Lola at Le Mans 2008 Media Guide
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Lola at Le Mans 2008 Media Guide Le Mans Test Day Report Lola LMP Coupe Inside Story Lola Team Profiles Lola 50th Anniversary All-Time Top Ten Lolas Peter Ashdown Interview More Than Motorsport Lola Sportscar Register 1998-2008 Complete Lola Le Mans Results Welcome from Martin Birrane 2008 is a very special year for Lola. Reaching the milestone of 50 years in race car manufacturing is quite a remarkable achievement. For most of this time Lola has been the largest and most successful constructor of race cars, producing winning designs for virtually every category from Formula Ford and Sports 2000 to Formula 1 and Le Mans Prototypes. The 24 Heures du Mans is the greatest motor race in the world and I am heartened to see a further increase in our entries this year to seven – the largest since 1979. Lola is currently the only constructor offering open and closed cockpit models in both LMP classes. We have enjoyed LMP2 victories in the last four races at La Sarthe and hope to add another in 2008. We also have all the resources major manufacturers require for a Le Mans programme and are actively seeking opportunities to realise our vision of winning Le Mans outright. The Lola factory,with its state-of-the-art wind tunnel,seven-post test rig,constantly updated CFD,FEA,and CAD systems, and top engineering team produces cars which are not just fast but also safe and beautiful. Lola’s capabilities also extend to the supply of composites and engineering services to the automotive, defence, aerospace, and communication sectors. This work is now as much a part of the Lola Group as our traditional motorsport activities. I would like to take this opportunity to wish all teams and drivers a safe and enjoyable race and to wish our seven Lola teams luck in their endeavours. Although I would prefer to be driving rather than spectating, I look forward to joining you in watching this classic event unfold. Martin Birrane Executive Chairman June 2008 Lola at Le Mans 2008 2 Seven-Strong Lola Entry Makes the Most of Wet Le Mans Test Day Lola sportscar runners prepared for the 76th running of the 24 Heures du Mans at the event’s official test day on 1 June. Seven Lolas are entered for the great race this year, the marque’s largest contingent since 1979. The conditions were mostly wet, putting the focus firmly on reliability and driver testing, especially for Lola’s latest coupe designs. Lola are the only constructor fielding all four of the available prototype configurations, with coupe and open-cockpit designs in both LMP1 and LMP2. Lola will also be aiming to score a record fifth consecutive LMP2 victory. The B08/60 LMP1 coupe of Charouz Racing System, powered by a V12 Aston Martin engine and run in conjunction with Aston Martin Racing, set the ninth fastest time. Tomas Enge, Stefan Mücke, and Jan Charouz all completed laps in the sleek blue and white machine on the car’s very first run in the rain. The well-drilled team has been the clear pacesetter among the petrol-engined cars so far this season, and its aim at La Sarthe is again to lead the privateer pack chasing the three Audi and three Peugeot factory entries. Entered under the Charouz Racing System banner but functioning very much as the US-based CytoSport outfit, the Muscle Milk-liveried Lola B07/17-Judd LMP1 put in a solid day of running, ending the session 12th fastest. Team principal and driver Greg Pickett familiarised himself with the 13.65 km circuit, thoroughly enjoying the If it’s June, it must be Le Mans… experience after a season of the American Le Mans Series competition in 2007. The 1978 Trans-Am champion is teamed with Germany’s Klaus Graf and Dutchman Jan Lammers, ensuring plenty of experience will be on tap for the team’s Le Mans debut. Chamberlain-Synergy Motorsport chose not to risk their B06/10-AER turbo too much in the tricky conditions. The Hugh Chamberlain-led team focused on making sure Amanda Stretton recorded her 10 rookie laps, paving the way for her to become the first British woman to race at Le Mans since Juliette Slaughter in 1978 (also in a Lola!). Amanda will share driving duties with husband Bob Berridge and Gareth Evans. The Speedy Racing Team Sebah effort was getting used to running their new B08/80 LMP2 coupe with Judd power at Le Mans.Their priority was to ensure that Le Mans rookie Steve Zacchia completed his mandatory 10 laps, which he accomplished before a minor incident befell Xavier Pompidou on the Mulsanne Straight. Thankfully, damage to the well-sponsored Anglo-Swiss Lola was minimal. 