by John Glynn | Jun 11, 2014 | Porsche News, Race and Rally
The Porsche 919 LMP1 Hybrid cars finished first qualifying for the 2014 Le Mans 24 Hour at the top of the timesheets. Who would have predicted that?!
This was the second of today’s track sessions, both of which were interrupted by red flags due to accidents on track. Today’s free practice was interesting for the 919s, which spent quite a bit of time testing cooling setups. Starting at 16:00hrs in high-20s ambient temperatures, Marc Lieb was first out in the number 14 car, with Webber taking the early laps in the number 20. Tandy took the number 91 911 RSR to start, with Marco Holzer running number 92.
As Toyota topped the times in their super quick TS040s, Audis followed on and Porsches brought up the rear of the LMP1 hybrid class. The Weissach prototypes were in and out of the garage, engine covers on and off and noses being swapped. Holzer’s 911 slung a driveshaft after less than half a lap, and was soon back in the pits. Quick Nick “Mr T” Tandy seemed to have no trouble, going second fastest in class as the session progressed.
The big news from practice was a huge accident for the number 1 Audi of Loic Duval. Eurosport’s pictures briefly showed the wreckage at the start of the Porsche Curves: it looked properly destroyed from the angle we saw. Spectators reported the car flying through the air and hitting the armco roof-first: yet to be confirmed. Audi has just confirmed that Loic has grazed his leg but is otherwise said to be OK, and the number 1 Audi should be rebuilt by tomorrow. Amazing!
At the halfway point in tonight’s two-hour qualifying session, the course was closed yet again by red flag, as Stéphane Sarrazin’s number 7 Toyota – third quickest overall – stopped early on a lap straight out of the pits. Stephane was refusing to get out of the car, but the tractors have now lifted it off the track, so I presume they crowbar’d him out of it.
While this was going on, Fernando Rees’ Aston had a big smash – again in the Porsche Curves – which completely destroyed one side of his car and damaged the barriers too heavily for the session to continue. Qualifying was cut short, and the Porsches finished on top.
The quickest Toyota has clocked a 3:25.313 in this night time session, but the Porsches are flying. Number 20 (Webber/Hartley/Bernhard) tops the times on a 3:23.1 (woohoo – great job by Brendon who is bloody amazing) with the 14 car up its chuff, eight tenths behind. Tomorrow is another day, but what a perfect start!
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by John Glynn | Jun 10, 2014 | Porsche News, Race and Rally
Weather forecast for the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2014 this weekend shows no sign of rain at the start. A high of 26 degrees on Saturday should give moderate track temperatures, so tyre wear will be interesting. Overnight temperatures of 11 degrees will be a relief for drivers after the heat of the day.
Sunday is forecasted to be warm and slightly overcast. Rising humidity could be a risk, as rain threatens towards the finish. Cars in tight competition running close behind another for hours on end and pushing reliability might face engine and brake temperature issues in muggy weather. No doubt it will be a real test for the drivers to manage their cars to the finish. Tom Kristensen puts it into perspective:
“Le Mans takes the best out of everyone: it’s such a big and great event in motorsport. You do more kilometres in that one race than Formula One does in a season, and probably a higher average speed. We average about 220km/h including pit stops, and cover nearly 5,000 kilometres.”
I think F1 may cover more distance this year, but F1 teams strip and rebuild the cars after every two hour race. Le Mans is a tough event.
TV Coverage of Le Mans 24 Hours 2014
Eurosport will be showing the full race live. Not sure if this is HD: I doubt it. You can follow the 24 Hours of Le Mans live online with the Michelin-sponsored Le Mans live website. The ACO website will have a full data feed available, so my viewing will be commentary by Radio Le Mans, pics by Eurosport and timing from the organisers. I’ll blog a bit during the race for sure and you can follow the Ferdinand: Cult of Porsche Twitter feed to keep up with Porsche progress.
Porsche Le Mans Track Schedule
Porsche has a busy Le Mans schedule this week (see below). Are you in Le Mans? Share your experiences on the Ferdinand Facebook page or email us at mail@ferdinandmagazine.com.
