americanlemansseries

While this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans ended up being a bit of a disappointment…

This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged ALMS americanlemansseries fuelefficiency Google+ lemans on by (updated 4553 days ago)

While this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans ended up being a bit of a disappointment from a purely competitive standpoint thanks to the early retirement of the +TOYOTA s and the cancellation of the Peugeot race program earlier this year, it was not a total waste.

In fact it was quite a strong demonstration of the message that American Le Mans Series CEO Scott Atherton has been spreading since at least 2008. Ever since the launch of the ALMS Green Challenge that year, Atherton has been playing up the relevance of Le Mans-style sports car racing to manufacturers of road cars.

For five years +Audi International and later +Peugeot  have been demonstrating the ability of diesel engines to provide before performance and fuel efficiency. Here in the US, a plurality of the competitors run on cellulosic E85 and the Dyson Racing team has been running biobutanol for two years.

This weekend in France, Audi and Toyota both demonstrated the performance and efficiency of hybrid power while +Highcroft Racing and the +Nissan DeltaWing showed the possibilities of light weight, low drag and downsized engines, all of which will factor into new cars in the coming years. Next year we will see the first hydrogen fuel cell car run at Le Mans.

What advancements have we ever seen from NASCAR? If we are going to race cars, the Le Mans approach is definitely the way to go.

#Lemans #fuelefficiency #americanlemansseries #alms  

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Green Fuels Forecast, web-based coverage of the alternative fuel automotive sector including batteries, electric and hybrid drive, diesel, hydrogen and biofuels

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Judging by the performance so far at Sebring, it looks like the Honda Performance…

This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged americanlemansseries Google+ hondaperformancedevelopment hpd sebring12 on by (updated 4649 days ago)

Judging by the performance so far at Sebring, it looks like the Honda Performance Development ARX-03a of Mucle Milk Pickett racing will be the car to beat in the rest of the American Le Mans Series season. For most of the race the HPD car has been running a strong third to the two leading Audi R18s and even now is only down one lap. A second ARX-03a run by the JRM team is running fourth.

What's interesting is that this is basically a four year old design. The ARX-03a is an evolution of the ARX-01e that +Highcroft Racing took to second overall at Sebring last year. That car was an update of the ARX-02a the same team used to win the LMP1 class in 2009 when it still carried Acura branding.

The elimination of the P1 class from ALMS in 2010 meant that Highcroft went back to an updated version of the original ARX-01a P2-class car that the team had run since the Acura/HPD prototype effort began in 2007.

Even now, the car still bears a strong resemblance to its forebear. The fact that the ARX-03a and the P2 class ARX-03b remain so competitive in their sixth year of competition is a testament to the fundamental goodness of Nick Wirth's original design.

#americanlemansseries #hpd #hondaperformancedevelopment #sebring12

2009 Acura/HPD ARX-02a

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Eight and a half hours into the 12 hours of Sebring, there is a great battle raging…

This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged ALMS americanlemansseries Google+ sebring sebring12 on by (updated 4651 days ago)

Eight and a half hours into the 12 hours of Sebring, there is a great battle raging in GT. The first four cars in the class are running practically nose to tail with Corvette, BMW, Corvette and BMW and then the fifth place Porsche 911 less than 10 seconds back from that group.

#sebring #sebring12 #alms #americanlemansseries

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Earlier this week, it was revealed that the Detroit automakers missed out on a huge…

This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged ALMS americanlemansseries Google+ highcroftracing lemans nissan sebring sebring12 on by (updated 4650 days ago)

Earlier this week, it was revealed that the Detroit automakers missed out on a huge opportunity to demonstrate some true innovation innovation on the race track when they took a pass on supporting +Highcroft Racing and the Deltawing project. Two of the three Detroit companies have four cylinder engines with direct injection and turbocharging that would have made a perfect basis for propelling this radical new machine.

Into the breach stepped +Nissan with a modified version of the engine from the Juke compact crossover. Autoextremist Pete De Lorenzo has a great column this week that praises Nissan and rips into the domestics for this missed opportunity. http://www.autoextremist.com/fumes1/2012/3/13/fumes.html

Meanwhile Highcroft brought the Deltawing to Sebring yesterday to run some demonstration laps in between practice sessions for the 60th annual 12 Hours tomorrow.

#sebring #sebring12 #americanlemansseries #lemans #alms #highcroftracing #nissan

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