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[LM24] Worst effort during the last few years

Started by SonnyViceR , Apr 29 2012 23:03

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31 replies to this topic

#1 SonnyViceR

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Posted 29 April 2012 - 23:03

The world's best and most important motor race may attract quality entries after quality entries, but sometimes we get these half-ass, horribly performing teams/cars that just shouldn't be there. Lets see who's been the biggest joker during the last couple of years.

Aston Martin Racing - AMR-One LMP1
After taking two consecutive GT1 titles with the DBR9 the factory AMR switched to LMP1 class, with the brand new Lola Aston Martin. While the car was relatively quick and successful, especially considering the somewhat lacking funding and the fact that the petrol cars could never ever challenge the diesels, Aston decided to produce a car entirely of their own. AMR-One was born, a car that only ever raced in two races before immediate project cancellation after the 2011 edition of the 24 hours. Such was the scale of the disaster. The two works cars lasted just six laps combined and neither managed to beat the LMP2 pole time, not even close. Pathetic is a mild word to describe this mess.

Japanese Lamborghini Owner's Club - Lamborgini Murcielago R-GT/R-SV GT1
Ah, JLOC and their cut-and-paste, barely moving pieces of Lambo junk. Most notably we of course remember the 2007 and 2009 editions when the car only managed to take one lap around the circuit, but especially the 2009 race made them "famous" when it seemed like the car was made of cheap plastic and whatever random spare parts they could find from the recycle bin. The final Le Mans for the team, 2010, was an improved effort but only because Reiter had given a brand new car for them. JLOC managed to keep the somewhat ill-looking machine running for more than half of the race, but only by being the slowest moving chicane on the track.

Rocketsports - Jaguar XKR GT2
The official "joke" team of GT racing during the last few years has been RSR and their infamously hilarious Jaguar XKR. While the life support plug was finally pulled off from the ALMS program earlier this year, the team did manage to get an one-off entry for the 24 hours - the 2010 edition. While the Jaguar might've not been the first retirement of that race (Autocon and their ever-so-terrible reliability takes that glory), the car was easily the slowest of the field and only managed to pull off 4 laps before ultimately retiring. In many ways this was an outstanding effort for a team that normally only manages to make one or perhaps two laps to the race, if even that. In any case, ACO's decision to allow the team participate was purely for PR reasons, as the car had never even properly raced before getting the LM entry ('09 PLM testing and Laguna don't really count)! Glad this project is finished for good...

Posted Image

Edited by SonnyViceR, 29 April 2012 - 23:18.

#2 SonnyViceR

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Posted 29 April 2012 - 23:10

->

Wanted to vote for RSR, I really did, but the AMR-One fiasco just cannot escape unpunished...

#3 Dunder

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Posted 29 April 2012 - 23:13

Of the 3 listed, AMR-One - no contest.

We are talking about the effort of the racing division of a manufacturer here and the whole concept of the car was horribly flawed.

#4 Disgrace

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Posted 29 April 2012 - 23:17

The grand scale of it gives it to Aston, surely.

#5 SonnyViceR

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Posted 29 April 2012 - 23:20

The only other really poor efforts that I can think of from the near past would've been Autocon and maybe some of the LMP2s, but these were really the three ultimate candidates that just topped the cake.

JLOC and RSR cannot be underestimated, but I wouldn't be surprised if Aston won this battle of shame by a long shot. Perhaps the only time ever when they won't be last in something...

Edited by SonnyViceR, 29 April 2012 - 23:28.

#6 Ali_G

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Posted 29 April 2012 - 23:33

Saw thread title and couldn't get past Aston. What a ****ing mess.

#7 Seanspeed

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Posted 30 April 2012 - 00:29

The Aston was slower and more unreliable than it was ugly. It definitely takes the cake.

#8 Dispenser89

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Posted 30 April 2012 - 00:30

Aston Martin Racing. A car made out of lego would have been better than that mess.

#9 Doughnut King

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Posted 30 April 2012 - 00:57

JLOC was the first thing that sprang to my mind.

#10 HaydenFan

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Posted 30 April 2012 - 00:59

Really, just because it was LMP1 and not GT, but the Aston does show that the program was flawed.

But Jaguar was a disaster. Had the drivers(s), had the team (Rocketsport was a successful Trans-Am and Champ Car organization), and their results this year in LMPC showed that the car just sucked. Plain and simple. I doubt RSR could have done anything given the car they got from the factory.

