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Audi R18 TDI

Cetane_100 — Thu, 05 May 2011 22:23:20 +0000

Always be at least one step ahead of the opposition – this is Audi’s motto. This is exactly how the Four Rings brand presented the Audi R18 TDI – the first Le Mans sports car featuring headlights comprising entirely of light emitting diodes. As a result, the Audi drivers have a significant advantage at night during the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Audi is regarded as a pioneer in the development of LED technology and leads the competition by a large margin in this field. The twelve-cylinder Audi A8 was the first car in the world to go into production with LED daytime driving lights. The Audi R8 is credited with having the first full LED headlights worldwide. Slowly but surely an increasing number of Audi models are offered with full LEDs as an option, as is the new Audi A6.
Audi also forces the new headlight technology in motorsport. The Audi R10 TDI was the first race car with LED daytime driving lights in 2006. The Audi R15 TDI, which broke the 39 year old distance record at the 24 Hours of Le Mans last year, was equipped with a combination of Xenon headlights and LEDs.
Audi goes a step further with the innovative Audi R18 TDI: the new LMP1 is the first Le Mans sports car with full LED headlights. Combined with sophisticated reflector-lens modules, eight high-power light emitting diodes per side provide unique illumination of the race track at night.

“When you’ve driven once with full LED headlights you don’t want to have anything else,” raves Le Mans record winner Tom Kristensen. “The light is stronger and vibrates less than a normal headlight – this is a clear advantage and particularly at Le Mans, a track that has many dark braking points in the night.”
However, not only the greater illumination is an advantage of LED technology. Light emitting diodes are maintenance free and extremely reliable. “The vulnerability to failures is extremely low,” explains Dr. Martin Mühlmeier, Head of Technology at Audi Sport. “To date, we haven’t had a single LED failure.”
Thanks to intensive development of the technology, full LED headlights now also represent a weight saving compared to common headlights – particularly as Audi Sport managed to eliminate the electrical cooling of the light emitting diodes still required in street cars and also found last year in the R15 TDI.

The LEDs in the R18 TDI are cooled by the airflow and still supply enough light even if the cooling airflow is completely cut by dimming themselves automatically. “Our colleagues in production car development are very interested to see how we implement this,” says Christopher Reinke, Technical Project Leader for the Audi R18 TDI. “However, we have the advantage in motorsport that the car spends less time at a standstill. On the highway, the lights mustn’t go out even if the car is in a traffic jam.”

Audi Sport worked closely with the AUDI AG “Light and Sight” section during development of the full LED headlights. The light tunnel in the Technical Development (TE) is available for tests. The Audi R18 TDI is credited with a record: It has the brightest diodes currently in use. These LEDs are currently not registered for road use.

To a limited extent LED technology also requires a completely new approach. The R18 TDI prototype’s main beam, which is comprised of five LEDs per side, is not brighter than the normal low beam. Three extra LEDs create the effect of a high beam by illuminating the track additionally through an individual position of the various reflectors.

Audi is the first automobile manufacturer to also use the diverse possibilities of light emitting diodes as design element. In the R18 TDI the daytime driving light in the left headlight forms a number “1” which is mirrored on the right side. With this, Audi aims to express its position as number one in LED technology. It goes without saying that the knowledge Audi Sport gains at Le Mans with the latest generation full LED headlights flows automatically into production car development – so that the advantage through LED technology remains.

Credits: Audi news release

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Three diesel-powered Audi racing sports cars at 78th Le Mans

