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All news content copyright Michael J. Fuller, unless
otherwise noted |
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10.8.11
>>We
chatted briefly with Oak Racing's Technical Director, Christophe
Chapelain, at Petit Le Mans about Oak Racing's impressions of Road
Atlanta and what the organizations future holds.
But first it
seemed apropos to seek clarification of the relationship between Oak
Racing and Pescarolo. Chapelain explains: Oak Racing's
involvement with Pescarolo began back in 2008 when the team (then as
Saulnier Racing) purchased and raced Pescarolo chassis during the 2008
season, continuing into 2009. But with Pescarolo's collapse in
mid 2010, the relationship change significantly; Oak Racing's
President Jacques Nicolet stepped in and purchased all of the
intellectual property of Pescarolo. At that moment in time
Pescarolo effectively ceased to exist. But Nicolet reformed
Pescarolo Sport, employing many of Pescarolo's old employees. A
joint design department was also established. In the mean time,
Pescarolo Team was born and Henri Pescarolo was able to return to
racing. Subsequently Oak Racing has taken over the manufacturing
and design aspects of the Pescarolo LMPs, and moving into 2012 we will
see the “Oak Racing Pescarolo” moniker transition into simply “Oak
Racing.” |
Road
Atlanta's propensity of right hand corners vs. not so many left hands
making setting up the car an interesting proposition compared to other
tracks and tire choice becomes a decision of between medium and hard
compounds. The setup conundrum is further complicated by the new
25 mm skid, which ultimately imparts less downforce but increased
drag. Road Atlanta requires a high downforce setup in order to
extract the maximum performance for one lap. And interestingly
enough, the #24 Oak Racing's LMP1 was the fastest gas powered LMP
through Turn 1 [timing Sector 2] in qualifying. The Oak car was
as fast as the Peugeots and only .1 second behind the Audis through
Sector 2, thought about 10 mph down in top speed through the speed
trap. Says Chapelain, “But for the race, the setup requirement is
for slightly less drag, if only to allow the drivers the opportunity to
overtake slower traffic on the straights.” The switch to the low
downforce setup was also to the benefit of engine cooling.
Oak
Racing's LMP2 is carrying similar levels of downforce, if slightly
less, than their P1. The P2 car's front splitter has been trimmed
to reduce drag and overall downforce. This is evident by the
reduced length outer sections and the long center portion. The
splitter reduction is rebalanced with changes made to the rear wing.
With the
relatively minor regulation changes for 2012, specifically the mandated
louvers for the rear fenders and the implementation of the rear fin for
all chassis (new and grandfathered), Chapelain tells us that Oak Racing
will embark on a winter development program in order to mitigate the
aero impact of these mandatory changes as well as redress the car's
aero balance. Oak will utilize the RUAG scale model wind tunnel in
Switzerland.
But
plans are more ambitious looking towards 2014. With the ACO indicating
that the 2014 LMP regulations will be available before the end of the
year, Oak Racing will begin development of the 2014 car throughout 2012
with the idea of fielding the car in 2013. If the regulations are
produced before the end of the year, this time table will be possible
but it is in the ACO's court.
For 2014
Oak Racing is expecting to develop a new closed top monocoque as the
proposed 2014 regulations will apparently mandate a closed monocoque.
It also seems likely the implementation of a Kinetic Energy Recovery
system will be required, if not explicitly mandated, given the push
towards a fuel efficiency formula. And while it seems ambitious to
assume a new car with KERs could be on the track in 2014, the new
chassis will designed from the outset to accept. Willing KERs
partners could be found in Williams Hybrid or Magnetti Marelli, just
to name two, as there is a burgeoning KERs market for privateers to
tap into. |
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9.30.11
>>Today
started off with the unveiling of the Delta Wing show car to the Petit
Le Mans audience and the announcement that Michelin will be the tire
partner for the project. This is a huge announcement as the
project would have been hard pressed to turn laps, once the car is
completed,
without a tire partner to develop the bespoke 4" wide fronts.
With the tire partner announcement out of the
way, the only major 'i' to dot is who will supply he powerplant.
Speaking with Ben Bowlby, this isn't as problematic as it seems
if you consider that the engine in the DW will be non-stressed:
the rest of the car can be designed around until that deciscion
is made. Regardless, we suspect an engine partner will be
announced shortly given the December track test debut.
When asked directly about the Aston Martin AMR-One origins of the monocoque (9.13.11 entry),
Bowlby offered an initial hesitation followed by, "There's been some
speculation...and it is accurate." The use of the AMR-One tub is
pretty straight forward; vastly reduced lead times. Not to
mention reduced hassle as the AMR-One tub has already undergone all
the necessary crash testing and meets the latest ACO crash regulations.
