Is Horsepower Overrated?

[Topless]

Of course, winning is always best. Performance wise these cars were so very very close. In the last 20 laps at Laguna the Porsche passed the Audi twice in the curves only to be passed again in the straights. As racer_d said the Porsche beat the Audi seven times during the season... An Audi with 40% more HP and 100% more torque. That is a bigger power difference than Boxter S vs GT3. I am still trying to make some sense out of this.

[Gary in BR]

Lightweight is why our 200hp boxsters are as much fun as more powerful cars

[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.