Cetane_100 — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 05:34:13 +0000

Audi will start the 78th edition of the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans on June 12/13 with a total of three diesel-powered racing sports cars. At a press conference of the organizer, the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO), in Le Mans (France), Head of Audi Motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich announced Audi’s driver line-up for the most important sports car race of the year.
The Audi squad will be spearheaded by the Italian Dindo Capello, Le Mans record winner Tom Kristensen (Denmark) and the Scot Allan McNish, who in total, have scored twelve Le Mans victories. In 2008, they jointly clinched the eighth Le Mans triumph for Audi.
With eight wins under his belt, Tom Kristensen (42) is the most successful Le Mans driver of all time and has just been voted “sports car driver of the decade” by the British racing magazine “Autosport.” Allan McNish (40) was the runner-up in this voting. With a track record of 29 overall wins, Dindo Capello (45) leads the roll of honor in the American Le Mans Series by a wide margin.
The second Audi R15 TDI will be shared by Timo Bernhard (Germany), Romain Dumas (France) and Mike Rockenfeller (Germany). The two Porsche “factory” drivers Timo Bernhard (28) and Romain Dumas (32) made a strong showing in their first race for Audi at Le Mans last year. Audi “factory” driver Mike Rockenfeller (26) won the Le Mans Series in 2008 in the Audi R10 TDI and successfully began his 2010 season with an overall victory at the 24-hour race at Daytona (USA) at the end of January.
New signings Marcel Fässler (Switzerland), André Lotterer (Belgium) and Benoît Treluyer (France) have been selected to drive the third R15 TDI. Marcel Fässler (33) and Benoît Treluyer (33) have contested the 24-hour race at Le Mans several times before. André Lotterer (28) performed admirably last year on his Le Mans debut at the wheel of a privately fielded R10 TDI.
All three Audi R15 TDI cars are entered by Audi Sport Team Joest and designated as cars number 7, 8 and 9. The third sports-prototype will officially run as “Audi Sport North America,” the name under which it was nominated.
“We are pleased that the ACO has accepted our three nominations for the world’s most important sports car race and that we will again be able to compete with three cars,” says Head of Audi Motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich. “Our stated goal is to bring back the Le Mans trophy to Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm. Three cars mean three chances – and we feel that all three R15 TDI cockpits have been filled with top-class drivers. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank our colleagues from Porsche for again making two of their best drivers – Timo (Bernhard) and Romain (Dumas), with whom we were very pleased at their first Le Mans race for Audi – available to us.”

Eight victories in just eleven Le Mans races
Audi has been competing in the 24-hour race at Le Mans since 1999 and, having started just eleven of the events, has won the French endurance classic as many as eight times. By clinching its ninth win, the brand with the four rings would equal Ferrari’s ranking in the race’s roll of honor. Only Porsche has scored more victories in its long Le Mans history.
Audi has deliberately opted for a long-term commitment at Le Mans. In addition to speed, reliability and efficiency are the key factors of success in this race. Furthermore, the LMP1 class is unrivaled by any other motorsport category in terms of offering the opportunity to field production-derived technologies and to test them in racing conditions.
Audi’s victorious campaign at Le Mans has been closely tied to technological innovations from the outset. In 1999, Audi clinched a podium result at its first Le Mans race thanks to reliable technology. In 2000, the pioneering Audi R8, which dominated the sports car scene for more than six years and celebrated a total of five Le Mans victories, made its debut.
From 2001 onward, a TFSI engine was used. Audi then successfully introduced the combination of gasoline direct injection and turbo-charging into production vehicles as well. Today, this technology has become an integral element of Audi AG’s model range.

Triumph of TDI technology

In 2006, Audi made worldwide headlines by clinching the first victory of a diesel-powered racing sports car in the 80 plus year history of the Le Mans race. As with the Audi R8, Audi Sport Team Joest scored three successive Le Mans wins with the revolutionary Audi R10 TDI. This makes Audi the only automobile manufacturer in the world to “own” as many as two Le Mans trophies. Only a team that manages a hat-trick at Le Mans may keep the silverware.
In 2010, Audi again banks on TDI technology which continues to be considered the world’s most efficient technology for the French endurance classic. The Audi R15 TDI that was fielded for the first time last year, has been subjected to further development in numerous details and internally bears the project name “R15 plus.” It is the first second-generation diesel racing sports car to be powered by an Audi V10 TDI engine with a power output of over 440 kW and features numerous technological innovations such as a lithium ion battery and a higher-voltage onboard power supply system.

The Audi Teams at Le Mans 2010

#7 Dindo Capello (I)/Tom Kristensen (DK)/Allan McNish (GB)

#8 Marcel Fässler (CH)/André Lotterer (D)/Benoît Treluyer (F)

#9 Timo Bernhard (D)/Romain Dumas (F)/Mike Rockenfeller (D)

Three diesel-powered Audi racing sports cars at 78th Le Mans is a post from: Diesel Racer

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The flying Bio Beast

Cetane_100 — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 19:24:34 +0000

Does 5.9 cummins with ht custom turbo, diesel dynamics injectors, sheid cam, industrial injection cp3 pump, turbonetics intercooler make you curious?? Does a third place finish in the SCORE 2006 Baja 1000 in November of 2006 speaks for itself?? Loren Worthington and his Bio-diesel Dodge Ram 2500 participated and showed in many other races also that bio diesel, perfomance engines and motorsport fit together. This truck is for sale. Loren is having a hart time letting go but at times circumstances require action we not always like. So it will be a soory Loren and one happu camper getting “that thing” to shake the deserts while competing. A race ready, 3-seater Doge truck can be in your garage, why dont find out more?? Visit Puro Off Road for more information on that exceptional deal.

