prmazdarx7

a little something from me to all of you

Subject: old news - something about a Mazda quadrirotors at Le Mans ; )

The Competitors accepted for the 70th race

24H du Mans 2002 / Preparations
Thursday, March 21th, 2002 11:52
The Automobile Club de l'Ouest's Selection Committee has studied the
96 entry requests it has received and has taken its decision.
48 cars, in addition to which 6 reserve cars plus 2 cars whose
participation remains subject to special agreements around the
project for a film on Michel VAILLANT, will be asked to attend the
scrutineering of the Preliminary Practice Sessions on Sunday, 5th May
2002 (article 3-5 of the race's supplementary regulations). The
competitors who have been accepted will receive official confirmation
of their invitation within the next few days.
Regarding quantity and quality, the 2002 race promises to be
excellent with a lot of variety and new models. The A.C.O.'s
Selection Committee has thus accepted 25 « Prototypes » (19 «
LM »P900s and 6 « LM » P675s), and 23 « GT »s (11 « GTS » and 12 «
LM » GT).
30 selected cars, representing 24 teams are participating, either in
part, or entirely, in this year's AMERICAN LE MANS SERIES.
As regards nationalities, 15 cars will be bearing the French colours,
11 will be bearing those of the U.S., 8 for Germany, 7 for England, 4
for Japan, 2 for the Netherlands and 1 for Italy.
Lastly, on the track we will be seeing 20 different makes of chassis
and 18 different engine types (« LM »P900 : 8 chassis, 6 engines ; «
LM »P 675 : 4 chassis, 4 engines ; « LM »GTS : 4 chassis : 4
engines ; « LM »GT : 4 chassis, 4 engines).
Among the news models, we will be noticing the arrival of FERRARI
MARANELLOS in the « LM » GTS category, and the arrivals of SPYKER,
MORGAN and FERRARI MODENAS in the « LM » GT category. In the «
PROTOTYPE » category, we will be discovering the engines manufacturer
MUGEN and the return of the MAZDA quadrirotors.
As regards the technical side, it is compulsory for the reserve cars
to have taken part in the Preliminary Practice Sessions. Should there
be a withdrawal, and irrespective of the category, it is the order
allocated to the reserve cars which will be taken into consideration.
The list of reserve cars will afterwards be removed on 31st May 2002
at midnight. None of them will thus take part in the big week of
the « 24 Heures », unless there is a withdrawal prior to 31.05.02.
For those cars concerned by the making of the film, and whose
participation depends on a special agreement, it is mandatory that
they comply with the same rules as the other competitors, both from a
technical point of view and during the course of the race.
All those invited will thus get together on Saturday 4th May for the
scrutineering of the Preliminary Practice Sessions, before taking to
the track the following day on the new layout of the « 24 Heures »
circuit, now extending to 13.880 km.

prmazdarx7

post what you guys think

Icemark

I am surprised they havn't baned that motor there as well, since IMSA banned all the 2 rotors for winning too much.

RETed

Le Mans has been losing it's luster since the Audis (R8/R's) have been the dominante chassis in edurance type racing.&nbsp Audi has set the benchmark is how modular a racing chassis should be - anyone who has SEEN the ~7 minute rear end change has got to gasp as what Audi engineering has done.&nbsp Most of the top Viper teams (in GT-S/GT2) have pulled out due to the dominating Oreca Viper team.&nbsp I think the Le Mans committee just wanted to spice things up a bit and allowed the rotary engine to return to Le Mans to see if it can be competitive.

Personally, if the Autobacs rotary doesn't have any major component failure, it should win, period.&nbsp Any major problems, the Audi R8R's will dominate again.&nbsp The Cadillac LMP's are no where to be seen, even after a big hoopla a few years ago.&nbsp Panoz has tried a few times but fell flat on their faces.&nbsp The "new" Bentley LM-P looks promising, but during it's maiden year last year, it was not competitive against the Audi R8R's.

Ferrari hasn't been competitive with their old 333SP chassis since prior to the Audi domination in the mid 90's.&nbsp The privateer teams trying to use the Ferarri chassis just don't have the resources of a factory backed team.



-Ted

prmazdarx7

makes you wonder if ford has anything to do with this due to the fact of trying to hype the rx8 sales

but hey what ever it takes for rotary to stay alive im all for it

E6KT2

The gearbox was done by a company in England. This is now the motorsport capital of the world. Automotive endeavors make up about 10% of the entire countries GDP.

The engine and chassis of the R8-R cars is outstanding however.


A little trivia: Oreca set up the 787B!