24 Hours of Le Mans

Audi R10 Diesel presentation in Paris

Sports car racing fans from around the world tuned into Audi’s site for one of the most anticipated events in the history of the sport: the premiere of the Audi R10 in Paris, the replacement for the world-beating Audi R8 prototype. Fans were rewarded with the premier of the new LMP1 car – a design that bridges from the R8’s graceful design to the new ride-height and rollover standards.

© Audi Communication Motorsport

The premier started with Audi factory driver and seven-time Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen driving the R10 down the streets of Paris, and parking in a vantage point with the Eiffel Tower in the backdrop. Kristensen emerged from the car and commented that the car is “Certainly the most powerful turbodiesel in the world.”

The R10 wore livery in the premier that nearly duplicated the original livery worn by the R8 in the 2000 sports car season – a silver body with red accents. The overall shape of the new resembles the R8 in many aspects. The headlight and taillight treatment are similar, as well as the pointed nose reminiscent of a single-seat open wheel race car. The car’s wheelbase is longer than the R8’s was in order to accomodate the 5.5 Litre, Turbodiesel V12 engine. It also has much wider front tires. The engine has a claimed output of 650 horsepower and 1,100 Newton-meters of torque. Michelin will continue to supply the tire program for the car.

© Audi Communication Motorsport

The Diesel engine, developed in house with close cooperation of Shell and Bosch, is an all aluminium one, to reduce the weight. The gearbox, which will face a big challenge handling the enormous torque, was developed in cooperation with Xtrac.

© Audi Communication Motorsport

Fuel economy is expected to be a reward for the use of a diesel engine. One to two laps of additional fuel economy is expect at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Tom Kristensen was on-hand at the launch and expressed his surprise at driving a diesel racing car. “I didn’t expect to be in racing long enough to drive a diesel car.” He expects the Audi to be “very quick in the straights.” He also noted the car is very quiet on acceleration and you only hear the wind, not the engine.

© Audi Communication Motorsport

According to Dr. Ullrich, the R8 has known a very succesful career and now there would be the need for something completely new. “It is difficult to be better than the R8 but that’s what we go for”, he said. To the question “how long will we see the R10 racing?” Dr Ullrich said: “That depends on how long the ACO will not change the rules”.

ACO President Jean-Claude Plassart was on hand for the launch and seemed pleased with the new car. “We are happy to see diesel car. Le Mans always has been a technology lab.”

© Audi Communication Motorsport

Many questions yet remain for the R10’s season. There are currently three cars built. Dr. Ulrich indicated that the car will participate at the 12 Hours of Sebring as well as the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but no other plans have been made. Tom Kristensen and Frank Biela have both been involved in the testing of the R10, but no driver line-up has been announced. The rest of the driver lineup will be presented ultimately 3 weeks before the 12 hours race of Sebring.

© Audi Communication Motorsport

Official press release contents:

Audi AG is once again one step ahead of the opposition: The inventor of “TDI? will become the world’s first automobile manufacturer to fight for overall victory with a diesel engine at the famous 24 Hours of Le Mans. The all-new Audi R10, which was unveiled on Tuesday in Paris, is powered by a totally new 5.5-litre, twelve-cylinder bi-turbo TDI engine, which is extremely quiet and economical.

The Le Mans Prototype, with over 650 hp and more than 1,100 Newton metres torque, significantly exceeds the power produced by the majority of previous Audi racing cars including that of its victorious R8 predecessor. Audi ventures into previously unexplored diesel-engine terrain with the V12 power plant manufactured completely from aluminium. As with the TFSI technology, which triumphed initially at Le Mans before being adopted for mass-production, Audi customers should benefit once again from the lessons learnt in motorsport.

“With the A8 4.2 TDI quattro, Audi already builds one of the most powerful diesel cars in the world,” explained Prof Dr Martin Winterkorn, Chairman of the Board of Management of AUDI AG, at the R10 presentation in Paris. “The Le Mans project will help our technicians to extract even more from TDI technology. Nowadays, every second Audi is delivered with a TDI engine. We expect that the percentage of diesel engines will be even larger in the future.”

The R10 prototype’s V12 power unit, which is equipped with two diesel particle filters, is hardly recognisable as a diesel thanks to the engine’s smooth running nature. The TDI engine’s specialities presented the Audi Sport engineers with a whole list of challenges. The injection pressure easily exceeds the 1,600 bar achieved in production cars. The usable power band lies between 3,000 and 5,000 revs per minute an unusually low rev range for a racing engine. The driver must change gear in the R10 far less often than in the R8 because of the TDI engine’s favourable torque curve.

The enormous torque of over 1,100 Newton metres does not only make extreme demands of the R10 transmission system even the latest generation of engine dynamometers at Audi Sport had to be re-equipped with special gearboxes capable of withstanding the unusual forces.

Additionally, radical changes to the chassis were also necessary. The Audi R10 has a significantly longer wheel base than the R8. The overly wide front tyres are, up until now, unique for a Le Mans Prototype. New technologies were also implemented during the development of the carbon-fibre monocoque. Chassis, engine and gearbox form an extremely rigid, fully stressed unit.

“The R10 project is the biggest challenge ever to have been handed to Audi Sport,” said Head of Audi Motorsport Dr Wolfgang Ullrich. “TDI technology has not been pushed to its limits in motorsport yet. We are the first to confront the challenge. The demands of such a project are accordingly high. Long-term technology partners such as Bosch, Michelin or Shell support us in our quest. Together we have the chance to write new chapters in the history books of motorsport and diesel technology.”

The new Audi R10 successfully completed its first test at the end of November. An extensive test programme, including the 12-hour race at Sebring (USA) on 18 March, is scheduled before the 24 Hours of Le Mans on 17/18 June 2006. The development team from Audi Sport is supported by Reinhold Joest’s squad, which also performed this task during the R8 project.

© 2005 Planetlemans.com.