Another program of suckage was the Panoz Abruzzi. Ran a few outing in ALMS before being shelved. Qualified around the Jag and after Sebring was listed in it's own class.

#11 pingu666

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Posted 30 April 2012 - 01:05

in defense of the jag, it did occasionaly have good pace, they did do a couple of seasons of alms, they didnt use dunlop or michlin? and it was a build a car and hope we get factory support thing, i think. or very limited budget.

amr one gets my vote, ugly, slow, really big looking. chassis lives on with the delta wing and pescorolo's new car

#12 V8 Fireworks

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Posted 30 April 2012 - 04:05

amr one gets my vote, ugly, slow, really big looking.

Overambitious, underdeveloped for sure, but why did they make the aero look like 10 year old rivals? They must have realized that it would be no good, but they simply had no time to make anything better?

#13 Peat

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Posted 30 April 2012 - 05:43

Aston. Hands down.

But to say it was down to a lack of effort is not accurate. It was just misguided. Alot of effort did go in, which makes the results more gauling.

#14 PNSD

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Posted 30 April 2012 - 07:26

Close call between the Jag and Aston for me. The Jag however looked the part. The Aston not.

The Aston's problems pretty much stemmed from one thing, the decision to go with an in-line 6 and then to stick with it. The truth is we never really got to see what the chassis could do, it was constantly limited by its engine problems. Did it even ever run in full swing? There was a reason for going with that engine configuration, I believe it was to be a basis for future racing projects?

You have to say, given Prodrive's and Aston's success in racing, it overshadow's the other two contenders.

#15 Peat

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Posted 30 April 2012 - 07:40

Yeah, the chassis itself is regarded quite highly. Deltawing and Pescarolo have used it as the base for thier new cars.

#16 jamiegc

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Posted 30 April 2012 - 07:50

Pagani had a pretty embarrasing effort in 2003 with the Zonda - 10 laps.

#17 SonnyViceR

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Posted 30 April 2012 - 07:50

Another program of suckage was the Panoz Abruzzi. Ran a few outing in ALMS before being shelved. Qualified around the Jag and after Sebring was listed in it's own class.

It's not on the poll as it never run at Le Mans, but in all honesty, it wasn't that bad. The car actually had some genuine pace at Mosport, the reason why it was cancelled was because there literally were no production version counterparts.

West Racing and their Lambo, now that was a miserable effort in ALMS, slower than GTC cars... but they did score a point at Long Beach, which almost makes their results equal those of RSR Jaguar that raced a full season!

Funky fact about RSR and 2011...
http://www.ten-tenth...p;postcount=151

#18 Haribo

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Posted 30 April 2012 - 10:08

Aston every time.

LMP1 car that was slower than most LMP2 cars
Aero that could've been designed by a 10 year old
One car didn't even complete the first lap at Le Mans
They had to go back to their original Lola Aston Martin to finish off the year

#19 F575 GTC

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Posted 30 April 2012 - 10:18

Got to be the Aston purely for the amount of money thrown into it. Both of the others are privateer efforts.

A close second for worst effort at Le Mans would have to be Narain Karthikeyan; falling off the pitwall in 2009, dislocating his shoulder and being unable to race! :lol:

#20 Cavani

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Posted 30 April 2012 - 11:41

A close second for worst effort at Le Mans would have to be Narain Karthikeyan; falling off the pitwall in 2009, dislocating his shoulder and being unable to race!

really ?

, LMFAO big time

#21 SonnyViceR

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Posted 30 April 2012 - 11:57

Got to be the Aston purely for the amount of money thrown into it. Both of the others are privateer efforts.

In JLOC's case yes, but Jaguar did put some (limited) effort to the RSR project.

Karthikeyan's incident was embarassing for sure, but his two Kolles team mates did excellent job in driving the car by themselves and finishing third in the unofficial petrol class.

#22 King Six

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Posted 30 April 2012 - 12:36

Yeah the AMR-One was a pretty poor disaster, a shame really for the sport as it could've spurred Aston Martin to eventually try and take on the Diesel Mafia.

I always had a soft spot for JLOC, it was nice to see them do 'well' in 2010...

Incidentally the AMR-One wasn't a complete disaster, I think its tub was used for the DeltaWing, which is either a good or bad thing depending on how you feel about the DeltaWing...let's just hope it does better than the AMR-One, considering the attention its getting, I hope it does.

