[racer_d]

More importantly, and not touched on, are the regulations of the sanctioning body. No one at ALMS want their "top" class, LMP1, beaten (and beaten consistantly) by the 2nd tier class (LMP2). IIRC, the Porsche faced inlet restrictions to choke down power so that the LMP1 cars would be faster (and possible also weight penalties).

Only at LeMans (I don't think the US ALMS adopted) the fuel restrictions (ie smaller fuel tanks) for Diesels put the real hurt on them. Thus, the inherant advantage at LeMans, and the reasoning behind the Audi Diesel, was greater fuel mileage. The French (the pescarola team) whined to the French orgainizers of the French race, to lobby to change fuel restrictions on the diesels, knowing full well that, given the same size tanks, the diesels could still run slower but win due to fewer fuel stops.

The Audi diesel is a remarkable racing achievement. 1000 ft-lb of torque? 700 (or more) hp? Audi clearly took over where Porsche left off in Dominating long distance races... The R8, R10 (and the interim Bentley (nee audi coupe) have dominated against both strong and weak competition for nearly a decade.

I would love to see Porsche LMP2 RS Spyders run at LeMans. I love the image of Porsche as "giant slayer" as they were in the '50-60s and then as Giants themselves from 1970-1990's.