SKCC - Southern Kit Car Club. A Club for kit car owners across Southern England. Kent, Sussex, East Hants, Surrey, Berks, Middlesex, London

I was watching some recent Le Man's highlights on YT and the current hybrids just look mental; Porsche 919, Toyota etc. There were times in the footage that the cameras couldn't keep up when panning!

Made me wonder how fast they are compared to F1 cars - must be close, I thought; they only weigh a little more and have more power. So I looked at the fastest lap times at Spa:

https://fastestlaps.com/tracks/spa-francorchamps

Holy cow! To summarise, the best F1 car is 12 seconds quicker than a Le Mans hybrid (1.41 v. 1.53)! That really amazed me...(I'm not a huge racing fan though).

And then probably the fastest 'normal' car (Mclaren Senna) is another mile back on 2.24.

I knew F1 cars were the fastest but not by so much... proper impressive.

They are not running maxed out in the championship. As a bit of a celebration of their success and a last hoorah, Porsche deresticted their 919 and did a bit of a tour with it. Including attacking the ring record.

The film clip isn’t speeded up, keep an eye on the cornering speeds, circa 300kmh (190mph)..

https://youtu.be/qetSEn4xPY8

The other quick car is the Volkswagen pikes peak jobbie with Chris Harris giving it a go, not so much top speed but crazy acceleration.

https://youtu.be/Om28CUu1m3I

Yeah, seen them before - mental...

Yep as Mike says, LMP1 was restricted to something like 600bhp, I imagine they reined them in after Group C.

I watched a fair few vids of the Porsche after they let it loose and it smashed lap times around many of the famous circuits - beating the previous F1 lap times....s
albeit it short lived as at Spa 'F1' regained the crown later on in 2018...but not by much.

unrestricted the Porsche was running around 1100bhp.....

it lapped Brands in .01 off the overall lap record, but; wasnt mapped for the circuit, and it had 'normal' race tyres not the special Michelins - oh and it was 'only' doing demo laps.
Just checked - erm,,, it hit 190mph down the straight....that's pretty rapid

would love to have seen these back in the day....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxLHAeLPjLY

greenwoo wrote:would love to have seen these back in the day....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxLHAeLPjLY

Yes definitely. James and my favourite era, the group C cars. Horrible pit facilities back then. Watched ’91 the other night, new pit facilities that year and Mazda won, great stuff.

Never been in to F1 tbh. The Porsche 919 what a machine, just how quick is that thing, loved watching the video, Chris Harris makes it though and shows you on his face what a car it is. Now the VW for out and out electric car, man that's again very quick, I was surprised with he top speed unless it was restricted ? it seemed to get to 250kmh and that was it ?
Mark, that's one thing I would love to do, go to Le Mans, not for the racing as such but the atmosphere must be something else, take the kit down and just watch and listen and figers crossed for the weather.

greenwoo wrote:it lapped Brands in .01 off the overall lap record, but; wasnt mapped for the circuit, and it had 'normal' race tyres not the special Michelins - oh and it was 'only' doing demo laps.
Just checked - erm,,, it hit 190mph down the straight....that's pretty rapid

Mark I watched that at Brands live and even In non-track specific condition The car was staggering. I think the problem was that the Indy circuit is too short for the battery to recharge.

They were aiming for 300kph at the end of start finish straight and it did it comfortably. They put a Porsche gt3 (I think) race car out and it caught and overtook it in a couple of laps. Madness!!! Great to watch. Spectacular technology.

Spectacular technology.

I rather like the 'stat' that an LMP car does more miles in the '24' than an F1 car all season.

I think F1 needs to make its mind up what it is. A circus or is that circuit full of clowns or a show of advanced technology at the real cutting edge of man and machine.