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Audi improves the clean diesel breed

Cetane_100 — Sun, 10 May 2009 20:45:36 +0000

Over the last two decades, Audi has been particularly active in motorsports, first in rallying- where its Quattro all wheel drive was spawned – and later on race tracks – where it debuted gasoline direct injection on the R8. Most recently, the R10 and the R15 have taken diesel technology to new heights with three consecutive wins at Le Mans.

Audi’s now using that racing success to boost its first U.S. clean diesel vehicle, the Q7 TDI, which is finally going on sale about now. Last fall, in the cross country Mileage Marathon, the 50-state legal Q7s averaged about 29 mpg, far more than any of the big hybrid SUVs can manage. Yes, diesel contains more carbon than gasoline but the 30 percent improvement in efficiency far outweighs the extra carbon content and still yields about a 25 percent cut in CO2 emissions. While even clean diesels also produce more NOx than current gasoline engines, they are a huge improvement over they were and the particulate filters like those used on the race cars eliminate the soot.

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Peugeot Bringing Diesel Hybrid to 2009 Le Mans Race

Cetane_100 — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 06:19:34 +0000

Peugeot intends to race a diesel hybrid version of its 908 prototype at this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. Jean-Philippe Collin, the French automaker’s new CEO, revealed the plans in an interview with L-Equipe, revealing that the vehicle could see competition as early as November 2008 at the ACO 1,000km challenge in Shanghai. We predict success for the first diesel electric hybrid racecar, it’ll be able to combine the excellent fuel economy and torque characteristics of both diesels and hybrids and would be positioned to take advantage of any future rule changes that benefit hybrid technology. F1, for example, is actively working to bring power added by regenerative braking to the sport.

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Audi R10 TDI to take on Le Mans 2009

Cetane_100 — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 06:13:06 +0000

While Audi will contest the 24 Hours of Le Mans as part of its factory commitment with the new R15 TDI in 2009, Dr Colin Kolles is planning to buy two Audi R10 TDI cars for his racing team. The privately fielded prototypes are planned to return to the venues of their greatest exploits in 2009: to the European-based Le Mans Series and to the 24-hour race at Le Mans, in which the Audi R10 TDI has not been beaten so far.

Since the 2006 season Audi has been cooperating with Dr Colin Kolles, who has entered two Audi A4 DTM cars in the DTM since that time. Now, the team owner based in Greding near Ingolstadt wants to extend his motorsport involvement to the sportscar area on his own initiative. The team plans to contest the 24-hour race at Le Mans on 13 and 14 June 2009 as well as the five rounds of the European-based Le Mans Series.

Audi Sport will sell two R10 TDI vehicles to Dr Kolles for this purpose and complement the agreement by a service package encompassing support for the private racing commitments by members of Audi Sport’s technical staff.

“We welcome the fact that Dr Kolles decided to take on this commitment and wants to purchase two Audi R10 TDI cars,” said Head of Audi Motorsport Dr Wolfgang Ullrich. “While on the factory side of the house we are concentrating on the development and fielding of the new R15 TDI sportscar as well as on the DTM, we are pleased to see that the R10 TDI will be privately entered in future and that racing vehicles of the Audi brand will continue to be represented in the Le Mans Series. That is why we agreed to the sale of the cars. However, our involvement will be strictly limited to providing support under the terms of the service agreement.”

In the 2006, 2007 and 2008 racing years, the Audi R10 TDI clinched as many as 22 overall victories in 38 worldwide entries. At the 24 Hours of Le Mans as well as in the final LM P1 classification of the American Le Mans Series during that time frame the Audi R10 TDI remained unbeaten and last year won the LM P1 class of the European-based Le Mans Series as well.

Audi R10 TDI to take on Le Mans 2009 is a post from: Diesel Racer

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