Club Arnage

Poor old Henri. Doesn't get much luck does he?

Its been rumoured for some time that storm clouds were gathering over Pescarolo and Luxury Racings relationship. Luxury are supposed to be funding the build of the new Pesca 03 (the old AMR One), but failed to transfer the remaining funds, hence the new car not making its Spa debut. A bit of a war of words developed last week in the French papers, Luxury being miffed that Henri had been mouthing off in an attempt to move them along.
 It came to a head at the weekend when Luxury's owner denied that there was any contract between themselves and Henri (despite a 200,000 deposit being paid after Sebring) which resulted in Henri appointing a Bailiff on saturday evening to seize the two Luxury Racing Ferrari's from the Spa pitlane!

 It looks like there is now little funding to complete the new Pescarolo 03 in time for the test weekend, although it has been suggested that the owner of the AMR One that they are butchering has stepped forward. It certainly doesn't look good for that car now. Even if it is finished in time its hardly ideal preparation for the toughest race in the world.

 As an aside, the Norma had a big accident at the weekend and as they are another team running on a shoestring, thats another car that might struggle to get to Le Mans.

 With only two or three cars remaining cars on the reserve list, what with Luxury seamingly in financial trouble (they took on paying drivers at Spa), the Norma looking pretty second hand and Henri struggling to fund the second car, we might have less than 56 cars starting the big race this year!

It would be a big shame if Henri could not put together a car to under his own name to run, but given the pedigree of the car it may be best for all concerned that it was allowed to die away.

Maybe there is a 2nd Dome that he could borrow!

The reserve list is looking a bit thin, but when this happend last time a couple of cars were found that could take up the slack.

Ooh that's not good. Didn't know about all this. One of my friends was one of the "paying drivers" at Spa  :(

Why don't Peugeot do the decent thing and step back into the ring and lend / sell / give Mr P one of their cars that I assume are just collecting dust in a corner of their garage somewhere.

They will either become overnight heroes if they win (or at least finish!), they have nothing to loose if they dont finish - they can blame HP, the drivers, the weather, the Germans etc....... and they get some valuable testing  unde race mileage and conditions which will ately feed back into their road cars and fingers crossed when they come back to endurance racing.

Is the new chap in charge (of France not Peugeot) a race fan? Surely France would welcome a good news story / support the little man in the face of adversity......

And of course with the Toyota untried we need someone to give Audi a decent race!

I can see the logic in Peugoet sending a car or two to a privateer. What harm can it do? Win or lose its good publicity, and being in the hands of a privateer there is no pressure for a win.

It's certainly looking like an all Audi podium this year isn't it.

Some interesting comments from the press conference prior to Spa from the Toyota bods. The regulations will make the hybrid cars come alive next year as under the current rules they are running well below their potential.

Sources at DSC state that the Toyota is around 70bhp down on the Audis, so they won't match them on pace. But it looks like Toyota have chosen efficiency over performance when utilising their hybrid system, whereas Audi look set to go the other way. Could the Toyota go an extra lap between stops? It certainly won't make for great racing but could make it a great race.

Another comment from Toyota suggests that they might not finish the race but will match Audi and give them a good run.

I don't think we will have a contest like last year, but it should be entertaining enough none the less.

Si

It'll probably be another Audi benefit this year. But you know what? When you're sitting at the side of the track, beer in hand and the sun shining, does it really matter? It's still Le Mans.

Indeed Radar!  And the good news is that it seems Pesca has resolved the problem and the 03 will be there after all. Hurrah! We will once more be able to cheer for those Pesky-Rolos!  ;D

And if this years WEC races are anything to go by, the LMP2 and GT classes should produce interesting racing.

Didn't realise Gunnar was paying for a drive!?

Looks like the Pesca 03 is out testing today. Keep your eyes peeled for those first photos!

My advice is to keep your eyes covered: http://www.servimg.com/image_preview.php?i=1458&u=12384106 (http://www.servimg.com/image_preview.php?i=1458&u=12384106)

Might look better when it gets painted. Still pretty ugly though.

