The Greatest 24 Hours of Racing!

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Sports Argument Stadium > The Greatest 24 Hours of Racing!

iospace: Jan 19, 2038

So, Le Mans is this weekend, and considering it's the greatest 24 hours of racing (spread over two days :colbert:

), let's have some fun.

Anyway, what's the 24 Hours of Le Mans? Well, it's the oldest and most prestigious endurance race in the world, being part of not one but two motorsport triple crowns: the "classic" triple crown (consisting of the Indy 500, Le Mans, and F1 WDC/Monaco GP wins) and the endurance triple crown (24 Hours of Le Mans, 24 Hours of Daytona, and 12 Hours of Sebring). Unlike Grand Prix racing at the time, the organizers wanted to have cars that were fast, but also fuel efficient and reliable. So with that in mind, in 1923 the first race was held, with the winner completing 128 laps of the then 17.261 km (10.725 mi) long circuit for a grand total of 2,209.408 km (1,372.8 mi). In 2016, the winning car completed 384 laps on a 13.629 km (8.469 mi) circuit, going 5,233.536 km (3,252.096 mi).

Today, the race draws in drivers from all over the world, with the starting grid being 60 cars with teams from four different series (and drivers from even more series). Each team is made of three drivers, and each driver must drive a certain amount each stint. There's four classes in the race: Le Mans Prototype 1 (LMP1), Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2), Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Professional (LMGTE Pro), Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Amateur (LMGTE Am). Yes, they all share the track together, which leads to some fun times when the leader runs into a bunch of GTE cars fighting for position.

A Toyota LMP1 passes an Aston Martin Vantage and Porsche 911

LMP1 are the fastest cars on the course in terms of lap speed, with all but one of them being hybrids. These are the cars expected to compete for the overall win and use cutting edge technology to put down impressive lap times. By regulation, all factory supported LMP teams must be LMP1 cars, and they must be hybrids. There's only three teams and six cars in this class: Porsche, Toyota, and ByKolles. Porsche is looking to defend its crown, and Toyota wants to avoid a repeat of the heartbreak of last year. ByKolles is the only privateer LMP1 team and is a joke. Total entries: LMP1-Hy: 5, LMP1-L: 1.

LMP2 has a new look this year, with four different chassis, all closed cockpits, and all the teams using the same engine. The cars rocket down the straights faster than LMP1, but lack the raw grunt of the hybrid motors coming out of the turns, so they're slower overall. Expect some fierce competition here. For the US fans, the ACO said no to allowing DPis this year, but who knows in the future. Expect at least one of them to beat ByKolles. Total entries: 25.

The final two classes are the LMGTE classes. All the cars in this class are based on road going cars, so you get to see the Ford GT (defending champ) duke it out with the Chevy Corvette, Porsche 911, Ferrari 488, and Aston Martin Vantage. Because of the large variance in the cars, a technique known as Balance of Power (BoP) is used, which tries to bring the cars into balance with each other by effectively either nerfing or buffing the cars. LMGTE is broken up into two classes, professional and amateur. Professional uses the most current race version of that car and has the best drivers. Amateur uses the prior year's spec for the car and has limits on how good the drivers can be (safety upgrades are allowed). Total entries: Pro: 13, Am: 16.

Oh, and there's a few other things to keep in mind. Teams only get a limited amount of fuel per race. Use up all your fuel? Tough poo poo. Same with tires. This is endurance racing after all: it's a marathon, not a sprint. Pit stops have to be done with the engines off (as a means to test reliability) and the hybrid cars have to shut their gas engines off on pit lane and move solely under electric power. Pit stops are much more regulated compared to other series such as F1, Indy, and NASCAR, with fueling have to be finished before any non-driver related service can be performed (such as tire changes). At night, expect a few stops where all they do is top off the fuel tank and send the car out without even touching the tires and the driver, except for maybe giving them a new water bottle.

The ACO, after the outcry of last year with how they dicked Toyota out of a second podium spot, also changed its rules regarding the last lap. Depending on how slow you finish your last lap, you can face lap penalties, and you now have 15 minutes to complete it or you get DQed.

The Track itself is a monster of a track, and is the 3rd longest closed circuit track in the world today (I'm pretty sure anyway), behind Snaefell Mountain Course (Isle of Man TT course) and the Nordschleife configuration of the Nurburgring. Yes, that back straight is huge and yes, they'll be pushing well over 200 mph down it. A majority of the track is on actual roads, and the only area with any significant lighting on track is the front stretch. The rest of the course is in the dark at night, meaning yes, headlights are required. A significant portion of the track is spent at full throttle, which of course, puts a lot of stress on the engine. Better hope your engine doesn't blow a turbo*!

