Over in the auto world, the LeMans 24 hour race has a long and prestigious history where manufacturers are always pushing their new engineering and designs in hopes of winning. The advertising that results from a win can be an even bigger win.
All of the car sites are talking at once about the new car Audi is running this year, the R10, and the item of interest to readers of The Kneeslider is the fact that it sports a 5.5 liter twin turbo V12 TDI diesel engine. A diesel will run right alongside all of the other cars in the race competing for the overall win, not some minor class at the back. These are the primary Audi prototypes for the race. The engine has 650 horsepower and 811 foot pounds of torque.
The American LeMans series, a series of shorter races over here in the States, begins running today at the 12 hours of Sebring in Florida. For those wondering if the diesel engine would work in this format of racing, the two Audi R10s qualified one and two.
We keep saying the diesels are coming with the Thunder Star, the Bulldog plus lots of other one off motorcycles that guys are cooking up all over the world. If these Audis start winning, it will be one more nudge to drastically change people’s perceptions of the diesel engine and we can expect to see lots more showing up in response to increasing demand.
doug says
Really cool. Do you know if these diesels also have a fuel economy advantage? i.e. less pitstops.
that torque is insane
kneeslider says
They do get better mileage, that’s another advantage of the diesels. I watched a bit of the race briefly and the cars were one and two at the time.
aaron says
and the marketing advantage is HUGE!
Bruce says
The reason you’re seeing diesels debuting in endurance races like Sebring & LM is that the ability to cut back on fuel stops makes for an incremental advantage that cannot be ignore. I remember a short-story written back in the 80s where all the worlds best auto designers were invited to an endurance race, part of the rules of which were setup to encourage submitting fuel-efficient designs.
The winner was the team that fielded two vehicles, both fairly standard passenger/cargo vans [think good ol’ front engine, rear drive, gets about 18mpg city/hwy any ol’ way you drive it full size van.] They won because they held about 500 gals of fuel apiece, and while one was zipping around keeping up w/ the joneses, the other was just plugging away cruising at the 45mph [incidentally, the most fuel efficient speed you can generally travel in a car, the reasons are simple but I’m not taking the time to explain’em]; then, when *everyone* eventually had had to pit for fuel and the 1st van HAD to be running on fumes, it ducked in behind the 2nd van, refueled like a fighter jet behind a C135 tanker, and went on to win the race.
Great yarn, but it really explains why you’ll only be seeing diesels at endurance events, at least for the first half-dozen years or so… 😉