Any thoughts on the colour scheme? I've seen a few artists impressions of it in Pesca colours, one mainly blue and green, the other mainly white with blue and green accents, but as this car now belongs to the guy with the big Gulf collection, will it be blue and orange??

At least it's not black. Too many black cars at the moment. The blue, orange and matte black that Aston used last years looked terrible.

The Rebellion cars looked so pretty last year, this year they look rubbish in black.

Fingers crossed that someone comes up with something nice on this ugly little runt.

Looks like the bastard offspring of a Golf trolley and a fridge.

You could be right, particularly with the big jousting lance above the driver's head!  (or is that an optical illusion?...)

:)

Dsagree with yu on the Rebellion's, yes they looked brilliant last year, but for black cars this years edition look very well too.

The Pesca looks like a shed to me though, no paintjob can cover that up....

Yes, that describes it accurately. So the winner of the inofficial award for the ugliest car on the grid is set now. Should we present them a trophy during the pit walk? ;D

Looks much better from this angle: https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/577651_448019358550970_100000287290391_1649663_235285786_n.jpg (https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/577651_448019358550970_100000287290391_1649663_235285786_n.jpg)

Different view here: https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/521344_303107689775810_511217262_n.jpg (https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/521344_303107689775810_511217262_n.jpg)

Wow, that is ugly, but seeing as Pesca have used the chassis and nose from the AMR-One, there is no getting away from that ugly front end, with the high nose and the splitter hanger pillars.  Hope a decent paint scheme can take away some of the ug factor though.

It doesn't look as unfortunate now it's been painted. Not pretty, but not as ugly as the AMR-1. Testing went well at Manky Cords, no major problems reported and it is said to drive really well. Times were around a half a second shy of the Dome. Not bad for first time out of the box. So that begs the question.....

How can a small team with next to no money, build a car in 3 months flat and end up with a well balanced car with pace AND reliability, using left over parts from another project, when Aston Martin, a team with more resources, more man power and more time available managed to get it so wrong?

Answers on a postcard please.

Si

Lazy,

Contary to your comments about Astons budget and getting it totally wrong.

Their main sponsor pulled the plug financially a few months before LM and left AMR with virtually no cash to race with.They even had their buyer working as pit crew at the race due to the lack of funds,and along with trying to build their own engine didd'nt help either as it was totally inadequate for the job, but at least they still entered the fray even though it was doomed from the start.

Andy

Andy,

I have to disagree. Aston has more money than Pesca to go racing with. Gulf were the main sponsor of that car and they didn't pull out. The people who pulled out were the teams who had placed orders for customer cars and ran a mile when Aston failed to deliver the good and it became apparent that the car was a duff. And who can blame them? They built that car for monetary reasons and not for sporting purposes. They didn't invest enough and they got burnt. On the contrary it was Pesca who lost their main backer just weeks before the race and has had to fight hard to get the car finished.

If Aston didn't have the budget to do things right they should have concentrated their efforts on the chassis (which by the looks of things has turned out half decent) and used an engine they already had - the V8 out of the Vantage would have worked better for sure. I'm sure there are lots of things Pescarolo would like to do, but they have worked with what they have and have cut their cloth accordingly.

As for 'having a go' despite the project being doomed, I'll never forgive them for taking two grid spaces away when it was so clear that the car would not work. They went there purely for commercial reasons- to sell road cars to the chinless wonders that they had shipped out there en masse. They spent more on smoozing and hospitality than they did on the damn car. A pretty appalling situation in my book.

Si

Well lets hope Aston's factory effort in GT is better this year, from early results it looks like a better effort

Well said, totally agree.
3 laps from two cars was a disgrace, and they should hang their heads in shame.

As the recipient of Aston hospitality, I have to strongly disagree. The shrimp salad was exceptional '09 and the champagne tasting session in '10 was considered a huge success by all who tried it. They do it sooo well...

Pescarolos seized in the Technoparc.

http://www.lemans.org/en/races/test-day-of-24-hours-of-le-mans/news/pescarolos-seized-in-the-technoparc_7218.html (http://www.lemans.org/en/races/test-day-of-24-hours-of-le-mans/news/pescarolos-seized-in-the-technoparc_7218.html)

Hope this gets resolved soon.

