Audi Site

Pretty amazing if you ask me. Glad to see a manufacturer "pushing the envelope."

Your thoughts?

Audi has a tradition of pushing the envelope. They ran production bodied AWD cars in SCCA Trans Am and IMSA before Jack Roush (running tube framed "funny cars" for Ford whined so much they banned them. They ran A4 AWD cars in the British touring car championships until they were similarly banned. They came back the following season with FWD cars and still smoked the competition. The R8 might just be the winningest car in history, and the R10 might just keep the streak going. I dunno if they did it this year, but they were going after the 917s mileage and average speed records, done when the course had NO chicanes. The Cap'n

Hate that chicane in the Mulsanne (sp?). Maybe we should be looking for a diesel alternative for the type IV?

Its amazing to me that with all the talk of alternative fuels, only one manufacturer is racing them. Racing improves the breed, as they say. If we want to kick the mid-east oil habit, this is the way to start. I say great job to Audi!!

Le Mans is no longer at the sharp end of the stick in their upper classes....in fact, there is no sharp end of the stick anywhere in the prototype classes and I see no end in sight.
GT 2 & 3 is still some good racing.

Once again with no competition, Audi wins by spending a lot of money.

Fair enough, but its still a diesel and they did more laps than any other victor before. So they were not racing against the field, but against history.

Hay, it's a good car, but you have to race more than history before it becomes a great car. 2006 technology defeats 1971 technolody......

A victory is measured by the quality of the competition, there are no serious cars in LMP-1 other than the audis.
When a real competitor steps up to the plate, then the Audi victories will have meaning. Reportedly Peugeot will be entering next year, FIA will make sure it's a level field

BTW, the total number of miles in the race today (by the R-10) was less than was run in the 1971 race, run and won by the 917. The laps today are shorter than they used to be.

Hence my comments in another thread. Audi will continue unchallenged until someone (Porsche, Honda etc) step up and make LMP an interesting class. The Audi show is getting old.

No I don't want to ban the Audis, I just want to see some other manufacture step up and bring their a-game.

I heard that Peugeot is working on a diesel race car too. Race history and competition aside. Audi is really going to change what people think of diesels(slow & smelly, thank you mercedes 240D
When you read about that V12 power plant it's really remakable. 1,100 Newton meters, power band between 3000-5000 rpms. Compared to 12,000-15,000 for its gas powered competition.
I'd love to do a TDI convertion on my 914. Over 200 ft/lb of torque and easily get 50mpg, not considering all the mods you could do to get the HP up to 200 ponies.
I'm glad Audi is pushing the diesel envelope.

Pescarolo outfinished the second audi entrant.

I love the tech behind the audi! SO great to see R&D winning races with out of the box thinking.
I think that only 8 cars in class is a real bummer. Maybe LMP-1 has outlasted its usefulness? It seems one of the bigtime marquees show up to win for a year or two then take the cup and use it for advertising for the next ten years.
Oh well, a great effort a Diesel to come back to the forfront of tech after all these years...

Sorry, but I wasn't too impressed with the Audi's

Specially if you look how well Pescarolo and Racing For Holland did (Audi probably spent more on catering for the event than these guys get to spend in an entire season on everything)

Heck, teams like that don't even have the money to BUY their engines, they RENT them...

Mayor bummer that Alex Yoong crashed the RFH Dome about 12 hours into the race. They had serious podium potential this year

Just like any other team in any other sport.
the team with the most money wins. USPS in the Tour de France, Yes there was Lance but the supporting cast was the cream of the crop and NOT cheap.
every Super Bowl champion as far back as I can remember has maxed out the salary cap and put them selves fo far in the hole they can only win 1 maybe 2 years in a row.
Audi should have won they spent the most money 18,000 racing miles for a shake down of the cars??????

However I do like the idea of the power plant WITH it's technology and special fuel to go in a lite car. NOT a heavy weight modern car.

EVERY winner races against both history AND what's out there now. The 917 Juggernaut was the result of a major infusion of cubic money. The Ford effort was the same, as was Mc Laren's and a host of others. Ya got the best engineers, the most motivated drivers, constructors, and crew, as well as really deep pockets, your odds for winning are greatly enhanced. They also far outstripped their own previous car. The 2nd place car was running 2 seconds a lap slower, and simply didn't have a chance as long as the leader didn't break. The other Audi spent a long time in the pits and still did well. It would appear that Porsche didn't bother to show up, reducing the chances of a better contest. The Cap'n