So who's racing in this giant race? The spotter guide is here: http://www.spotterguides.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/17_LM24_v2.pdf (Thanks Lord Crapulus and Autech!). The prototype classes also use white headlights, and the GT classes use yellow. Speaking of headlights, if you see a car flashing its headlights, usually a Prototype at a GTE car, it means "faster car coming through", similar to a blue flag.

POINTS

For each class, predict 1st-2nd-3rd, with 9-7-5 points respectively. If a prediction of yours makes the podium but in the wrong spot you predicted, that's 3 points. No, even though there's LMP1-H and LMP1-L, for the purposes of this, they're the same class. ByKolles sucks anyway.
If you're feeling extra bold, you can predict a different overall podium from LMP1's. If you're right, you get 5 bonus points, plus the 9-7-5/3 points you'd get for the other podiums. If the overall podium is the same as the LMP1 podium and you made this prediction, you get zero bonus, and possibly lose the 5 points.
Every four hours, predict who is in the lead for each class. This is 5 points.
Pole for each class is 5 points each.
Bold predictions encouraged! Points awarded at my discretion.

Winner of course, gets an upgrade of their choice.

Loser may get sad Toyota dude from last year, haven't decided.

Good luck, and if you want to watch, just buy the WEC stream. You'll do yourself a huge favor by doing that.

Thanks Ants posted:

WEC streaming is available at:

https://members.fiawec.com/en/

Also available in-app:

https://appsto.re/gb/ZUOZY.i

Eurosport are also selling a streaming pass for the event:

http://uk.eurosportplayer.com/?ns_c...banner&ns_fee=0

Somebody else will need to explain if there's a difference between the WEC streams and theirs.

Easy form for predictions:

code:

[b]LMP1 Pole:[/b]
[b]LMP2 Pole:[/b]
[b]LMGTE Pro Pole:[/b]
[b]LMGTE Am Pole:[/b]

[b]LMP1 Podium:[/b]
[b]LMP2 Podium:[/b]
[b]LMGTE Pro Podium:[/b]
[b]LMGTE Am Podium:[/b]

[b]Hour 4 class leaders:[/b]
[b]Hour 8 class leaders:[/b]
[b]Hour 12 class leaders:[/b]
[b]Hour 16 class leaders:[/b]
[b]Hour 20 class leaders:[/b]

[b]Bold Predictions:[/b]

I'd prefer car # predictions please, given a lot of teams are running multiple cars in LMP1 and GTE.

Some ear candy for you:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8JR7Wi2MEU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjxZkZYzuAU

And an onboard for you:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpCFD0ASpA4

*now I made myself sad :smith:

iospace fucked around with this message at 16:19 on Jun 13, 2017

# ¿ Jun 12, 2017 17:23

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# ¿ Apr 24, 2024 23:13

iospace: Jan 19, 2038

Lord Crapulus posted:

Something like this will be very helpful for learning the field: http://www.spotterguides.com/portfolio/17lm/

Added, thanks!

# ¿ Jun 12, 2017 17:58

iospace: Jan 19, 2038

DoctorGonzo posted:

Ferrari is in this thing if not i dont give a gently caress

They're in the GT classes.

# ¿ Jun 12, 2017 19:17

iospace: Jan 19, 2038

DoctorGonzo posted:

Thank you very much.

content: there is a way to watch this from Chile?

WEC stream is your friend. Has to be paid for, and I'm pretty sure someone can provide the link for it.

# ¿ Jun 13, 2017 06:58

iospace: Jan 19, 2038

REMINDER, QUALIFYING STARTS TODAY AND FINISHES TOMORROW :havlat:

# ¿ Jun 14, 2017 16:53

iospace: Jan 19, 2038

GOOD TIMES ON METH posted:

Kobayashi 3:14.791

https://twitter.com/FIAWEC/status/875427808755032068

Holy poo poo.

# ¿ Jun 15, 2017 20:08

iospace: Jan 19, 2038

DoctorGonzo posted:

So in many hours this start?

24 hours, 40 minutes from this post.

Also: I'm still accepting entries! You won't be able to predict the pole obviously, but there's still lots of points to be had.

# ¿ Jun 16, 2017 13:20

iospace: Jan 19, 2038

harperdc posted:

The app didn't want to let me in for a while but the stream's gone okay, keeps dropping off Chromecast for some reason.

