Audi R10
 

Can the diesel engine be the new era of power plants? Consdider that the whole ignition variable is completely removed, that would seem beneficial from a failure point.
I can believe the car doesn't smoke and is incredibly quiet.
Any thoughts?
j.p.

Fascinating car. The commentators were having a field day talking about it. Many thought Audi was on the leading edge of a new wave of new race/road engines.

I would have loved to be there to actually hear it in person. Anybody care to comment when you get back from the race?

You almost can't hear it. With your eyes closed, you don't even know its passing by on the track.

Re: Audi R10
 

The disesel engine can, and has been a new era of power plants for the past 20 years in Europe. TDI techology is nothing new, and it is amazing to me that those engines are so little implemented in the USA. The only examples are the Audi and VW TDI, and some of them get better gas mileage than the electric hybrid vehicles. Why they get so little publicity, and why the electric hybrid gets so much publicity in the US is a mystery to me. Even particle emission are much lower than they used to be.

Aurel

I find it (again) ironic that Audi debuts a new model...new engine..altered/new R8 chassis....enough torque to rotate the earth on its axis...and wins. Speed is much better than its competitors, too.

Porsche.....(finally) produces a high level pure race car in over a decade...even if it's a second tier car ( P2 )... doesn't have "legs" over its Lola competition, and its much smaller engine breaks a half-shaft at the 11th hour.....

I truly believe Porsche has finally turned the big corner...and lost its race-craft big time, never to recover ( at least in racing).

I hope I'm really wrong....

- Wil

I was there yesterday and it's amazing how quiet the Audi is you really have to listen to hear anything. In regards to the Porsche Spyders they were quicker than the Lolas in their class they just had teething problems. A alternator failure is hard to mistake proof from a failure standpoint. I think Porsche is fully behind these spyders and wants to be a success. I also think there are private customers out there( Alex Job ) for example that would do very well with this car. Don't forget the spyders only raced one race last year and it was a sprint race which they won. Sebring is a very tough course and they had some failures,they'll learn and be back. If I recall the #6 Porsche was 8 laps down to the Lola at one point in time and fought back to lead P2 before having a mechanical failure, pretty impressive in my opinion.

"and it is amazing to me that those engines are so little implemented in the USA."

Why is it amazing? The green libs in this country won't let us buy them because they 'pollute too much'. VWofA quit importing TDI's at the end of last year because it had to meet EPA fleet emission standards and couldn't do it by adding more diesels to the tally for 2005. The greenies would rather promote overcomplicated hybrid Toyotas that claim to get 55 MPG but only attain 35 in the real world ....

I drive a TDI. 44MPG real world, 50MPG if I keep my foot out of it. ;)

Also: I agree with Wil. Audi is what Porsche used to be.

If you guys noticed, the best Porsche could do in the marketing dept. was run Cayenne commercials. Nothing about the racing heritage, nothing about the 911, just a Cayenne giving joy rides to 6 years olds at a birthday party. Wil is right, the company will never see the glory days of racing ala 935 & 962.
j.p.

Audi racing = Ferdinand Piech. Still having his prototype fun, to the unnending benefit of us race fans. The question now is will the R8/R10 series hold the mythical status of the 917 some 30 years from now? The gap between them and the competition seems greater than it was between the 917 and its contemporaries. We'll see. I'm sure looking forward to seeing them in Portland later this year.

I agree, the TDI's are wonderful cars. I spent a couple of weeks with one in Germany last summer and it was a hoot. A couple of weeks ago I was driving our Mazda6 (V6) which is no slouch and had a TDI Jetta walk away from me on the 0-60 sprint onto the highway near here. I suspect it was chipped given the smoke though. Unfortunately MA is one of the states that follows CA's lead and doesn't allow new diesel cars to be registered since they apparently just miss the pollution standards. The ironic thing is that it's not the car which is failing the standard, but the higher sulfer content in the US Diesel fuel which is the real culprit. Apparently this is due to the refining process (and the vast infrastructure supporting that process) used in the US versus Europe (cracking versus splitting -- I'll leave it up to the petro-chemists to describe the difference). As I understand it, the use of Bio-Diesel or "Synthetic"-Diesel resolves that problem.

A question for you diesel types out there. If the controlling factor in increasing the rev's of a diesel is the speed at which the fuel can be combusted, wouldn't having 2 injectors per cylinder improve that situation -- much like having 2 spark-plugs in an spark ignited engine allows a reduction in the ignition advance?

I think the USA/Canada will be up to European sulfer content in a couple of years. Not the Green-heads fault, the oil lobby this time working the best deal they could with the Feds.

Well at least Porsche builds one mean SUV!;)

John,

You can spin a diesel faster but it reduces the life of the thing. So the rev limiters are set low.

It is also fun to pull unsupecting drivers on the highway when the lane ahead opens up.

Low sulfer fuel is supposed to be here in 2007. I bet it doesn't happen though.

I predict that the future will be diesel powered electric motors in cars. Just like trains.

Every Prius owner I have talked to only gets 44 mpg. And they say it with a depressed voice.

How diesel-electric propulsion saves fuel
http://ossapowerlite.com/tech_library/fuel_efficiency/fuel_efficiency.htm