Audi aims to become the first manufacturer to win the gruelling Le Mans 24-hour race with a diesel car, and has announced that its new R10 challenger has been entered in the 2006 event. The announcement comes six months after a similar undertaking by Peugeot, which plans to enter its diesel sports racer in the 2007 race.
Audi aims to become the first manufacturer to win the gruelling Le Mans 24-hour race with a diesel car, and has announced that its new R10 challenger has been entered in the 2006 event. The announcement comes six months after a similar undertaking by Peugeot, which plans to enter its diesel sports racer in the 2007 race.
Audi first competed at Le Mans in 1999, and its R8 has become really successful over the period, winning five times in the last six years. The car has also scored 61 wins from 77 race starts around the world.
But, although a diesel-powered Lola did run in this year’s event, racing a diesel with the kind of output required to win the 24-hour classic is new territory for the engineers at Ingolstadt and presented a new set of challenges. Audi’s diesel V12 engine is constructed entirely from aluminium and is equipped with TFSI (turbo petrol direct injection) technology, which is widely used in Audi’s production vehicles after being developed in motorsport.
The R10 has a longer wheelbase than its petrol-fuelled R8 predecessor, and radical changes to the chassis were required. New technologies were adopted during the development of the carbon-fibre monocoque to ensure the chassis, engine and gearbox form one rigid unit.
“The R10 project is the biggest challenge ever to have been handed to Audi Sport,” said Dr Wolfgang Ullrich, head of Audi Motorsport. “TDI technology has not been pushed to its limits in motorsport yet. We are the first to confront the challenge and the demands of such a project are accordingly high.”
The new Audi R10 successfully completed its first test at the end of November and an extensive test programme is scheduled before the car’s race début at Sebring in March.