Tuesday, June 10:
2:00-2:30 pm Porsche team photo (LMP1) at start/finish line
2:30-3:00 pm Meet the team (LMP1), team and media hospitality
5:00-6:30 pm Autograph session, pit lane
Wednesday, June 11:
2:30-3:00 pm Meet the team (LMP1), team and media hospitality
4:00-8:00 pm Free practice
10:00 pm-midnight Qualifying
Thursday, June 12:
3:30-4:00 pm Meet the team (LMP1), team and media hospitality
7:00-9:00 pm Qualifying
10:00 pm-midnight Qualifying
Friday, June 13:
10:00 am – 8:00 pm Pit walk
1:00-2:00 pm Porsche press conference in the large guest hospitality area
5:30-7:30 pm Driver parade in the downtown area
Saturday, June 14:
09:00-09:45 Warm-up
2:22 pm Beginning of race start ceremony
3:00 pm Start of race
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by John Glynn | Jun 9, 2014 | Porsche News, Race and Rally
Some great facts and figures surround the works Porsche Le Mans experience. Check this out:
- 812 Porsche cars have raced at Le Mans, scoring 16 overall victories
- Porsche 919 LMP1 Hybrids are numbered 20 and 14: 2014 is the year of Porsche’s return
- Hans Stuck holds the qualifying lap record: 251.815 km/h, or 156 miles per hour AVERAGE
- In normal racing mode, the Porsche 919 LMP1 Hybrid must refuel every 13 or 14 laps
- The 919 LMP1 may only use 1.67 kilowatt hours of electricity as boost per 13.6 km lap of Le Mans
- The core Porsche racing team for Le Mans numbers 86 personnel, not including marketing etc
- Porsche Motorsport will use more than 1,000 team shirts through the full Le Mans week
- The shopping list for Porsche catering and hospitality includes 1,100 loaves of bread, 2,000 eggs, half a tonne of fish and 1.2 tonnes of meat
- ACO expects a quarter of a million spectators at Le Mans this year
Porsche Le Mans 919 LMP1 Hybrid Energy
The 2013 Le Mans winner drove 348 laps. Over this distance, the Porsche 919 LMP1 Hybrid would generate 581.2 kWh from its energy recovery systems. This electrical energy could:
- Power a 60w light bulb for 9,687 hours
- Power a Volkswagen E-Golf 4,576 kilometres: the distance from New York to Los Angeles
Current WEC Championship Standings before Le Mans
Porsche (36 points) is P2 behind Toyota (84 points) and ahead of Audi (28 points) after two of eight rounds. Twice as many points are awarded at Le Mans compared to the other 6-hour events.
Le Mans Driver Rest/Sleep
Team members grab sleep in the pits whenever they can. Drivers have beds in containers behind the pit garages, but they would more usually sleep from exhaustion. It’s not an easy place to drift off in peace.
I don’t know how you’re feeling, but I have no idea how Porsche expects people to get any work done this week. I’m nervous already and it’s only Monday. Roll on Saturday afternoon!
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by John Glynn | Jun 8, 2014 | Classic Porsche Blog, Market & Prices
Flicking through Instagram this morning, a 356 friend on there posted this picture of his stunning Coupe. Turns out the colour is Aetna Blue – a new one on me, available on 356s for just two years: 1960/61. Porsche paint names intrigue me, so I got onto Google.
You’ll have guessed that Aetna is a Greek word. In classic mythology, Aetna was the daughter of Uranus and Gaea: nymph goddess of a Sicilian volcano said to entomb the giant Typhoeus, whose frequent restlessness led to the eruptions from the mountain, and terrifying earthquakes that shook the island.
That Sicilian volcano is, of course, Mount Etna. It is easy to understand how a sojourn alongside the Sicilian coast could have led to this rich melt of sky and sea finding its way onto a svelte 356. Continuing the Google led to a thread on Rennlist, which once again proved to me how small this Porsche world is. But that’s another story.