#23 Dan333SP

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Posted 30 April 2012 - 13:11

Karthikeyan's incident was embarassing for sure, but his two Kolles team mates did excellent job in driving the car by themselves and finishing third in the unofficial petrol class.

They were in a privateer diesel, though, so it's hard to rank them with the petrol teams, even if it was an older car.

Two more that I would add to this list, though going back a few years-

Panoz LMP07. Such promise from the team starting with 2nd in pre-qualifying with the LMP1 on its first big outing and strong pace in the '99 and '00 race, then for '01 they went with the flexible and slow disaster LMP07 replacement. IIRC, it actually went into the top 3 at some point at Le Mans 2001 because of inclement weather, but overall it was a huge disaster and was shelved halfway through the year just like the AMR-One.

Mercedes CLR. The only car on this list that had genuine pace and reliability, but all of that is a moot point when a major manufacturer and one of the most dominant teams in sportscar racing at the time does 10,000s of kilometers of testing and yet somehow misses a major aerodynamic imbalance that causes the car to take flight at 200+ mph while cresting a rise in a draft. They even had the pre-qualifying and warmup incidents to teach them a lesson, yet they chose to race anyway and Peter Dumbreck is lucky to be alive after that ill-advised choice. The embarrassment and immediate cancellation of the program has to be one of the biggest falls from grace in Le Mans history, particularly considering they were widely regarded as joint pre race favorites with Toyota.

#24 SonnyViceR

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Posted 30 April 2012 - 13:15

They were in a privateer diesel, though, so it's hard to rank them with the petrol teams, even if it was an older car.

Oh sorry yes!! Kolles R10s often had such, umm lacking performance levels that I always see them as a petrol runner :lol:

#25 midgrid

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Posted 30 April 2012 - 15:56

Really can't see past the AMR-One for this one. JLOC may have been worse, but it has the excuse of being an amateur team.

I have fond memories of being at the 24 Hours in 2010, and seeing the Lambo and the Jag in the flesh!

From the same year, how about the Mansell-Beechdean Ginetta-Zytek? With an under-capacity engine, it was slower than two of the LMP2 cars during qualifying and crashed early on after Nigel suffered a tyre failure. Its LMS programme was also truncated due to funding problems.

#26 SonnyViceR

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Posted 30 April 2012 - 17:53

From the same year, how about the Mansell-Beechdean Ginetta-Zytek? With an under-capacity engine, it was slower than two of the LMP2 cars during qualifying and crashed early on after Nigel suffered a tyre failure. Its LMS programme was also truncated due to funding problems.

Typical privateer effort in petrol class and father-son(-son) project without too much of expectation. Plus they actually won the P1 class at Hungaroring, even though sevelar LMP2s finished ahead of them...

#27 APR824

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Posted 30 April 2012 - 23:54

I have a bit of a soft spot for JLOC and RSR but that doesn't take away from the abhorrent attempt at lmp1 that Aston put up, especially considering the year before they were running the most beautiful sounding cars in the field of the Lola Aston Martin; which certainly was no slouch either.

#28 Henri Greuter

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Posted 01 May 2012 - 08:51

Pagani had a pretty embarrasing effort in 2003 with the Zonda - 10 laps.

I wonder why that one wasn't mentioned on the list. Too long ago or too much of a failure?

Among the listed threesome, Aston remains hors d' combat but the Lambo, Pagan1 and Jaguar are more evenly rated projects (Privateer GT efforts) and more difficult to choose from.

Henri

#29 Red17

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Posted 01 May 2012 - 14:29

AMR-One.
/thread

Edited by Red17, 01 May 2012 - 14:29.

#30 betafan

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Posted 01 May 2012 - 15:34

Underfunded works efforts always get the votes in such polls! I have no idea why Aston Martin decided to make a new car when they had so little funding! At least the tub will create some history this season. Aston Martin recently gets my vote for the worst works efforts!
The same applies for Rocketsports and Jaguar. They were very good in Trans-AM and suddenly when they tried GT2 the car was obviously very heavily under developed. Sadly the new Aston Martin GT2 looks a bit like this. You either do it seriously or not do it.
The Lambo was a very good car as proven by the GT1 wins, but the Japanese were just amateurs, so it was hard to expect something different from them, unlike from a works Aston Martin or Jaguar effort!

#31 kurski

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Posted 18 July 2012 - 01:55

Jaguar was ridiculous, I think Junqueira and de Matta had earned last year better car. Aston Martin project did not make sense, they should never have to design the whole car.