Audi R10 drivers Allan McNish, Rinaldo Capello, and Tom Kristensen brought home the first ever win for a diesel engined car in a sports car event, at the sebring 12 hours.

Audi are looking good for yet another win a Le-mans this season, and although i'm not an Audi fan, I've got to give it to 'em - the boys did well!

I'm just wondering how long it'll be before we start seeing diesel F1 cars

Their R8 and R10 have domination just written all over them. Such a great car. Will be a shame when they end their winning streak for championships and big races. But it will all go down in history, good for Audi :up:

EDIT: This autograph I have from McNish might be worth something :o (lol probably not much)

Those R8s are scarily fast, they are visibly faster than most other things at Le Mans. However, in true Audi fashion, they are about the most boring sounding. Oh well.

Good news, I love diesel's, sure they sound awfull & don't rev very high, but boy oh boy do they make some SERIOUS torque.

I love the kick in the arse I get from my 350NM

Dan,

I happened to develop some small parts for the R10, so I saw the concept a while ago. I never heard the sound of it but Audi already uses big silencers to match some future noise specs. So they can use the R10 later without having to modify it.

PS: If you want great sound, try visiting a youngtimer Rally event! The cars there make some nice chicken skin!

Yup Audi won, there's a lot of 'upset' people at Lola right now. They won everything but the one that matters ... However it's customer team that entered their chasis so they're able to ignore the defeat and pretend it's nothing to do with them ... I wonder if Le Mans will be a German victory parade.

does anyone have any links to pictures of these cars?

and and idea if Michael Valiante was in that race in some other class?

speedfreak227

i was playin' Gran Turismo 4 and my R8 got 1058 hp.

audi shud enter F1 tbh...

Quote from Theafro :

Audi R10 drivers Allan McNish, Rinaldo Capello, and Tom Kristensen brought home the first ever win for a diesel engined car in a sports car event, at the sebring 12 hours.

Audi are looking good for yet another win a Le-mans this season, and although i'm not an Audi fan, I've got to give it to 'em - the boys did well!

I'm just wondering how long it'll be before we start seeing diesel F1 cars

I saw several hours of the race and the TDI was VERY impressive. From the telecast I learned that the car has a very narrow power band compared to the R8 but very large amounts of torque. It is also so quiet that the driver cannot hear the engine after third gear speeds. When the car left the pits the quiet sound was very nice and mellow.
I would imagine it is much more fun to drive than the 11,000LB Mack Truck I recently sold.

Quote from DejaVu :

audi shud enter F1 tbh...

But then they would be up against real competition, read: manufacturers.

Quote :

audi shud enter F1 tbh...

Audi have already categorically stated that they are interested in F1 but will not enter it unless 4WD systems are allowed.

The FIA has already categorically stated that 4WD systems are not and will not be allowed.

So that'd be a no then .

'erm - how come they're racing a RWD LMP car then? they're much better off racing proper events like Le-mans than F1 anyway

Diesels are awesome, I'm a truck mechanic, so I'm quite at home with 600Bhp turbo diesels, although most of the engines i see are 6 cyl 13Ltr BEASTS with Humungous (12") variable geometry turbos and 1600Psi fuel injection systems. But they're still not quite as impressive as the V12 in the audi.

IMHO It sounds awesome, not loud but low and mean.

The commentary I heard at sebring said they'd managed to actually make the gearbox lighter than the R8s - suprising considering it handling nearly twice the torque, although i'm betting they've taken another leaf out of the truck book - they're prolly just gearing the drivetrain speeds up, in order to drop torque levels (power = torque x speed), kinda like ford did with the Focus WRC.

Audi wants AWD so it's easier to drive. like FXR and FZR.

Would be cool to see Audi in F1, but like Theafro said in his last post above... I'd much rather see them in other events. Especially for the fact that they have the freedom to experiement new technologies, without being slapped for going beyong the boundaries/rules of whatever series they are in (ala F1). It seems the Diesel powered R10 will be pretty successful now, it is only a matter of time for what they come up with next :

Heck if their engines completely dominate, maybe they will be the huge/main supplier in the future.

I'd guess that the Diesels will be banned pretty soon when the R10 is really so dominant as it seems to be. I don't like that, but it's the way things work.
But being banned from a league due to dominance is a victory in itself .

Vain

i doubt that the aco will ever ban diesels ... from what ive heard the have an mpg advantage over petrol cars so diesel engines are an improvement at the very essence of sportscar racing

Tom K is the greatest.

Diesels are inherently heavier, due to the increased compression and more violent combustion. so they carry a slight disadvantage to petrol engines.

You've gotta remember that more than 50% of the cars Audi make are diesels, and diesel sales are increasing at huge rate. with diesel demand increasing, it's not gonna be long before we start to see Touring car and maybe even GT teams running diesel power. It's already pretty common in rallying (the lower classes anyhow) so we might even see a WRC rule change for diesels within the next ten years or so.

Rather than banning them I've got a feeling we'll be watching many more DERV powered racecars in the future.

BTW McNish is better