Audi to run a diesel at LeMans and Sebring

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Anything you can do with the pics on this page?

http://www.forum-auto.com/sqlforum/section1/sujet231727.htm

 

I had an LPG rental car earlier this year for a few days in Korea. I was pretty impressed with it (Hyundai Sonata). We were on Jeju island and they had full service filling stations and there were no problems. Big difference will be adding the infrastructure to existing facilities. Expensive, but it can be done. Makes sense for fleet vehicles (i.e. taxis).

 

As an aside, I think Diesel makes more sense (for now) than hybrids.

 

And diesels don't smoke at Le Mans...
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Isn't that a Confederate flag in the background????

 

2 of my classics are equipped with LPG and I love it do death!

I'll post a cross link to another classic equipped with it.

 

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?p=135452908#post135452908

That Berlina is also equipped with LPG.

 

Sorry... can't see it through the smoke...

 

Did that last picture kill the debate?

 

Audi R10 on track i want to see that. Audi in 2006 may be 4 Stars.

 

I am not a fan of diesel engines, not even for a daily road car.
The smell of castrol r40 or ricine oil, and the noise of a V12 racing car are unforgettable things, and I can't see it repalced by the black smoke and that ugly silence of a diesel engine.
But is diesel the future ?
Which is more polluent gasoline or diesel?
Someone told me that fuel-oil is unexpensive in Europe because it is not used in the USA, if in america people began to buy diesel cars it's going to beat the gasoline prices. Is that true?

 

Peugeot is also working on a diesel engine, in collaboration with a german engineer, to be raced by the team of Henri Pescarolo.
In a few years every Le mans car must be a diesel...is that possible we could see a Nascar diesel winning the Daytona 500 ?

 

Does anyone really think that the diesel engine Audi will be running is going to actually blow black smoke like some early 80's 300D Mercedes Benz sitting in a third world country?

Does anyone really think Audi has not done sufficient testing with this engine and car to ensure it will be as competitive if not faster than the gasoline powered race car it is replacing?


Get over it.

 

Tune into the NASCAR network (aka SpeedTv) for the Craftsman Truck Series - you'll find Chevy, Ford and Dodge running diesels.

It would make sense for Pescarolo to run a diesel to compete with Audi in the LMES.

In response to "The K Reloaded"'s post - I concur, yes, you bet Audi has done much testing with their diesel - there's no way they'd bring out something that wouldn't be competitive and win and replace their year's of success with the R8.

Carol

 

But no way I leave my Gulf colored Alfa Romeo Berlina at home and take my company Audi TDI to la sarthe to cheer for the-non-smoking and silent-low-rev German idea of Future Racing Engineering. I'll opt voor the Goodwood and the Classic Le Mans. Maybe I will even watch a World Cup Soccer match that week-end.

There is no better marketing for classic racing events than the current Audi move.....

 

This is not true, the run leaded gas, not diesel.

 

i want to see with filtre anti particules et fumées noires but i don't want to smell this bad odeur nauséabonde

 

I did a little research on Diesels in racing to see how innovative Audi REALLY is...

First photo is the Delettrez of the Delettrez brothers who entered this diesel in the first post-war running of the 24 heures in 1949, the year that Luigi Chinetti almost singlehandedly won in his Ferrari 166 MM.

Unfortunately, the Delettrez ran out of fuel...

The brothers tried it again in 1950 (engine broke) and 1951 (transmission problems).

1950 also saw the entry of the MAP diesel (water + fuel leak).

Then in 2004 there was the Lola Caterpillar (transmission problems).

Diesels go futher back in history.

The second photo show the Itala diesel of Giovanelli during the 1934 Mille Miglia....Also not a great succes...

So, Audi can only do better (easily....).

Am I convinced now that diesel are made for racing?

...
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Be prepared on big surprises in the future. Could also run a research on the first racecar with disk brakes or direct fuel injection or power steering or radial tyres or ABS or .....
It is just matter of technological evolution

 

Get over it guys. Audi has adopted a high-risk strategy and it's going to be a fascinating season. All strength to them and I look forward to following their failire/progress/success! Paradigm shift anyone?

Later, MLP

 

To really throw the cat among the pigeons Audi should give the R10 six wheels. "Come back Ken - all is forgiven..."

 

From Mulsannescorner news department.

>>Ian Dawson's Taurus Sports team hopes to be back at Le Mans this year with a further development of their diesel V10 that he first raced in 2004. Taurus Sports will be renamed groupBio and use bio-diesel supplied by sponsor D1 Oils. One potential drawback is that the team indicates they are carrying on with their now decidedly ancient Lola B2K/10, converting it to Hybrid specification.

