Audi TDI Diesel at Le Mans
Posted By RichC on December 13, 2005
I’ll make this post brief and point to the Audi R10 link, but this 650 HP 12 cylinder diesel is really impressive. Don’t miss a few of the video clips (live unedited capture) as besides a good look at the car, there are some nice panoramas of Paris, France. If you only have time for a short MP3 clip of the ‘turbine’ whine … play this short audio clip.
There is also a thread about the Audi R10 over at the TDI Club forums and VWLivery posted a good write-up as well. The CarBuyersNotebook has a short entry and links to a variety of sites and video.
The heart of the Audi R10 is a completely new V12 TDI engine with a cubic capacity of 5.5 litres – the maximum permitted at Le Mans. Audi ventures into previously unexplored diesel-engine terrain with power exceeding 650 hp and torque of more than 1100 Newton metres from the V12 power plant.
“This engine is the specifically most powerful diesel there is in the world and, up until now, the biggest challenge that Audi Sport has ever faced in its long history,†explains Ulrich Baretzky, Head of Engine Technology at Audi Sport. “There has never been anything remotely comparable. We started development with a clean sheet of paper.â€
The V12 TDI used in the R10 is the first Audi diesel engine with an aluminium crank case. The cylinder-bank angle is 90 degrees. The V12 TDI has, like Audi production car engines, four valves per cylinder and twin overhead camshafts. The fuel induction is made by a modern “Common Rail Systemâ€. The injection pressure easily exceeds the 1600 bar achieved in production cars. The ignition pressures also reach values never previously seen in any Audi engine.
The engine’s power and the high torque are available to the driver practically from idling speed – a speciality of diesel technology, to which the Audi drivers must now become accustomed. The usable power band lies between 3000 and 5000 revs per minute.
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