Puegeot Wins LeMans

[cosworth151]

The race just ended. Peugeot took first & second. Audi got third. My favorite, the Lola Aston Martin, was fourth. It was the first petrol powered car, though.

Porsche took LMP2 class. Corvette took GT1. Porsche well and truly blotted their copy book in GT2, which they used to own. Only one of their cass finished, dead last. Even little Spyker beat them! Ferrari won the class.

The winning car had two former F1 drivers, Marc Gene & Alex Wurz. The third driver was David Brabham. The second place car had one current and one former F1 driver, SeaBass & Franck Montagny, along with Stephane Sarrazin. Montagny was driving with a leg he had broken 10 days ago in training camp!

Former F1 driver Narain Karthikeyan had luck. Early in the race, he fell off the pit wall & dislocated his shoulder!

[david1275]

Great result for Peugeot, It's been a long time coming for them with Audi's domination over the last 7-8years. Watched over 12hrs of the race live on Eurosport, some times drifting in and out of conciseness.  Not the most exciting to watch but you can't help appreciate what endurance racing is all about.
The winning car done 382 laps in 24 hours, covering 3228 miles, average race speed 134.5MPH including 35 pit stops. That is an achievement!!

[John S]

Great result for Peugeot to get a 1-2, and the third car that had the incident in the pits with the Pescorola Peugeot amongst other things made it to 6th, it has been a long time coming.

I wonder if the the Peugeot factory team will now give up at Le Mans like so many others have done once they've conquered the 24 hours?

[Jericoke]

Has a diesel ever won LeMans befor?

[david1275]

The Diesel powered cars have dominated Le Mans since 2000, every year up to 08 won by an Audi TDI with the exception of 2003 when Bentley won with the petrol powered Speed 8.

[lkjohnson1950]

I reas that Brabs has a bit of F1 experience as well as Gene and Wurz. I also believe the Audis that won prior to Bentley were gas, basically the same powertrain as the Bentley.

Lonny

[david1275]

You are quite right Lonny, the Audi R8's were petrol powered, and are also the same as the powertrain that was in the Bentley. I wrote that late on Sunday night, half sleepin', and later realised I was wrong. I was just hoping nobody would notice

[Jericoke]

You are quite right Lonny, the Audi R8's were petrol powered, and are also the same as the powertrain that was in the Bentley. I wrote that late on Sunday night, half sleepin', and later realised I was wrong. I was just hoping nobody would notice

So its the first diesel powered win?

[John S]

So its the first diesel powered win?

No it's not the first diesel win, the Audi R10 was definitely diesel and won in 06,07 & 08.

[Jericoke]

So its the first diesel powered win?

No it's not the first diesel win, the Audi R10 was definitely diesel and won in 06,07 & 08.

Thanks.

Just wanted to know for sure.  Some of my friends are high on diesels.  I'm not convinced the extra cost of the engine is offset by the savings in fuel.  Although there is a certain appeal to a car that can run on french fry grease...

[Dare]

I worked on a engineers house 2 years ago and
he made his own diesel fuel from the oil he got
from restaraunts for 50 cents a gallon

[lkjohnson1950]

In the US at least, it's a bit less economical because taxes bring the price of diesel above that of regular gas. I believe in Europe diesel is a bit cheaper than petrol. I read somewhere that around half of all new cars (maybe it was all vehicles)  sold in Europe are diesels. The US Jetta is much quicker than a Prius and has better highway mileage than the hybrid.

Lonny

[cosworth151]

Radio Le Mans, which is actually a British operation, stated that 65% of new cars sold in the U.K. last year were diesels.

The odd tax structure here in the States came from the idea that diesel vehicles are commercial vehicles. I know that's not the way things are, but that was the basis for the law.

Also, diesels got a very bad reputation here back in the early 1980's. Several absolutely horrible diesel cars went on the market here, and they still shape the popular perception of diesel cars.

[lkjohnson1950]

Too true.

Lonny

[david1275]

Once you go Derv you never go back!! For ordinary cars anyway. Well you wouldn't want a diesel Ferrari, would you?

I actually prefer driving a modern turbocharged diesel car compared to the equivalent petrol powered car, the torque is addictive and the engines are so smooth and quite now.