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Originally Posted by swamp2
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The Hybrid car is in a different class... the pace of the car wasnt as good as the front cars.. but it pitted every 10 laps and had an advantage there.. most the lead cars were pitting in 9 laps...
But.. the pace of the Hybrid was good enough to win.. which it almost did till it broke.. the 2 or 3 'rabbits' crashed in the night.. #1 Manthey car was one of them.. which was the fastest car by far in the field...
Being fast helps in this race because there is no safety car... But also consistency and pit stop strategy and staying out of the pit is also just as important for the same reasons....
The 1st and 2nd place cars going into the night #1 manthey and an Audi PUSHED like hell all day and thats the reason they were up front.. They took risks and it was paying off... And then both of those cars crashed at different times in the night on the SAME lap... You cannot push as hard in the night.. the traffic is so bad and the traffic is naturally going slower... Also when you run up behind the cars you blind them in their mirrors and the slower car cant even see where he is going....
The #1 Porsche should not have been pushing that hard at night and he paid for it...
There were about 20 fast cars... in 5 different classes... There are MANY different classes and class wins aren't that special.. The M3 was in its own specific class also... because some cars are GT2 cars with more aero.. Some cars are specific built Nurburgring cars.. and some are GT3 cars with more aero.... The 2 M3s that ran in the race will ONLY race at the nurburgring.. they were built specifically for that track... Although the spec might not be to different then the LMS and ALMS car...
The GT3 cars actually have better straight speed... so the GT3 R and the AUDI R8.... Also the Hybrid has massive tq and grip out of the slow speed corners... The M3 was a little slower down the straight then these cars... But noone knows the others fuel strategy/consumption rate.. which directly related to HP... Some teams gave HP so they could run 1 more lap per stint.. Which turns out better in the end...
The Hybrid car was about 250 pounds heavier then some of the other front runners.. which made it ok to have that extra power... Basically they built a class for the car so it could run.. it WASNT the fastest.. but it ran a hell of a race.. which is why it almost won...
But this is such a hardcore endurance race.. So many things need to go right to win... The M3 almost didn't win BTW... they only had 3 gears left for the last hour.... So they were limping a little bit too... as most the cars at that point were taking it easy..
The Hankook Ferrari had 0 problems and was catching the M3... and almost won considering the M3's transmission... : )