Please discuss here all your remarks and pose your questions about all racing series, except Formula One. Both technical and other questions about GP2, Touring cars, IRL, LMS, ...
Car has touched asphalt for the first time but only a selected few got a chance to see it. Sadly no pictures of it yet but in 9 days or so it will be unveiled.
Aero pack will probably change completely before the first race.
Also a intresting twist to the BMW DTM entry is that BMW are looking to see if the BMW DTM car can be entered into the Le Mans series as the engine they are putting in the DTM car will take arround 7,000km between rebuilds, whitch for a GTE entry that will more or less be a full Le Mans race distance. This was reported in this months Race Car Engineering.
If this is the case, id recon that you could see DTM go to Le Mans that weekend with a couple Audi, Mercedes and BMW entries in the GTE class. And with the FIA GT1 and GT3 boys also bringing their cars along with longer life engines and transmissions, i can see the GTE class in Le Mans starting to look like one massive battle ground!!
Not sure about the likes of Porsche/Ferrari/GM will be too thrilled about having DTM cars in the GTE class at Le Mans. While GTE/GT2 cars are pretty heavily modified road cars, they are still road cars, with much more limited aero and chassis modification. Where as DTM cars now are silhouette cars that are basically purpose built. Old GT1 cars might suit that kind of competition better, but they were already abandoned at Le Mans on lack of competition and cost....
As for the engine, I´m pretty sure a current DTM engine (dunno about the 2012 spec) can do a 24h race without much problems. Audi and Opel both raced at the 24h Nürbugring in 2003/2004 with their DTM cars.
Sure they where modified a bit (using ABS and later paddle shifht etc.) but at least the Audi used a more or less standard DTM engine. We could run larger restrictors at the 24h, so their are some differences in the mapping and a little bit different camshafts, but nothing big. A DTM gearbox is a bit of an issue if you don´t use paddle shift, in 2003 both Audi and Opel had gearbox failures during the race, but with an automated system (Megaline) in 2004 it was no issue.
The cars raced ~200kg havier then DTM spec and on more tank volume 100 ltr vs. 70lr, and where competetive against and GT2 BMW (M3 GTR).
So depending on the "battle of performance" regs, I could see a possibility to do it.
It will depend on the "fine print" of the regs.
Having said all this, a 2002 DTM car is a far cray from a 2010/2011 DTM car as far as aero goes. A 2002/2003 car is not that far away from a GT2 car IMO.
I think a current DTM car, would struggle to last 24h, at least at the Nürburgring, and the cars are in no way service friendly.
Nevertheless, for an DTM engine it should not be a problem to run 24h.
But they are maybe a bit underpowered compare to some GT2 cars.
I can´t see Mercedes coming back to LeMans in a hurry, but that´s just my opinion, and I could be wrong.
"Make the suspension adjustable and they will adjust it wrong ......
look what they can do to a carburetor in just a few moments of stupidity with a screwdriver." - Colin Chapman
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” - Leonardo da Vinci
Interesting stuff about joining Le Mans I guess we´ll see.
As far as driver i have no idea who that is. Will be interesting to see who the 6 lucky people are.
I guess we´ll see.