3 Looking back on the day, team principal Hugh Hayden said,“You never stop learning, but with a new car the hill is steeper. We qualified our rookie driver and our other drivers reacclimated to the circuit. What we didn’t achieve was working on race set-up.We could handle the conditions but it wasn’t worth risking anything.I think the competition’s strong, but we have a good package and we’ll try and give them a race. Consistency, compatibility of drivers, and reliability are the key to keeping it on the track and out of the pits.” The seasoned RML team had a successful test day with their MG-powered Lola B07/40 open-cockpit LMP2 .The familiar driving trio of Mike Newton, Tommy Erdos, and Andy Wallace enjoyed a trouble-free day and believe that they have every chance of completing a unique hat trick of LMP2 victories in two weeks’ time. Portugal’s Quifel ASM Team had a frustrating time at Le Mans with technical problems restricting track time in their B07/40 LMP2. Olivier Pla did however manage to complete his rookie laps as did Guy Smith who was reclassified as a rookie due to not having driven at Le Mans since 2004 – despite winning the race in 2003! The new-look Kruse Schiller Motorsport squad regrouped after a difficult Spa Le Mans Series race to ensure that From left to right below: their drivers all received adequate seat time in their Mazda-powered B07/40 LMP2 chassis. The German team CytoSport B07/17-Judd LMP1 RML B07/40-MG LMP2 have drafted in experienced Frenchman Jean-François Yvon to join Japanese ex-F1 pilot Hideki Noda and Quifel ASM Team B07/40-AER London-domiciled Frenchman Jean de Pourtales. Lola at Le Mans 2008 4 Interview Cooper on the Coupes Tell us about the design of the new Lola LMP coupes – what were the main challenges? “The main area to look at is obviously the cockpit and especially the doors, which can get complicated aerodynamically. Getting the aero right took over 200 hours of testing in our own wind tunnel, but before that we did a lot of conceptual work using CFD (computational fluid dynamics). The structural integrity of the chassis is just as important. We decided on a single-piece monocoque, which meant a very exhaustive FEA (finitie element analysis) study. One of the key concerns in all these studies was to avoid any excess weight in the roof area.I would say the result has turned out to be very efficient aerodynamically.The other changes from the open car have been largely driven by the coupe’s shape.We altered the fuel cell area and moved the oil tank. Even the adoption of a different geometry and a third-spring for the front suspension was influenced by the packaging issue.” Chief Engineer Julian Cooper How difficult was the ergonomic design of the LMP coupes? “Seating the driver properly and defining the windscreen area were probably the biggest challenges in designing the coupes. The shape of the windscreen, and in fact the entire cockpit, were dictated by aero and CFD studies dating back to 2005. It’s a lot more than a slippery form to fit around the driver, it’s a carefully and painstakingly researched design. For instance, we had to model the driver access into and out of the cockpit to determine the best locations for the door fixtures, which then required us to evaluate the torsional stiffness of the chassis. The access is really good in this car – probably just as good as an open car – as we’ve given the drivers various things to get hold of to help them lever themselves into or pull themselves out of the cockpit quickly and comfortably. The wipers and air conditioning also involved quite a bit of work. The Speedy LMP2 car has the air conditioning system we developed, while Charouz are running a Prodrive system based on the one used in the Aston Martin GT1 cars.” What are the major differences between the LMP1 and LMP2 coupes? “The LMP2 is shorter than the LMP1 and the bodywork does change subtly due to the different wheel widths. But the main things are the engine installation and keeping weight off the LMP2 car because the margins are more critical in terms of the minimum weight for that class.To make the limit,we used lighter composite panels on the LMP2, with the occasional downside that they are not quite as robust.” 5 What are the future development plans for the LMP coupe models? “The initial testing went very well; better than expected, really. Sorting out the air conditioning in the LMP2 coupe was about as difficult as it got. Beyond that, we are already pushing very hard to develop the cars both aerodynamically and mechanically, just as we have with all our sportscars over the last ten years.We’ve recently had a significant upgrade to our CFD and wind tunnel resources which has helped get this effort off to a flying start.It’s also been helpful to have the feedback of such a professional organisation as Aston Martin Racing,who are involved in running the LMP1 coupe.” What has been done in terms of 2008 updates for Lola’s open-cockpit LMP models? We did our usual post-season aerodynamic evaluation and produced an update kit for this season to improve the efficiency of the car in several areas.