No, but I did some crude mensuration. Assuming the tire diameters didn't change (big assumption) and given the current overall length of 4.65m (15' 3") the pic of the newer car comes out 30+ inches shorter. DeltaWing tech specs
I think your right. 30"'s is huge too. Notice the cockpit shape is even different in the side view...
I'm not going to do a running commentary from qualifying but they just beat the target time (3:45) set for them by the ACO. They were running today on the same set of tires they used throughout the test day (minus a lap or so on rain tires), then switched to new rubber and ran 3:43.576, 28th overall.
I'm having trouble with the times and the time difference too Nathan. Looks like checkers flew at 8PM there which is 6 hours ahead of us at 2PM Eastern. There are 3 quali sessions though -- the other 2 are tomorrow -- so, assuming all cars run during all 3 sessions, Nathan is right and qualifying is far from over; today's results are preliminary. Top times by category after Q1: LM P1 - 3:25.163 - audi sport team joest #1 audi r18 e-tron quattro (quicker than last year's pole time!) LM P2 - 3:39.669 - Signatech #44 hpd arx 03b honda DW - 3:43.576 (for reference, the slowest P2 time was 3:50.666) LM GTE Pro - 3:57.036 - AMR #97 aston martin vantage v8 LM GTE Am - 3:58.267 - flying lizard motorsports #79 porsche 911 rsr (997)
TV Coverage is a mess sorta too.. All Times Eastern Speed will start coverage at 8.30 AM and run till 1.00 PM where there is a 1.5 hour break for NASCAR. Speed picks up again at 2.30 PM till 7.00 PM with a 30 min break for Speed Center. From there it looks like they have coverage till the end of the race.
Let's try this qualifying session timing thing again, I mixed it up, it's somewhere between what Nathan and I reported. Apparently the live timing screen I was checking was mislabeled and that was the pre-quali practice session. The first of 3 qualifying sessions is tonight (a night session) at 10-12PM local, 4-6PM Eastern. Q2 is tomorrow, Thursday, 7-9PM local, 1-3PM Eastern. Q3 is tomorrow, Thursday, 10-12PM local, 4-6PM Eastern. Official schedule I'll try to remember to post the actual qualifying times later.
The DW went out in the Q1 session and ran 3:42.6 on the 3rd lap. On the 4th lap it stopped out on track. The ACO feed says the car's fire extinguisher went off and may have caused electrical problems. No mention of actual fire though... I think the rules state every driver needs to run a minimum of 5 laps during qualifying and everyone wants to run in this session because there's a chance of rain during tomorrow's sessions.
There's an interesting graphic explaining the steering wheel controls here. Click the graphic at the top left of the article and when it opens click it again to get the enlarged version or you won't be able to read the descriptions.
Just for grins... :biggrin5: NASCAR driver Brian Vickers is driving in the Le Mans 24h for the first time (apparently in a Ferrari). After the night time quali session he wrote "This is nuts! No track lights. Head lights suck. Driving through woods on a street road at 170MPH while racing other cars with no spotters!"
A little behind schedule but here's a video based on the test day. Better than most of their other development / prep videos. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8gFZCxd86c]Nissan DeltaWing: Final Preparations for the Le Mans 24 Hours - YouTube[/ame]
The DW team say they qualified the car yesterday and were happy with the time so they used the sessions today to work on setup for the race, etc, rather than trying to qualify further up the order. Makes sense I think given they aren't technically racing anyone on the day. NISSAN DELTAWING PASSES MORE TESTS BEFORE DEBUT (DeltaWingRacing.com) Snips from the full article:
Well, they're faster than the slowest LMP2. And only a mere 4+ seconds slower than the fastest LMP2. Provisional Classification