Le Mans 24 hours: the new 2011 regulations

The 2011 Le Mans 24 Hour regulations have been drawn up in the context of sustainable development and respect of the environment. The ACO and the motor car industry have concentrated on two aspects that are crucially important from their point of view:

— An endurance race like the Le Mans 24 Hours must enable entrants to test new technologies.
— The contribution of the Le Mans 24 Hours must be oriented even more strongly towards both the
reduction of CO2 emissions and fuel consumption.

HYBRID SYSTEMS

The ACO wishes to give manufacturers the widest possible scope to use and develop such systems by putting a certain number of controls in place. Energy recovery systems will be allowed provided that they respect the following rules:

— Recovery and release of the energy on two wheels (front or rear axle) choice free.
— Maximum quantity of energy released between two braking phases: 500 kJ.
— Energy stocking: electrical or mechanical systems
— System actuated by the accelerator pedal only (push to pass button forbidden).
— Hybrid safety specification drawn up by the ACO.
— Other means of energy recovery allowed: exhaust, engine heat, dampers etc. provided they respect the specification drawn up by the ACO (safety, driver aids banned, evaluation of the increase provided by the system, reduction of fuel consumption and CO2 emissions).
— Energy recovery systems using brakes must not be active in curves (driver aids banned).
— Fuel tank capacity reduction: 2 litres less for petrol and diesel-engined cars.
— Pit lane test obligatory for the cars in the hybrid category according to Art 1 / Definitions, § 1.12 of the ACO LM P1 & LM P2 technical regulations, which stipulate that a car in this category must be able to cover the distance of the pit lane (400 m.) at a speed of 60 km/h using only the power generated by its hybrid system.

LM P1 & LM P2 PROTOTYPES

The new regulations follow the current evolution of the motor car in relation to the environment: namely, reduction in the power and overall performance of the engines.

— 2010 LM P1s eligible in 2011 provided that:
As announced two years ago, the cubic capacity of the LM P1 prototypes will be reduced. The 2011 regulations for the Le Mans 24 Hours, the ILMC, ALMS, LMS and the Asian Le Mans series have been revised to take into account the current economic situation and ensure a transition period. It gives the 2010 LM P1 prototypes an extra year with their performance adjusted in relation to the new 2011 cars. The development of the current
chassis will be frozen on 31/12/2010.

— LM P2 « Low Cost » powered exclusively by series production engines with engine regulations close to those in LM GT2.

— Capped costs: that of an engine must not exceed 75.000 €, the sales price of a complete chassis with options without the engine will be 325.000 € maximum - 400.000 € for a complete car.
— Minimum engine life: The life of an engine between two revisions is 30 hours 2011, 40 hours in 2012 and 50 hours in 2013.

— The current LM P2s can, still race in 2011 on 3 conditions :
1. Installation a of a new engine derived from series production.
2. Chassis development frozen on 31/12/2010.
3. Performance adjusted in relation to the new 2011 models.

CREATION OF THE GT ENDURANCE CATEGORY

In 2011, there will be no LM GT1 category for the following three reasons:

— Numerous date clashes on the calendars,
— Very small fields outside the Le Mans 24 Hours,
— Current category is entirely sprint based.

This is why in agreement with the GT manufacturers the ACO has decided to create a GT Endurance category with a single set of regulations valid between 2011 and 2013. These regulations are based on the GT2s complying with the 2009 ACO rules with the following modifications:

— Steering wheel-mounted paddleshifts.
— 1 evolution per year allowed.
— 2 evolutions per year allowed for new cars.
— Measures taken to reduce top speed without reducing power.

The GT Endurance category will be for one type of car but divided up into two classes:

— GT Endurance PRO: professional category, cars and drivers free.
— GT Endurance AM: cars of over one year old and a minimum of two drivers classified in the bronze or silver categories (LM P2 LMS 2010 regulations).
— Green X in PROTOTYPE and GT
— Reduction in tyre consumption (as in 2009 and 2010)
— Reduction in decibels (From 112DB in 2010 to 110DB in 2011)