The Ligier JS P2 is the first racing car conceived entirely in house by the Onroak Automotive design department. Its team started from a clean sheet of paper with the intention of designing an LMP1 chassis, but customer demand saw them switch focus to LMP2.
The result is a new car which will be available for the three remaining seasons of the current ACO-FIA regulations in force until 2017 and that complies with its cost capped LM P2 regulations. Its price respects the figure specified by the ACO for all LM P2s: €370,000 + VAT.
The three engines currently on offer, the Honda HPD, the Judd HK and the Nissan VK45, can all be installed in the car’s engine bay.
PRE LAUNCH TESTING
Much of the cars aerodynamic development was done at scale using the RUAG wind tunnel in Switzerland. A facility the Onroak engineers used to rework the Pescarolo 01.
The monocoque was designed in house by Onroak Automotive in Le Mans and was built by an outside supplier.
Note the cutouts for torsion bars and steering rack. The hard points for the wishbone pickups are clear to see.
With the first chassis in build the front suspension layout and brake system design can be seen (below).
LE MANS TEST
Three Ligier JS P2s arrived at Le Mans for the official pre event test day, two powered by Nissan engines and one with a Honda. Two of the three cars struggled with reliability issues – the Honda engined OAK Racing Asia machine had a clutch failure after 15 laps out on track.
The test gave a first look at the front end of the Ligier, note the torsion bar suspension and high nose chassis (above).
With two different engine installations there are a number of aerodynamic differences between the Ligier bodies. Compare the Honda installation (above) with the Nissan (below). The different exhaust location is obvious, but note the small NACA ducts on the Nissan installation
The differences are not restricted to the engine cover and exhaust location. For obvious reasons the air boxes are different too, and the Honda version has a quite unconventional shape (below)
Meanwhile both the Nissan engine cars have a far more conventional air box with the restrictor mounted at the rear of the intake. Note the legality bumps in the roofline.
The differences do not stop there, a small panel on the side of the cars reveals that there is a lot more to the installations.
The louvres above feature on the Honda powered car, whilst the pair of Nissan runners uses the design below. Whilst at first glance these look like drop in panel the actual mounting shape and size is different meaning that the whole upper section of the side pod differs for each engine installation
There is considerable interest in the nose of the Ligier, many have commented on how much like an LMP1 is looks, and it certainly does with its very open front end and almost front wing like splitter (below)
Note also the small horn on the inner face of the front wheel pod, these are very similar at least aesthetically speaking to a similar device at the heart of a controversy around the original Audi R15 (below)
From behind it can be seen that the ‘horns’ on the Ligier are actually open at the rear. It could be that these have some brake cooling role though the main brake ducts are in the nose cone.
A look at the leading edge of the front splitter reveals the outer edge of the front splitter and the single dive plane. The brake duct is visible above the nose support.
Ligier released a few images of the car in private testing, sporting a very different nose treatment to that seen in Le Mans, the Audi R15 style horns are gone, and much larger twin dive planes are fitted. Note also the louvres on the inner face of the front wheel arch.
It has been speculated that this is the LMP1 iteration of the Ligier but that seems unlikely, it is more probable that this is the standard high downforce bodywork for the car.
From the front the aerodynamic concept of the Ligier seems to be similar to that of the Audi R15 in that it is to focus on the air through the car rather than around it. The radiator inlet is clear to see and the high nose design is similar in concept to the front running LMP1 designs (apart from the Toyota). More of interest is the apparent second set of inboard horns mounted just ahead of the suspension. This suggests that the horns are there to serve a legality purpose, just like the ones on the R15. Indeed looking over the regulations it seems that the horns are for exactly this purpose – compliance with article 1.5 which states:
As viewed from the front, the bodywork must not allow mechanical components to be seen, unless explicitly authorised by the present regulations.
Many components of the Ligier JS P2 have much in common with the Onroak version of the Pescarolo 01 (aka the Morgan P2) so much so that the rear ends of each are almost interchangeable and many components are identical. Those that are not such as the rear wheel louvres (above) are clearly heavily inspired by the concepts used on the Pescarolo (below)
The side panels of the Ligier JS P2 are very complex and could not have been the work of a moment in aerodynamic development.
The complexity of the new Ligier raises the question of whether this is truly a cost capped car, in the July 2014 edition of Racecar Engineering Thierry Bouvet Technical Director of Onroak answers that charge and suggests that a higher price would be more realistic for constructors.
A look at the Nissan engine installation in the JS P2 (above)
