was on mulsannescorner just a minute ago and read thins (ironic) article;
It was reported on Wednesday of this week that Peugeot's 908 testing program suffered yet another massive shunt that has sent a car airborne and damaged a chassis. This is the second accident the 908 program has endured. Recall back to late last year, it was widely reported that Marc Gene had what was described as a massive off in testing at the Aragon circuit in Spain. Gene has this to say, via Autosport, in February of this year, "I'm not sure how much I am allowed to say, but I can tell you I am lucky to be here. It was the biggest accident I have ever had in my career. There was a failure, the car went sideways and the car went up in the air."
Given the unbridled speculation that has sprung up regarding these shunts, specifically the nature of the accidents, we're going to attempt to inject facts where we know them. For the moment Peugeot has not released any details, so admittedly we're being very presumptuous. But it is our understanding that the Gene accident that occurred last year was the result of a failure in the rear of the car, specifically a rear suspension failure of some kind. Details aren't forth coming. And we've been told unequivocally that the mechanical failure had nothing to do whatsoever with the spate of front suspension pickup point failures that the old 908 program suffered on occasion (the most recent, and public, was a pickup point failure in the Le Mans 24 last year). Ditto the nature of Wednesday's accident; another sources indicates it had nothing to do with the front end issues of the past.
Though the most disconcerting issue isn't the nature of the events that caused each accident, it's what happened after the car was suddenly pitched into an uncontrolled yaw. Recall that the 2004 spec underfloor regulations were designed to increase the car's critical take off speeds throughout the yaw range. This meant that, for instance, at 90 degrees this was around 192 km/h from 148 km/h. So in most cases throughout the yaw range the 2004 floor increased the critical take off speed by double-digit percentage points. And these numbers were substantial gains over the old flat floor LMP900 rules in some yaw cases. In 2009 a 20 mm domed skid was introduced in reaction to a flurry of blowovers the previous season. The skid raised ride heights and the dome (in transverse cross section) helped the car's yaw behavior. And the introduction of the shark fin was intended to further increase the critical take off speed. And it's our understanding that it works as advertised though to varying degrees, depending on the car it's applied to (open top, closed top, etc.), but that the net result is always a positive gain we're told. But ultimately none of the devices (spec 2004 floor, 20 mm domed skid, shark fin) claim to eliminate the possibility of sudden yaw induced flips. That needs to be firmly kept in mind.
What bothers me is the fact that the shark fin was supposed to further aid in such take offs. Of course we dont know the details but I expected more from the sharkfin.
Furthermore the first ARX-01e tub has (almost) arrived and is then ready to be assembled. Although this means it wont make it in time for the Sebring test.
Now with these c-d-e types running I am getting confused, was the e the 'special' Le Mans car?