>>Speaking of diesels, Ricardo Engines has received a grant from the Motorsport Development UK's EEMS initiative which will help jump start their diesel V10 project providing the impetus to develop a test engine (moving it from its current paper project status

And even more interesting:
>>Zytek is working on a 04S successor, the 06S. Initially intended as a Hybrid, "06S customers will be able to buy an LMP1 upgrade kit for 2007 with new monocoque and nose box." And that's not all Zytek is up to, they feel they have some unfinished business when it comes to hybrid-electric. Recall their work on the Panoz Q9 GT1 from 1998...

So, I know about how you feel about the diesels. How do you feel about an hybrid-electric.

Does anyone have any good info on the Panoz Q9 GT1 from 1998? I'd only been able to find some general stats on finishes (or rather lack there of) for the hybrid car.

 

I'm all for the Audi R10. Fuel economy counts in the real world and diesel engines burn less fuel. To me, encouraging development of efficient engines makes a lot of sense.

If F1 is the ultimate development of gasoline engines, where is the relationship to the real world? Would any of us use a 20,000 RPM engine with a very narrow power-band in a road car? The aforementioned S2000 is an example of an engine with good HP/Litre but the lack of torque makes it less attractive as a daily driver.

Gas engines are also used in trucks. How do they relate to F1 engines? Twenty years agom who would have guessed that 3 liter non turbo engines would produce nearly 1,000 HP? If diesel race engines catch on, who knows what kind of power they will make ten years from now.

About turbines - an engineering prof of mine once showed the natural evolution from a single cylinder turbo diesel to the gas turbine. It's a long story but just imagine making the turbo bigger and bigger until at some point the piston is not only redundant but gets in the way. Interesting thing about that is that turbo lag gets worse as you increase the size of the turbo - think about the spool up time of a gas turbine!

Having said all that, I too get nostalgia when I get a wiff of Castrol R.

Regards,

 

Not entirely true unfortunately... and that is not a "ghost" in my head but this is what Audi says on this topic themselves:

>>>One of the diesel engine’s biggest advantages is the low fuel consumption, especially at part-throttle and overrun. However, when compared to more classic circuits which demand a higher ratio of part throttle, the lower specific consumption will hardly be noticeable at Le Mans because the quota of full-throttle is almost 75 percent.
<<<

You can find this on http://www.audi.com/audi/com/en1/experience/motorsport/r10/Diesel_at_Le_Mans.html

As mentioned before, there is little that goes against diesels under the condition that they are being used for a suitable purpose... hauling heavy loads over long distances at part throttle.

I still don't see the "technological progress" side of racing with diesels...

REAL progress is marked by an unfair advantage over the existing "players", preferably so unfair that new rules must be created to hamper that "unfair advantage" to keep the existing pack competitive (like was the case with turbos in F1 and the Lotus ground-effect cars). The mentioned disk brakes were also an progress over existing drum brakes. These were technological steps UP.

Coming to Le Mans NOW, in 2006, with a Diesel is a step DOWN, NOT a step up.

This is made painfully clear rules and regulations as outlined by the ACO (allowing the extra displacement etc as mentioned before in an earlier post).

For anybody who wants to read up on the regulations, please see:
http://www.lemans.org/sport/sport/reglements/ressources/auto_2006/Regl_2006_prototype_ACO_fr_gb.pdf

To put it into perspective again... The regulations are SO lenient towards diesels that a leisurely 118 HP per liter of displacement suffices to make the R10 the most powerful car in the field... Again as mentioned before: Ferrari gasoline engines in sports cars surpassed that "118HP/L" somewhere in the late 1960's...

I still think (but that is only an opinion) that REAL "technological progress" in racing consists of "thinking up technologies that no one has ever thought of before". Prime example to me are the Lotus groundeffect cars. So COMPLETLY new, NOBODY had ever thought of it before.

Coming to Le Mans in 2006 and say "Ok, we got 70% more of this allowed, 30% more of that and 300% more of such and look at what WE came up with!" 57 (!) years after that very same technology was first raced at Le Mans and calling THAT a step forward is... uh... well.... **CENSORED** I am simply NOT buying that as "technological progress".

Will the Audi DieselWunderWagen win Le Mans 2006? Yes it will. For many reasons. To name just a few:

They are the only factory entry in the LMP class (Wow! Great win with no serious competition from equally funded teams...)
They have the experience in their entire team
They have the funds to hire the right drivers
They can buy ample testing opportunity
There is enough room in the regulations to make the most powerful engine without much trouble
etc etc etc

Having said all that, for a Le Mans fan, the 24 Heures du Mans is all about emotion and nothing more than that. If it was anything else than emotion, there would be no need to go down there, camp in a tiny cramped tent and watch the race. Instead you could stay at home, take a peek at the standings every hour and write down the winner in the record books.

To me (but again, just speaking for myself) a diesel does NOT spark ANY emotion when it zooms by at a leisurely 3000 rpm...

Do I expect big clouds of black smoke? No of course not but... that IS the stereotype picture that I associate with diesels and that does NOT match the image that I have of the "greatest racing spectacle on earth" which Le Mans is to me.