OT Le Mans

[bicycletricycle]

Anyone here like endurance racing? Le Mans this year was pretty good. Anyone watch it?

[GT2R]

You bet. Every year like celebrating all the holidays I burned untold hours watching/following the race this year.

[thirdgenbird]

Uhh, I fell asleep early this morning thinking Porsche was doing well. Woke up later to find otherwise...

[rounder]

I did not watch it but read about it. Toyota was favored to win. Audi has been super successful in recent years and was expected to have a strong team. Porsche has a history of being great at Le Mans but has not fielded a team in recent years. This year they both did. Volkswagen owns both companies (Audi and Porsche) and on a combined basis spent over a $billion to win the race. Audi won, but Porsche did well. I think I read that the course is about 8 miles and the winning car ran about 360 laps in 24 hours. The winning car drove almost 3,000 miles in 24 hours!. Go Audi.

[Saguaro]

The 24 Hours of Le Mans is the auto racing event of the year for me. I watched a couple hours of it last night on the 24h live stream. At that time, the lead Audi e-tron quatto pitted as scheduled but had to replace the turbocharger. Apparently tricky work given the working temperature of the unit. The other surviving e-tron also had to replace its turbocharger. While it took time to make the repairs, the two remaining Audis finished 1st and 2nd.

I was rooting for the Porsche team but Audi is too strong at this time. Porsche did well and learned a lot but they have a ways to go to un-seat the Kings - Team Audi.

Check out my blog on this amazing race car at Stoffel on Design (http://stoffeldesign.blogspot.com/2013/04/audi-r18-e-tron-quattro-hybrid.html)

https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2926/14349798805_8ff3faf919_b.jpg

[GuyGadois]

I found it interesting Audi says they will probably going to change to gas from diesel because the increased competition from Toyota who had a good chance to win this year. Diesels are just too heavy and Audi feels like they will have to further improve next year. Fun race to watch.

[mistermo]

Volkswagen owns both companies (Audi and Porsche)

I know VW owns Audi. But I was under the impression that it was the other way around, that Porsche owned VW, but I could be mistaken.

I recall hearing about an interesting business scenario involving VW where, for a brief moment, it had the highest cap value in the world due to the Porsche run up of the stock price, or somesuch. I only vaguely recall all this, so I could be wrong.

And did I hear correctly that Audi bought Ducati?

[thirdgenbird]

Porsche bought majority stake in VW just before the economy tanked. Between the poor economy and massive amount of loans, the Porsche holding company sold Porsche the automobile manufacturing company to VW for the amount of their debts.

I believe, Porsche the auto manufacturer is 100% owned by VAG but the Porsche the holding company still owns about 50% of VAG.

It's almost fitting. I think I read somewhere that through history, the Porsche family has made more money being the European distributer for VW they have from selling their own cars. I believe Ferdinand was given this business as payment for his help with the original VW. My memory is fuzzy on a lot of this. It is a fairly tangled web.

yes, Audi bought Ducati a few years back. I'm assuming they still have them.

[goonster]

scenario involving VW where, for a brief moment, it had the highest cap value in the world
That happened. (http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/10/28/us-volkswagen-idUSTRE49R3I920081028)

In 2009, Porsche acted more like a hedge fund than a carmaker (http://www.theguardian.com/business/2009/apr/01/car-industry-porsche-profits), with profits eclipsing sales (!).

It was all the work of former CEO Wiedeking, who really flew to close to the sun with the attempted takeover of VW.

It all ended badly for Porsche, with the car manufacturer now fully controlled by VW, and no longer an independent entity. Wiedeking paid himself a mint, but was then fired and investigated for market manipulation and violation of fiduciary duty, although charges were ultimately dismissed.

[goonster]

The amazing thing, to me, is that Loic Duval walked away from this practice crash with only scratches:
http://o.aolcdn.com/dims-shared/dims3/GLOB/crop/921x611+73+123/resize/628x417!/format/jpg/quality/85/http://o.aolcdn.com/hss/storage/midas/80b6f1552bdb531540d71499291e12f3/200262098/Audi-R18-Loic-Duval-Crash.jpg

He was barred from racing, as a precaution, but Audi considered repairing that car (!). They ended up getting permission to build a new car from a bare tub.

[bicycletricycle]

i really like all the tech in these cars, they are such amazing machines. Im just barely recovering from watching all 24 hours this year, hoping to go back to watch it in person next year.

didnt know audi was maybe switching to gas.

[jlwdm]

VW also owns Bentley, Bugatti and Lamborghini and other car companies.

Jeff

[F150]

hmmm

[F150]

Group of friends hoping to head to Europe next year; there was talk the schedule might allow us to catch Isle of Man TT the week before Le Mans. Serious fans; one of the group built a teardrop camper and pulled it from Toronto to Sebring this year. If you want some domestic fun, go to MotoGP at Indy, buy the general admission ticket ($70?) and see 3 days of great racing. On Saturday night, head to the Fairgrounds and watch the dirt track boys tear around the Indy Mile. Only missed two of these events: the year of Sugarland concert disaster and the night Kenny Roberts brought the TZ750 out. Doh!

I saw the Peugeot and Audi up close at Petit Le Mans at few years ago. Crazy how quiet those diesel cars were; could have sworn they were battery powered, all you heard was them cutting the air in the Esses.

Doing 180mph at entry to Turn 1. Nuts...

[don compton]

I found it interesting Audi says they will probably going to change to gas from diesel because the increased competition from Toyota who had a good chance to win this year. Diesels are just too heavy and Audi feels like they will have to further improve next year. Fun race to watch.
The fuel tank reduction negates the diesel's advantage. Too bad.

[Craig Ryan]

I think I watched about 16 hours of it this year. The coverage gets better every year. More cameras etc. I think they're moving in the right direction with the hybrid inclusion to P1. Super capacitors, flywheels, good stuff. I live in Indy, but the 500 bores me in comparison.

[Saguaro]

The fuel tank reduction negates the diesel's advantage. Too bad.

Exactly.

If you want more details on the complicated rules that strive to achieve "technological equivalency" go to the Audi press release here: https://www.audi-mediaservices.com/publish/ms/content/en/public/pressemitteilungen/2014/06/09/audi_with_most_fuel-efficient.html

If (big if) the rules stay basically the same in 2015 I predict Audi will stick with their proven TDI drivetrain. And why not? They keep winning the event and the team is is familiar with it.

The broken turbochargers during the race would concern me more.