Club Arnage

From Autosport........

Dyson to race LMP2 Porsches in '07

Dyson Racing have confirmed that they will race a pair of Porsche RS Spyders in the American Le Mans Series next year.

The team have recently competed in the LMP1 class in America with a Lola-AER package, but next year they will battle the 2006 championship-winning Penske team in LMP2.

Team boss Chris Dyson said: "We are thrilled with this new partnership. This is a very nice step in our team's evolution."

As a customer entry, Dyson will receive support from Porsche, and the team are looking forward to competing against Penske while working with them to develop the car.

Dyson added: "The Porsche factory, the development engineers at testing, and the technical staff at the track will all be supporting our efforts.

"We look forward to competing against Penske Motorsports, but we know they are development partners as well."

Dyson are the first team to become part of the Porsche customer project with the RS Spyder, which made its debut with Penske last season.

Penske will continue to receive the main support from Porsche as they develop the car, but any customer teams will be given exactly the same package during the season.

Hartmut Kristen, head of Porsche motorsport worldwide, said: "When we announced our ALMS participation in 2005 it was our target to have the RS Spyder being raced by customer teams in 2007.

"Having the Dyson team as a customer is exactly what we were going for. Both Penske and Dyson will have the same 2007 models and the engines will be identical as well."

Brilliant news. What chance is there of Dyson being tempted to Le Mans?

Well pretty much no chance of any Porsches before '08 whatever, so I hear.

For the 24heures du vacuums???  Could be a good lineup - I predict the Vax V-028MPT for pole, the Dyson DC07 second and the Bissell 3750E right behind. The Henry HVR200 won't complete qualifying, and I predict that for once the Bosche will not dominate...  ;D  ;D  ;D

Makes pretty good sense considering the Porsche was usually quicker, and more reliable than the bigger Lola last season.  But I would have to think Penkse will still get the latest bits.
Fax

I hope not and with all the money they have to pay for a Porsche, Dyson can expect the same material as Penske.

Porsche itself has actually a good reputation for delivering good stuff to all of its customers, the Group C cars they sold were always good enough to beat their own factory team.

Boy, that's going to be a swell P1 field for most of the season.  ::)

At least you guys coming over for Sebring will get to see a couple extras.

That said, I'd still rather watch 2 R10s race each other than a full field of Grand Sham junk.

Isn't it a pity that Audi didn't take this view with the R8?  If they had actively pursued a customer programme we could have had lots of different teams battling together, all in R8s a bit like the days of the 956/962.  The so-called customer programmes run by Audi (Johannson, Champion and Goh) were very much controlled by the factory.

It isn't too late for them to do the right thing with the R10 though......

From the Old Git.

I guess dyson thinks the R10 is going to be too strong for him to compete against in 07.

Does this signal the end for P1 in the US? or maybe it is a sign that Penske is planning to step up with Porsche to P1 sometime, maybe mid season next year.

I agree its a shame that Audi never really allowed anyone much freedom with the R8 and the signs are the R10 program will follow the same line.

Maybe they should be a rule that says you must make at least 2 cars available for indepents to run within 12 months of a debut.
Fix the price, if no one buys them too bad but it could open up the market a bit.

Is it confirmed no Spyders for Europe for next year?

I thought I read somewhere during the summer that one of the Porsche GT2 teams was making the step up to LMP2 with the Spyder, but cannot find or remeber where I read it.

Anyone any ideas......

Apparently Wolfgang Durheimer (Porsche Executive V.P.) stated as much (no Porsche Spyders at Le Mans until 2008) at the Porsche Awards dinner last weekend.
There seem to be even bigger implications here, to me, as the ACO has stated that regulations changes in LMPs 1&2 are specifically aimed at preventing LMP2's from an overall win (barring accidents etc) in order to discourage the bigger manufacturers from hyjacking LMP2 which they see as the class for independent teams and manufacturers.  If the goalposts are moved again at the end of the '07 season to further increase the differences between the two classes, will Porsche ever be tempted to come?  Will a class win be enough for them?

I think the public's and media's 'expectation' on Porsche is that if they ever return to Le mans with anything other than a GT car then it has to be with something capable of an outright win.

I also saw the statement the ACO made on their website re. an LMP2 car should not be capable of an outright win.

