Images
courtesy Snobeck
Engineering
Text
copyright Michael
J. Fuller
A
very neat chassis was unveiled over Le Mans weekend 2000 by a little known
French firm, the Snobeck LM 01. Their goal was to run at Le Mans
in 2001. The car was being designed to accept the Peugeot twin turbo
V6 (LMP900) and a single turbo I4 (LMP675) engine. |
The
wind tunnel/presentation model has some minor differences. The main
being the open inside face of the front fenders. |
Very
low and very lean, the side pods are some of the lowest around. Very
low frontal area is an obvious design consideration. The ACO announced
rules stability for 2001, so the Snobeck LM 01 had the prerequisite single
roll hoop. At the front, radiator intakes feed coolers left
and right of the monocoque. The coolers exhaust immediately out the
side pod front. The nose box is raised and results in the F1-esque
nose at the front. This frees up splitter area and provides for less
obstructed flow to the engine coolers. |
The
raised footbox is a necessity to provide enough volume for the coolers.
Note the image here, and the one below. At right is the V6 twin turbo
Peugeot engine, below, the 4 cylinder LMP675 Snobeck prepared engine. |
The
cooling arrangement is somewhat cluttered. The water coolers get
the main focus of the cooling air and exhaust it immediately out the front
of the sidepods, the air being ducted in under the coolant pipe for the
radiator in front of it. The intercooler takes the air that is coming
down the side of the tubs (note the sculpting in the tub to provide a channel
for the air flow). |
The
wing is at maximum height. The rear engine deck height is also extraordinarily
low. |