If Pescarolo miss the race, Julien Jousse can probably forget getting another drive, ever, if he isn't lynched in the meantime.
Suspect it will blow over when sense prevails.

Deplorable behaviour.

I imagine there's a great deal of shrugging going on today.

(http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3192/2295520471_56124c9f30.jpg)

Both cars have been impounded.

Are there 2 different cases?

It would appear that this has now been resolved in favour of Pescarolo.

http://www.lemans.maville.com/sport/detail_-24-Heures-du-Mans-les-voitures-du-Pescarolo-Team-pourront-disputer-la-journee-test_fil-2164288_actu.Htm (http://www.lemans.maville.com/sport/detail_-24-Heures-du-Mans-les-voitures-du-Pescarolo-Team-pourront-disputer-la-journee-test_fil-2164288_actu.Htm)

shirmp salad so 70s.dont they watch master chef?

Stuart Hall has done a 3:41 in the Pesca so far, that's about 7 seconds faster than the original AMR-One did last year and its still going!

I didn't comment on this thread earlier due to my dislike of the grumpy old twat. He's a well know for being selfish and awkward, and it squares with what Jousse says:

"What I regret the most is that Henri let me know last when the whole of the team already knew.  His stubborn refusal to help me find another seat somewhere encouraged me to take legal action because this is a huge halt to my career which I truly don’t think I deserved.  Henri chose this course of action of seizing cars against the two Luxury Ferraris,  and I’ve followed in the same manner.  He can’t say anything against me.”

I don't believe Jousse was ever going to win this one, but if you treat folk like Henri does, what can he expect.

I hope his cars fail early.

I must admit I'm starting to dislike Henri's business actions. Having met him a few times and having read loads of interviews over the years I'd formed the opinion that he was a top bloke. The recent incidents have taken the shine off his halo a little. I really think its time he got some better management in to take care of the business side of things. He is doing himself and his team no favours at the moment.

More trouble for Pesca.

JCB has quit! He has decided not to drive the Pesca 03 after his crash in practice on Wednesday night and has walked away.

That leaves just two drivers in the car for the race- Collard and Hall.

I bet Julien Jouse is pissing himself with laughter.

Is that it for Henri? It's not looking good is it.

A terrible weekend for sure. It looks like Dome are taking the car back to Japan and there is no budget for the 03 for the rest of the season.

If they had had a good Le Mans things might have been different, as it happens it was a farce and I can't see anyone putting any more money into the hat.

The 03 turned out to be just as bad as the AMR One. The engine is a dog and shook the cars to pieces in both cars which leads you to question why they used that engine to start with? Neither cars were built to take the vibration of a V8, even a good V8, so why use it. I know Henri has a good relationship with Judd and their V10 wasn't a bad motor, but that V8 (which is a rehash of the LMP2 spec motor that came from the days when LMP2 cars broke as soon as they saw daylight) is simply a out of date lump of crap.

The only way forward for Henri is to jump in bed with a manufacturer like Oreca has done, but on the recent business actions he has taken will turn them away in droves.

Sorry to say it, but I think it's time he called it a day.

I'm not much of an Henri fan, even though I do get the reasons why he's popular here.

Yes, he's a local, yes he's always available for any public event or interview going, yes he'll hop in any old French car and drive it round the circuit like he means it and yes, he seems very hands on and is always there mucking in with the team when he's needed but heck he appears - to my eyes at least - to be the very worst sort of manager.  What's more, I rarely hear him interviewed without his moaning about something.  You make your own luck and Henri seems to have made very little since he decided to put his name to a team.  The WEC looks as though it's going to kill any European championship so Henri's chances of doing anything good this year are surely slim to nothing.

The most upbeat he seemed this weekend was when he stepped out of the Matra.  He should have stuck to what he was good at and left it at that.  Leave the managing to de Chaunac, Leconte and co who are clearly far better at it.

I thought I heard them say on Eurosport that he was retiring...? In fact I'm sure I did...