Just out of curiosity, why should a LMP2 car not be capable of winning?  If a LMP2 constructor builds a better mousetrap, where is it written that there's a flaw with the regulations.  I watched the Porsche RS Spyder blow the doors off Audi, Dyson Lola, etc. at Mid-Ohio this year and everyone loved it.  There's a lot to be said for seeing a "underdog stick it to a team who is "supposed to win overall"  Anyone remember when a privateer Porsche 934 won the 12 Hours of Sebring? Beating the high dollar 935 and GTP teams.  Personally a think the notion that LMP2 is grid filler and should not be in with a shout of winning overall is ridiculous.
Fax

agree 100% ;D

I agree.......I was just quoting what the ACO stated.

I always thought it interesting that theoretically two different sets of regulations / classes could be battling for an overall win.

Or when the TRG GT2 Porsche won the 24 Hours of Daytona, beating all the Grand Am "prototype" garbage scows.

Like Christopher, I'm just repeating what seems to me to be the ACO philosophy for LMP2 (and GT2 for that matter) - not my own thoughts (which I shall keep to myself until March,  Fax! ;D)

Termie & Christopher, I wasn't taking a shot at you guys, it was at the ACO.  I understood you were just "the messenger".  I just find it puzzling that the ACO would think of trying to "regulate out" the Porsche.  Its one of the most exciting sports racers to come along in a good while, and it would be a shame if the fans at the Sarthe never get a chance to see and hear it simply because the ACO would see it as a threat to their perceived class hierarchy.
Fax

Phew!

I didn't really take it personally, honest!  John Macaluso, Ray Mallock and numerous other more traditional LMP2 entrants can no doubt say it better than I, but I still think that Porsche are trying to beat Audi without competing on the same playing field.  They should have built an LMP1 car and had done with it - what the hell did they expect?  If the ACO continues to move the goalposts in order to maintain the differential between the two classes then Porsche only have themselves to blame.  I know I'm going to start a barrage of abuse but where do these smaller teams go now?  Where's the incentive for people like that to build prototypes if there's a big money manufacturer throwing everything at each of the classes and leaving no room for them to manoevre and no chance of them ever getting even a class win any more?
Yes, of course I'd like to see an Audi/Porsche battle at LM (can't stand the idea that Audi will never have any competition); of course I'd like to see the Spyders in the flesh without having to go to the US; but I'd also like to continue to enjoy the real competition which has existed in LMP2 since I started going to the great race.  It's depressing to think that it'll be as much of a foregone conclusion in LMP2 as it is at the moment in LMP1.  My own wish would be that Porsche build an LMP1 car and stop p*ssing about with LMP2.  If that's what the ACO is attempting to achieve, then I'm right with them.

I think the Porsche LMP2 car was built as a customer car. After the success of the 911 GT customer car which they have sold 100's of I think they were hoping they could do something similar in LMP2.
I still maintain we will see an LMP1 Porsche in 2008 run by Penske.

The Acura on the other hand has factory written all over it and by all accounts at the recent Sebring test they were pretty damn swift as well.

Well from the recently reported stuff going on at Dome, it is obviously  perfectly possible to produce a car for both LMPs 1&2 using the same basic shell. So, Jay, I think what you say may well be true re Porsche (and maybe Honda too, you never know); I certainly hope so myself.

I think Jay hit it on the screws pretty well.  The Porsche RS Spyder was commisioned by Porsche of North America from the very outset as a customer car.  Penske was chosen as the initial team for obvious reasons, they are one of the best in the world, and perfect for sorting a new car, before offering it to the rest of the teams who don't have the resources to do a lot of R&D work on a brand new machine.  I don't think it was originally built to be a Audi beater.  They just wanted a good, fast, reliable LMP2 car to offer to teams looking to move into the LMP ranks.  Just happened that it turned out to be quick enough to beat most LMP1 cars as well.
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The first one has just been delivered.
http://www.americanlemans.com/News/Article.aspx?ID=2783

Good for Dyson to get at least one of them before Sebring testing begins, that way they can have a setup established when the second one arrives and they can go into the 12 Hours not having to rely on Penske's setting's, which they most certainly will start from, and then refine their own approach.  Of course the Porsche engineers are going to be at the testing so I would imagine they'll all be pooling their data and opinions.
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