Light, Fast and Efficient

At the Donington Park round of the ELMS, one of the support series was the Speed Euroseries. Radiolemans.com's coverage of Donington included commentary on the Euroseries races and qualifying. This was my first exposure to this very interesting series. The car formula was of particular interest. The cars conform to the FIA "Group CN" specs. with additional restrictions: use of a 2.0L Honda engine and spec Cooper tires. Diverse chassis are in use within the Euroseries from several manufacturers: Wolf Racing, Juno, Norma, Ligier, WFR Ltd. Recently, Oreca have announced that they will sell a closed-cockpit CN chassis for 2013. The FIA Group CN regulations allow the use of engines from less than 1.0L up to 3.0L with a sliding scale of minimum weights from 475kg to 625kg. The Euroseries competitor with the 2.0L Honda had a typical weight of 570kg. Engines must be homologated production-based engines, naturally aspirated, with a maximum of 6 cylinders. Rotary engines are allowed, but are given a multiplier of 1.5 to adjust their equivalent displacement (i.e. a 1.3L rotary from a Mazda RX8 road car is deemed the same as a 1.95L piston engine, which would carry a 535kg min. weight). Personally, I would like to see something like the Group CN cars adapted to run in multi-class endurance racing, perhaps even the Le Mans 24. A CN chassis with engine costs about one-half that of an LMP2 chassis without the engine.

Not so long ago what the ACO now call LMP2 evolved from LMP 675, which as the name implies had a minimum weight of 675 kilograms (LMP2 currently has a 900kg min.). These lightweight cars were fast but fragile, but evolved to the point that they could compete for overall wins even with a smaller, less powerful engine than their LMP1 bretheren (i.e. the LMP2 Porsche RS Spyder won overall at the Sebring 12-hour in 2008). By that time the minimum weight was up to 825kg. Now the ACO have changed the LMP2 rules into a cost-capped, pro-am driver, production-based engine class with the same weight min. as an LMP1 car. The lightweight formula has been lost. A CN-based class couldn't compete against even the LMP2 class at present; but perhaps they too could evolve. Here are some sample lap times:

The Deltawing is a demonstration of  a lightweight (500kg), fast ( 3:42.612 Le Mans lap time) and efficient (half the fuel, half the tires) car that might, in future, be allowed to evolve and compete for overall wins. The new direction that the ACO has taken, toward efficiency (they are going to a fuel-flow formula for LMP1 in 2014), is right in the Deltawing's wheel-house. I am not in love with the Deltawing's looks, but form should follow function so I can accept it's appearance. I could hope that there are more pleasing shapes that would be sufficiently slippery to contribute to speed and efficiency. I see hybrid cars, such as those mandated by the ACO for factory LMP1 teams in 2014, as a merely a transitional strategy for energy efficiency. Hybrids should not be the only technology allowed the showcase of Le Mans competition. I am curious about the new Mazda "SKYACTIV-D" turbo diesel that should debut in both ALMS LMP2 and Grand-Am GX classes in 2013. Imagine such an engine in a modified CN-based chassis of less than 600kg. The bottom line is: there should be a light, fast and efficient class that can compete for overall wins at Le Mans. Well, I can dream can't I?