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New Audi Le Mans car is a TDI.


Trouble Maker

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Kind of cool. I really like how much they (Audi) focus in the article about developing this technology in the series to be able to transfer into production vehicles.

 

IIRC only a few people have tried running a diesel engine in this series without much success? The article says they are the first to run a TDI in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but I think someone was running a TDI in American Le Mans last year at least. If so, it will be very interesting to see what someone that has been as successful as they have can do running a diesel engine in this series.

 

http://www.audiworld.com/news/05/r10/

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I was meaning to post this the other day. I think it's cool to see it attempted. The new car looks even better than the R8, too. What does 1100 Nm of torque equal in ft/lbs anyways?

 

811.

 

Thinking about this car makes me remember the most recent American Le Mans at Mid Ohio.

 

Walking in the catwalks above the pits, checking out all of the cool cars. Most of them looking like something half a dozen talented people that grace this board could put together given the money and time, especially the GT cars….

 

Then you walk above the R8 with the cover off of the engine, they are tuning the car. You can almost see how every visible piece in the engine being polished to a mirror shine helps it to produce that blistering 610bhp that has helped it to be the most successful car ever in the Le Mans series. Remembering that noise still puts chills down my spine. Without having seen that, it’s hard to understand how I know the R10 will dominate like the R8 did.

 

I'm so glad I have a digital camera to get stuff like this now. :D

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Not the first Deisel Le Mans car fellas, just the first works car. ;)

 

Uhhh, I said I didn't think it was the first diesel engine powered Le Mans car, but I don't think anyone's been very successful with it yet (other than it getting them some good publicity for doing it). I’m pretty sure that’s going to change this year. The article does specifically state that it's the first TDI that's going to compete in 24 Hours of Le Mans this upcoming year.

 

What do you mean by works car?

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I don't think it will make the whole 24 hours! IMO

 

It's almost a crapshoot with any car and any team.

 

Considering they have been the most prolific team in history in that race since the very first year of the introduction of the R8, it not only wouldn't surprise me if they finished, but if they were on the podium in at least one spot. I think we will get a much better view of the future after the 12 Hours at Sebring.

 

factory team

 

Cool, thanks.

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factory team

Thank you. If you hadn't stepped in I may have posted something rather tasteless and mean in responce to this:

 

He's referring to a name Audi went by a long time ago...I think.

That's funny stuff. However, fact 'o' the day: You are probably thinking of Auto Union, the name that was eventually truncated into Audi. They made increadible gran prix cars.

 

 

Unt Jesse, I was responding more to coty's post, stanting "it was nice to see it attempted." My point being it has been attepted. In fact, last year or the year before, there was a Biodeisel VW Beetle in one of the GT classes, it was a privateer though.....and it broke.

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the R8 wasn't a world beater out of the box. the 2000 race winning car covered fewer miles than the 1999 car that placed 4th competing against bmw, toyota, and nissan. more factory participation might have changed things.

 

that said, audi has a lot of useful racing experience to draw from now. jesse's right, we'll have a much better idea after sebring. a new car winning le mans isn't unheard of. mclaren did it back in 1995.

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that said, audi has a lot of useful racing experience to draw from now. jesse's right, we'll have a much better idea after sebring. a new car winning le mans isn't unheard of. mclaren did it back in 1995.

And they did it with extreme predjudice. ;) A new powerplant, on the other hand, is something completely different. 5000rpm is a shitload of revs for a deisel, and keep in mind they have wicked compression. Getting that motor to last will be much more difficult then its gasoline ancestors.

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A new powerplant, on the other hand, is something completely different.

 

yes and no. audi used a direct injection gasoline engine (the first race car to do so as far as i know) to good effect during the 2001 race.

 

how about 6000 rpms? :)

 

http://www.mulsannescorner.com/ricardojuddv10.html

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Jesus, look at my first fucking reply! You know, the one where coty asked how much that was in ft-lbs and I replied with a number.

 

I'm sitting here wondering if you can be that dumb, and you must be if you came up with 22.97 ft-lbs and even posted about it.

 

Matt, the article states that they designed this engine from the ground up, which wasn't the case with the engine in the R8 (I don't know where they got any of the components/design from). IIRC the R8 uses a 3.6L v10 and the R10 will use a 5.5L V12. Only common thing might be the fact that it's turboed and it uses direct injection.

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And they did it with extreme predjudice. ;) A new powerplant, on the other hand, is something completely different. 5000rpm is a shitload of revs for a deisel, and keep in mind they have wicked compression. Getting that motor to last will be much more difficult then its gasoline ancestors.

 

5000 is not alot for a diesel anymore, the one in my truck is built to live at 6k and the brand new GM duramax will take 7-8k. and the compression is going down in diesels, mine is 17:1 and the new ones are down to something around low 16:1, they get away with making 650 ft. lbs and 360 horse by increasing the fuel pressure from 21,000 psi to 29,000 psi. this also makes the engine quiter running. i don't know what kind of boost there pumping into that thing but mine has 32psi. factory my truck is rated at 590ft. lbs. and 310 horse, with just a programer i could take it to over 458 horse and 936ft. lbs.

 

thats sweet that someone is getting diesels into racing, gale banks is building a road race truck. http://www.bankspower.com/DmaxTypeR.cfm its pretty bad ass.

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Matt, the article states that they designed this engine from the ground up, which wasn't the case with the engine in the R8 (I don't know where they got any of the components/design from). IIRC the R8 uses a 3.6L v10 and the R10 will use a 5.5L V12. Only common thing might be the fact that it's turboed and it uses direct injection.

 

According to Mulsannescorner.com (sweet website by the way) The R8 uses a 3.6 liter V8, not V10. I thought I heard the racing V8 was actually derived from one of their street engines, but I'm not sure.

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Matt, the article states that they designed this engine from the ground up, which wasn't the case with the engine in the R8 (I don't know where they got any of the components/design from).

 

from the 1999 R8R... ;)

 

http://www.mulsannescorner.com/audir8r-99.html

 

btw, the engine was a V8. little else carried over to the R8. they may have borrowed components from another racing engine (the chrysler LMPs used modified sprint car engines. the engine for porsche's aborted LMP900 entry was based on an F1 project.). most of the engines are purpose built these days. considering audi's resources and budget, i'd expect nothing less.

 

good information here:

 

http://www.mulsannescorner.com/juhaAudiR10.html

 

eric mentioned reliability issues earlier. it seems the new audi engine is running a relatively low (for a diesel) compression ratio. the driver's have been commenting about a "narrow" powerband (less compression, more boost) and VERY little noise. they've also fitted soot filters to the engine.

 

i'd be more worried about the gearbox! audi claims the new xtrac box is LIGHTER than the R8's ricardo box, despite the massive increase in torque (maybe they removed a gear?). the diesel powered LMP we saw at le mans last year had serious clutch/gearbox related problems.

 

In the 2007 Le Mans Audi will face Peugeot with a diesel. Remember that Peugeot was humiliated in F1, then won in the WRC and then failed in the WRC. There is a lot to prove for them. In any case, the winner will write history.

 

2007 is going to be an exciting year... :cool:

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Gale Banks is building a bunch of Duramax powered vehicles for Daytona and Sebring. One of the motors is apparently going to end up in a C6 of all things!

 

i'd be interested to see how competitive they are. the caterpillar backed LMP we saw at le mans last year was using a production based engine (a modified VW touareg TDI V10) and wasn't very fast.

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