More trouble for Pesca?

[Lazy B'stard]

Poor old Henri. Doesn't get much luck does he?

Its been rumoured for some time that storm clouds were gathering over Pescarolo and Luxury Racings relationship. Luxury are supposed to be funding the build of the new Pesca 03 (the old AMR One), but failed to transfer the remaining funds, hence the new car not making its Spa debut. A bit of a war of words developed last week in the French papers, Luxury being miffed that Henri had been mouthing off in an attempt to move them along.
 It came to a head at the weekend when Luxury's owner denied that there was any contract between themselves and Henri (despite a 200,000 deposit being paid after Sebring) which resulted in Henri appointing a Bailiff on saturday evening to seize the two Luxury Racing Ferrari's from the Spa pitlane!

 It looks like there is now little funding to complete the new Pescarolo 03 in time for the test weekend, although it has been suggested that the owner of the AMR One that they are butchering has stepped forward. It certainly doesn't look good for that car now. Even if it is finished in time its hardly ideal preparation for the toughest race in the world.

 As an aside, the Norma had a big accident at the weekend and as they are another team running on a shoestring, thats another car that might struggle to get to Le Mans.

 With only two or three cars remaining cars on the reserve list, what with Luxury seamingly in financial trouble (they took on paying drivers at Spa), the Norma looking pretty second hand and Henri struggling to fund the second car, we might have less than 56 cars starting the big race this year!

[Nordic]

It would be a big shame if Henri could not put together a car to under his own name to run, but given the pedigree of the car it may be best for all concerned that it was allowed to die away.

Maybe there is a 2nd Dome that he could borrow!

The reserve list is looking a bit thin, but when this happend last time a couple of cars were found that could take up the slack.

[Mr. Rick]

.... what with Luxury seamingly in financial trouble (they took on paying drivers at Spa....

Ooh that's not good. Didn't know about all this. One of my friends was one of the "paying drivers" at Spa 

[Mike]

Why don't Peugeot do the decent thing and step back into the ring and lend / sell / give Mr P one of their cars that I assume are just collecting dust in a corner of their garage somewhere.

They will either become overnight heroes if they win (or at least finish!), they have nothing to loose if they dont finish - they can blame HP, the drivers, the weather, the Germans etc....... and they get some valuable testing  unde race mileage and conditions which will ately feed back into their road cars and fingers crossed when they come back to endurance racing.

Is the new chap in charge (of France not Peugeot) a race fan? Surely France would welcome a good news story / support the little man in the face of adversity......

And of course with the Toyota untried we need someone to give Audi a decent race!

[Lazy B'stard]

I can see the logic in Peugoet sending a car or two to a privateer. What harm can it do? Win or lose its good publicity, and being in the hands of a privateer there is no pressure for a win.

It's certainly looking like an all Audi podium this year isn't it.

Some interesting comments from the press conference prior to Spa from the Toyota bods. The regulations will make the hybrid cars come alive next year as under the current rules they are running well below their potential.

Sources at DSC state that the Toyota is around 70bhp down on the Audis, so they won't match them on pace. But it looks like Toyota have chosen efficiency over performance when utilising their hybrid system, whereas Audi look set to go the other way. Could the Toyota go an extra lap between stops? It certainly won't make for great racing but could make it a great race.

Another comment from Toyota suggests that they might not finish the race but will match Audi and give them a good run.

I don't think we will have a contest like last year, but it should be entertaining enough none the less.

Si

[Radar]

It'll probably be another Audi benefit this year. But you know what? When you're sitting at the side of the track, beer in hand and the sun shining, does it really matter? It's still Le Mans.

[Mr. Rick]

Indeed Radar!  And the good news is that it seems Pesca has resolved the problem and the 03 will be there after all. Hurrah! We will once more be able to cheer for those Pesky-Rolos! 

[Barry]

And if this years WEC races are anything to go by, the LMP2 and GT classes should produce interesting racing.

[jpchenet]

.... what with Luxury seamingly in financial trouble (they took on paying drivers at Spa....

Ooh that's not good. Didn't know about all this. One of my friends was one of the "paying drivers" at Spa 

Didn't realise Gunnar was paying for a drive!?

[Lazy B'stard]

Looks like the Pesca 03 is out testing today. Keep your eyes peeled for those first photos!

[Robbo]

Looks like the Pesca 03 is out testing today. Keep your eyes peeled for those first photos!

My advice is to keep your eyes covered: http://www.servimg.com/image_preview.php?i=1458&u=12384106

[Lazy B'stard]

Might look better when it gets painted. Still pretty ugly though.

Any thoughts on the colour scheme? I've seen a few artists impressions of it in Pesca colours, one mainly blue and green, the other mainly white with blue and green accents, but as this car now belongs to the guy with the big Gulf collection, will it be blue and orange??

At least it's not black. Too many black cars at the moment. The blue, orange and matte black that Aston used last years looked terrible.

The Rebellion cars looked so pretty last year, this year they look rubbish in black.

Fingers crossed that someone comes up with something nice on this ugly little runt.

[nickliv]

Looks like the bastard offspring of a Golf trolley and a fridge.

[Fran]

My advice is to keep your eyes covered:

You could be right, particularly with the big jousting lance above the driver's head!  (or is that an optical illusion?...)

[LangTall]

Might look better when it gets painted. Still pretty ugly though.

Any thoughts on the colour scheme? I've seen a few artists impressions of it in Pesca colours, one mainly blue and green, the other mainly white with blue and green accents, but as this car now belongs to the guy with the big Gulf collection, will it be blue and orange??

At least it's not black. Too many black cars at the moment. The blue, orange and matte black that Aston used last years looked terrible.

The Rebellion cars looked so pretty last year, this year they look rubbish in black.

Fingers crossed that someone comes up with something nice on this ugly little runt.

Dsagree with yu on the Rebellion's, yes they looked brilliant last year, but for black cars this years edition look very well too.

The Pesca looks like a shed to me though, no paintjob can cover that up....