We
spoke at length with Delta Wing designer Ben Bowlby and will be putting
that interview together, along with a more detailed analysis on
the Delta Wing project, at a later date. |
The trailinge edge engine cover gurney on the Peugeot 908.
Also
note, gone is the low-in-the-middle engine cover trailing edge we saw
at Sebring, though apparently it was tested in at least one of the
practice sessions:
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At one point during the morning practice Peugeot tried a shorter gurney on the sister car. |
Compare
the Peugeot's engine cover gurney to Audi's. Audi's is maybe 5 mm
tall. Though also note the diffuser trailing edge gurney below
the engine cover trailing edge. |
Peugeot is still utilizing the trimmed-short and notched trailing edge diffuser strake. This was first noted way back in 2008 on the 908 HDi FAP. What's also interesting is the emulation seen elsewhere on pitlane... |
Lola has utilized the shortened and notched diffuser strake since at least 2009. The Rebellion Lola B10/60 Toyota here. |
Oak Racing's LMP1 also utilizes the Peugeot-trim diffuser strakes, though Oak extends them to the trailing edge of the diffuser. |
The
R18 is utilizing vortex generators in the front diffuser. We
understand this is part of a conscious effort to prematurely separate
the trailing edge flow to the (presumably) detriment of aero
performance, but in order to better control trailing edge airflow
and to prevent particulate ingestion into the downstream radiator
inlets. This has been a consistent design detail on recent Audi
prototypes (R10, R15+, R15+). |
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9.29.11
>>Looking into the front access hole of the Aston Martin Racing Lola Aston Martin B09/60, we can see the evaporator core (that item that looks like a radiator that can be seen in the right hand access hole) for the car's air conditioning system. |
Oak
Racing experimented with a "lower" downforce package during the middle
of the morning session, changing the entire rear wing assembly and
complementing the package with new louvers (below). |
Oak Racing's less aggressive front louvers. |
The "full" louvers. These are on the LMP2 Oak Racing Pescarolo (car #35). |
The
#24 Oak Racing Pescarolo had a coming together with the #11
Porsche GTC in morning practice with resulting heavy damage. |
By the start of the night session the car was nearly repaired and the #24 made it out about half way through practice. |
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9.28.11
>>There's
a rumor that the American Le Mans Series could be the beneficiary of
the Le Mans Series' decision to eliminate the LMP1 category next year
with talk that ALMS fields could be bolstered by European LMP1 runners.
While this would be good, file this under, "believe it when we see
it." Talk is cheap after all...
Rebellion is running double dive planes and full louvers for now. |
The
Rebellion car is also sporting gurneys on the outboard rear fender
trailing edge. Over the years we've seen these on the Audi and Peugeot
and can only speculate that the area is somewhat productive. |
Very little has been said about Audi's rear composite subframe/gearbox carrier since we last discussed it during the Le Mans weekend
(6.5.11 entry) other than the expected "no comment." Our
speculation back in June was that Audi had designed the rear composite
subframe to carry the gearbox and to take all suspension loading as a
work around of the regulations that disallowed quick change gearboxes.
This weekend we have effectively confirmed that is indeed what
Audi's design intention was with the R18's gearbox. But we still
can't determine 100% the "why." Because in the same breath it's
been mentioned that the gearbox has been designed robust enough as to
be bullet proof (or nearly so). So why go to the effort to create
a quick change gearbox system rules-workaround? |
We
note that the Audi R18's rear brake duct inlet does not attach directly
to the rear brake duct, allowing air to spill past the brake duct
proper and to exit the rear of the car. We also note the location
(arrow) of a vertical splitter and suspect it might be guiding that
residual brake inlet air (and any other air tumbling through the engine
bay in the general vicinity) to exit out across the outer edge of the
diffuser trailing edge. Naturally, in general terms, the
idea would be to simply improve diffuser performance, and blowing
reorganized air across the trailing edge of the diffuser might be a way
to achieve this.
The 5 mm wire mesh is for rules
compliance; "blocking" mechanical items from view above the rear wheel
centerline. Shows you just how low the Audi's rear bodywork gets. |
The
Oreca 03 Nissan LMP2 has these interesting triangular cut outs in the
diffuser strake. We first saw these on the Oreca 01 LMP1 back in 2009. Of course the Oreca 03 is a derivative of the Oreca 01 and bears more than just a passing resemblance...Also note the variable height, "optimized," trailing edge gurney. |
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