First retirement of the race is the 88!

Nope, that was ByKolles :laffo:

# ¿ Jun 17, 2017 22:18

iospace: Jan 19, 2038

RESULTS

LMP1 Pole: 7
LMP2 Pole: 26
LMGTE Pro Pole: 97
LMGTE Am Pole: 50

Overall Podium 2, 38, 13
LMP1 Podium: 2, 8 (lol what's third?)
LMP2 Podium: 38, 13, 37
LMGTE Pro Podium: 97, 67, 63
LMGTE Am Podium: 84, 55, 62

Hour 4 class leaders: 7, 13, 66, 84
Hour 8 class leaders: 7, 13, 97, 84
Hour 12 class leaders: 1, 31, 95, 84
Hour 16 class leaders: 1, 38, 95, 84
Hour 20 class leaders: 1, 38, 63, 84

I knew giving an option for different Overall/LMP1 was prophetic. Results soon!

# ¿ Jun 18, 2017 22:43

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# ¿ Apr 24, 2024 23:13

iospace: Jan 19, 2038

So, results tallied.

The loser, and how:

Lord Crapulus posted:

LMP1 Pole: 8
LMP2 Pole: 13
LMGTE Pro Pole: 68
LMGTE Am Pole: 62
Total: 0

LMP1 Podium: 7, 1, 8 Points: 3 (#8 wrong spot)
LMP2 Podium: 13, 31, 21 Points: 3 (#31 wrong spot)
LMGTE Pro Podium: 69, 63, 82 Points: 3 (#63 wrong spot)
LMGTE Am Podium: 50, 62, 93 Points: 0
Total: 9

Hour 4 class leaders: 8, 13, 64, 65 Points 5 (LMP2)
Hour 8 class leaders: 8, 31, 63, 65 Points: 0
Hour 12 class leaders: 2, 13, 66, 62 Points: 0
Hour 16 class leaders: 7, 13, 69, 98 Points: 0
Hour 20 class leaders: 7, 13, 69, 62 Points: 0
Total: 5

Bold Predictions: I will be really wrong about everything! Oh wait that's not bold it's common sense because I don't know a drat thing about endurance racing (or any other kind of racing based on how I'm doing in the Indycar fantasy league...)! Soooo...uh, ByKolles will be ahead of all of the Porsches or Toyotas at some point just to aggravate iospace (~~-9001 points~~ lolnope, dead last ).
And Orecas will lead LMP2 for the entire 24 hours (Not bold, but a pity point (1)).
Total: 1

Grand Total: 15

Enjoy the sad Toyota dude avatar.

The winner of a forum upgrade of their choice:

dentist toy box posted:

LMP1 Pole: #2
LMP2 Pole: #13
LMGTE Pro Pole: #67
LMGTE Am Pole: #98
Points: 0

LMP1 Podium: 7, 2, 1 Points: 3 (#2 wrong spot) = 3
LMP2 Podium: 13, 31 37 Points: 3 (#31 wrong spot) + 5 (#37 in 3rd) = 8
LMGTE Pro Podium: 68 82 66 Points: 0
LMGTE Am Podium: 98 65 62 Points: 5 (#62 in 3rd) = 5
Total: 16

Hour 4 class leaders: 2 13 67 98 Points: 5 (LMP2) = 5
Hour 8 class leaders: 7 13 82 65 Points: 5 (LMP1) + 5 (LMP2) = 10
Hour 12 class leaders: 7 31 82 65 Points: 5 (LMP2) = 5
Hour 16 class leaders: 8 13 67 98 Points: 0
Hour 20 class leaders: 2 13 68 98 Points: 0
Total: 20

Bold Predictions:
Lots of attrition with the P1 cars with Porsche and Toyota going into the garage a lot (Two LMP1s survived, 5 points).
Bykolles burns a stack of money (I mean, it's not wrong, but not that bold, 1 point).
Ford is about the same as they are last year with Ferrari trying their best to attack them (Aston dominated most of the race).
A GTEAM takes out one of the p1 cars early in the race in a dumbfuck manner (If you said LMP2 car, you'd be right except the early part).
overall win goes to last car standing (Close, more or less, 2 points).
All my predictions are wrong (Nope!).
Total: 8

Grand Total: 44

Thanks for all who played, and I hope to see you all next year!

# ¿ Jun 19, 2017 03:14

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Sports Argument Stadium > The Greatest 24 Hours of Racing!