Club Arnage

There is a report on an Italian web page ( http://www.italiaracing.net/notizia.asp?id=15450&cat=15 )

It reports that Toyota have been testing an old GTone with a modern engine at Paul Ricard with a view to racing at Le Mans in the next few years.

I would hazard a guess it is in response too Honda who have also stated an intention to return.

Clearly very early days and it is easy to read too much into these reports, but hoefully it will lead to something.

Excellent news.  I especially liked the shape of the GTone.

More closed coupe prototypes please.

Hugues de Chaunac's building one.... :)

yes please, the 99 car was a fab looking machine. One of my favourites looks wise, especially of the ones i have seen as 99 was my first year at LM.

In fact of the top cars it prob is the best looking one i have seen race live. Although my overall favourite still has to be the Morgans, lets hope they can scrape enough pennies together at some point to return.

Thats good news. My old mate Henri hinted to a major manufacturer wanting to get involved with a petrol engined car in Motorsport magazine about a month or so ago. But he said that there would have to be a level playing field against the oil burners first before they would commit fully. Will the Pescarolo have a Jap engine in the next few years? Its an ideal opportunity for a manufacturer to develop a new motor in a well sorted reliable chassis. The Toyota one was a nice looking car too. Fingers crossed!

The ones running in the GT3 support races for the FIA GT season look sadly pathetic (in terms of performance and reliability) though don't they, Dave?

That is true, and a shame. Never really a contender at LM what was it 3 years ago but still the sight and sound of them was the only car to get me off my arse every lap through the night at Arnage.

Whilst tidying my study the other day I came across some photos of the Jag XJR15.  Seem to recall they raced in 1991 or 2 as a support race to some of the GPs Silverstone and Monaco?

Weren't they based on the design of the Jag that won Le Mans in the late 80's?

That's good news. So we can tick the boxes of Alfa Romeo, Toyota and Honda. Great to see more factory cars coming into the race, as long as they won't run stupid diesels! >:(

I remember seeing them supporting one of the British GP's too. Very nice shape and I seem to remember one getting rather bent.
(http://www.topgear.com/content/features/stories/2005/10/stories/10/01large.jpg)

I'd love to see Toyota back at Le Mans. Let's face it, they've probably worked out they aren't going to win the F1 World Championship any time soon, so perhaps have decided that a bit of Le Mans glory would be eaisier to achieve and restore a bit of pride to their reputation. No doubt the change by the ACO to favour closed coupes from 2010 also makes it more attractive.

The rules have changed quite a bit since the GT-One raced and it would need major revisions. The GT-One was 4840mm long and had 1000mm overhangs, but cars today are restricted to 4650mm and the front and rear overhangs are much smaller resulting in longer wheelbases. Hence the Toyota needs to be significantly redesigned to be shortened with a longer wheelbase and smaller overhangs.

Here's a quick comparison of the '99 Toyoya and '06 Audi using my 1:43 models :

(http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a400/Jager1994/RIMG0294.jpg)

I very much doubt Toyota intend the reuse the GTone. If it is true that it was TTE doing the testing rather than an owner (did any get sold to collectors?), then I would think they are testing parts by using the GTone as a base mark.

They do after all have plenty of data from that car to compare any new items with.

Sounds great that there are rumours of Japan manufacturers giving Le Mans another go!

I hope this comes true, some more front running competition would be great!

So what's the story with Honda?

In an interview during the ALMS race on Motors, the Acura boss said they were definately asking for an invitation to LM in '08 with the P2 car and that they would be developing a P1 car for 2010. :)

And whats the story with Alfa Romeo?

I'm guessing their P2 car would go against the ACO's rationale that P2 should be a 'privateer' class.  Plus the Acura in ALMS trim would require some restiction / ballast to comply with ACO regs.

The impression I got was that they were happy to comply with the ACO regs (they are all "private" cars really, aren't they?) and just compete for the P2 category (if the car runs for 24 hours, that would give them a pretty good shot!) while developing the P1.  As the Acura brand is coming to Europe I think they'll do all they can to get in.  I'll bet the ACO will do all they can to encourage them.  There was also talk of a privateer Porsche RS Spyder but they haven't found anybody with the budget to run one over here.  I guess Dyson are the favourite candidates but they've failed to get an entry before haven't they?

I assume then, that an influx of other P2 entries would displace other teams from the P2 class (WR etc) rather than dropping entries from, say, GT2 to still retain 55 total entries.

After this year's apalling effort in P2, we may see the odd bit of squirming to up the ante in the class - but it's all guesswork.  The off-season could be interesting.  I heard rumours that WR were developing a green fuel car but their site is fast asleep at present.  The entry base is increasing all the time with so many new cars and manufactureres apparently trying to get in.  Personally, I hope the GT entry won't be shrunk to compensate as, for me at least, that's where all the fun and competition is.  And what happens if Henri gets his way and we have petrol as well as diesel classes in P1?  Maybe they should get on and build ten more pits...

IMSA adopted the 5% restriction on P2's.  Were there any differences in the regs besides that?

Long term the ACO has plans to scrap the existing GT1 and GT2 class. With the lack of new GT1 cars coming along its time I guess to look again at the regs.

The normal way of doing it would be to upgrade the GT2 and GT3 classes and rename them.

IMHO it would be great if they sat down with the JGT series organisers and found a common set of rules. It would open up the market in the GT class for Honda, Toyota and Nissan to race in Europe as well as the domestic market.

P2 has plenty of support but the woeful relibility must give the ACO cause for concern. If Honda do come along with a reliable package that is available to privateers I am sure the ACo will bite their hand off.

As for the Porsche P2 car, I would love to see it run in Europe but really can't see it happening for a while yet. Dyson have been invited before as class winners etc, but have knocked the ACO back. I would expect if they wanted to run the ACo would be happy to let them.