Motorsport News
German Endurance Championship 2008 – Vier-Hour-Race
By source: Volvo Team PSR
Apr 17, 2008, 19:33

The season opener of the German Endurance Championship on the Nuerburgring turned into a race of mixed emotions for Volvo Team PSR. Even though the crew’s Volvo S60 didn’t make it to the finish, team principal Danny Berk left the Nordschleife feeling very upbeat.

Before the first race of the season, Volvo Team PSR had to make do with a chance of plans at the eleventh hour. After a supplier coudn’t deliever a part for the drivetrain on time, the team’s new two-litre engine couldn’t be fitted into the engine bay and mated with the drivetrain. Thus, Remo and André Lips had to use the bullet-proof 2.5-litre powerplant again – as the five-cylindre is longer than the anticipated two-litre four-cylindre unit.

In qualifying, Remo Lips clocked the fastest time of the 2.5-litre class. „But already on my way to pole,“ recalled the Swiss, „the engine kept cutting out. I could have managed a much quicker lap had the engine not malfunctioned.“

After taking the car’s electrics to pieces in the break between qualifying and race, the PSR mechanics traced loosened connectors in the wiring loom as the source of the problem. „We are using a brand new loom,“ explained team principal Danny Berk. „As one of the connectors wasn’t fixed properly, the vibrations at a certain throttle position kept on ripping it loose and caused the connection to drop.“

Repair work continued ’till right to the start of the four-hour race on Saturday afternoon. Remo Lips thus had to start from pit road instead of taking his place on the grid. At the red lights, the marshalls didn’t allow the Volvo driver to enter the race. Only after lengthy discussions with the clerk of the course was Lips allowed to join in – albeit a lap down.

Siblings Remo and André Lips, who shared the wheel of the Volvo S60, recorded a number of impressive lap times until André Lips retired the car in the third stint. „I heard a suspicious noise in the cockpit,“ said André Lips. „As we were all being alarmed from the morning’s misfires, I thought it was better to stop the car as soon as possible rather than risk a costly engine failure.“

Team principal Berk agreed with Lips’ precautionary action: „It was still a very promising performance. Most of the cars were lapping the Nordschleife considerably slower than last year – due to new aerodynamic rules for the bigger categories and due to large portions of the track being resurfaced and still very green. But we were lapping as quick as towards the end of 2007 – which shows that all our development work over the winter has paid off very well. And that goes for the Volvo S60 as well as for our new Chevrolet Corvette.“

Fredy Lienhard, jr and Thomas Koll took the latter further through it’s development phases. Koll managed a third-quickest time of the SP8 class, only beaten by the well-proven Lamborghini Gallardo and Zakspeed-Dodge Viper. „The handling of the car is very neutral and progressive,“ said Koll. „That paid dividends on the Nordschleife – big time.“

Lienhard, jr/Koll didn’t start the race, however, as they, too, noticed strange noises from the muscle car’s engine bay. „As we don’t have a lot of experience with this engine yet, we decided to retire the car in order to have a close look into what caused the strange noise,“ explained Berk. „This is all part and parcel of our development process, at the end of which we want to have a reliable and competitive Corvette in time for this year’s 24 Hour Race.“

For more discussion on this story, click on the link to our discussion forums at the left.

All information Copyright © 1999-2003 Swedespeed. All rights reserved.

No photos, news stories, graphics, or Swedespeed logos may be used or reproduced without written permission.
Volvo is a registered trademark of Volvo Car Corporation and Ford Motor Company. Swedespeed is an independent media publication and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Volvo Car Corporation