Sportscar Performance Evolution, From Endurance to 24 Hour Sprint

This is as much about tactics and strategy as it is car evolution. Like we know that this evolution began in a modern sense when the Audi R8 was able to be lapped around Le Mans in race trim consistently to a very close percentage of its qualifying times.


But basically after the R8, it seemed that most teams (especially factory teams) started to incorporate more F1 or (in the case of Audi Sport) DTM type technology into LMP cars. I've spoken on the Mulsanne's Corner Facebook page with one of the mechanics/engineers who worked at Champion on the Audi R8 and R10, and he's said that the R10 did have a lot more complexity to it than the R8, in large part due to Audi Sport incorporating ideas as far as car design based on F1 and DTM into the R10 and subsequent LMP1 cars.


Basically, it seems that the R8 was the last "let's make it durable, then make it fast" type of endurance racers. I'd argue that the Bentley Speed 8 and the Audi R10 marked the transition into "let's make it fast, then try and make it last" type of cars, being a hybrid of those concepts, with the Peugeot 908 fully embracing that mantra.


In short, the person I talked to said that the R8 was designed with the mechanics in mind, considering that between accidents and possible mechanical issues you might encounter problems in the race. Also, the R8 was quite a bit easier to set up than the R10, which had several features on it that seemed to say "let's make it fast, and hope nothing major breaks".


Is this accurate, or are there other points where this transition (especially in prototypes) occurred sooner or later after these points?