Marc L in Houston, Texas shared how he had bought this used Porsche 991 C2S manual from a Houston Porsche dealer, in paint-to-sample Aetna Blue with Espresso leather and wood trim. Apparently the car had covered less than a thousand miles but had come back in soon after delivery, as part exchange on a C4S 911. Numerous local Rennlisters contributed to say it had been at the dealer’s for a while: the unique colour and trim proving difficult to sell.
Marc walked in looking for a Cobalt Blue 997 Turbo, but was struck by the luxurious combination of this custom-built 991. While there is the usual backlash on the thread against the wood trim, seeing these things in person is a totally different experience. No surprise Marc was smitten, buying it on the spot.
The original owner of the Aetna Blue 991 also chimes in to the thread, sharing how “that vintage feel is what I was looking for. My dealer would never order wood in a 911 but after this car they’ve done it several times. With the right colors it looks good.”
Porsche’s paint to sample facility is a wonderful thing. A skilled aesthete can build a beautiful car that would be kept forever. It can also go exceptionally wrong, of course, but to me this 991 sums up the best of modern Porsche. Perhaps it also shows that the 991 is now a car for fifty- rather than thirty-somethings (I’m at the wrong end of that scale), but now the young folk have the Cayman and Boxster, let all 991s look as special as this. It’s my favourite 991 to date.
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by John Glynn | Jun 7, 2014 | Porsche News, Race and Rally
There’s just one week to go until the 2014 Le Mans 24 Hour. Porsche will tackle LMP1 with its 919 Hybrid racecar and a star crew of drivers, but Le Mans is not all about prototypes. The reduced-power Porsche 911 Le Mans RSR faces a tough challenge to repeat last year’s win in both GTE-Pro and GTE-Am classes.
Watch Out for Corvette at Le Mans
It always feels like there are cars everywhere on track at Le Mans, but the GTE-Pro field is very compact. Nine cars will race in GTE-Pro: three Ferarris, two Corvettes, two 911s and two Aston Martins. While the GTE Pro Porsches finished 1-2 at Silverstone, the gap to third placed Aston was less than a minute behind. Both Aston and the P4 Ferrari finished on the lead lap in class.
Bruni’s Ferrari won at Spa, a lap ahead of Pilet/Bergmeister in an RSR that had been getting quicker as the race wore on. Now Pilet leads the RSR charge at home, in the third round of the eight for 2014 WEC championship and the final WEC race held in Europe this year.
““Le Mans is a very special race, especially for me as a Frenchman,” says Patrick. “It’s always an incredible feeling to go racing on such an extreme circuit in front of so many fans. We are well prepared and our 911 RSR is a strong contender, especially on the long straights. It would be fantastic if we could turn this into a win.”
Less Power for the Le Mans Porsche 911 RSR
It would indeed be fantastic as thanks to the “balance of performance” ruling, the RSR now weighs 25 kilos more and has a smaller air restrictor, reducing engine power. No one wants to see how this affects the 911’s chances in France more than the second French Porsche works driver, Fred Makowiecki.
“A Frenchman simply has to race – and win – at Le Mans. Your family is watching at the track, your friends are there supporting you. This makes it hugely motivating. As a child I dreamed of Porsche; I launched my racing career with Porsche. If I could now win Le Mans with Porsche, that would be the best thing in the world. But first we have to face 24 hours where pretty much anything can happen.”
Porsche Works Driver Le Mans Crash
Fred has bitter personal experience of this, as he crashed out of an established GTE-Pro lead last year when his Aston smashed into the barriers at a Les Hunadières chicane. “It was wet, and at the exit of the chicane the car just snatched, went 90 degrees and into the wall. We were going well, but as always the most important thing is to be first in the last minute. It was a small mistake on my side; I take the blame.”
Running at the last minute means everything at Le Mans. In eight days, we’ll know how that went for Porsche. Here’s how the French commentators reported Fred’s crash last year:
