh on unbelieveable tyres that could be tripple stinted despite the narrower width. I think the tyres have been equalised now, as have the profile on the rear wings.
Quote:
Originally Posted by philipbain
Sorry But Closed Cockpit cars are ugly compared to open cockpits and really against everything sportscar racing stands for.
The driver should be visible and exposed to the elements.
So the GT40 and 917 were 'against everything sportscar racing stands for'?Quote:
Originally Posted by anthonyvop