Stephen/APR

Audi unveil diesel-powered R10

December 13th 2005, 12:00 GMT


Audi have unveiled their new Le Mans 24 Hours contender - and have confirmed that it will the first front-running sportscar to have diesel power.

Expectation of the Audi R10 is high because it is the successor to the all-conquering R8, which won five out of six Le Mans 24 Hours races between 2000 and 2005, taking 61 wins from its 77 races in all. The R10 will be the first Le Mans car aimed at challenging for outright victory with a diesel engine.

Peugeot announced last summer that they are to return to the famous endurance race with a diesel-powered car, however their car will not hit the track until late 2006, with the aim of racing in the 2007 classic.

The new Audi R10 was unveiled in Paris today and has already completed a secret test programme at the end of November. It will make its race debut at the Sebring 12 Hours in March and will then continue testing before entering next summer's race at Le Mans.

The car will be developed by a joint collaboration between Audi Sport and Reinhold Joest's sportscar squad, who performed the work on the R8 project.

Seven-time Le Mans 24 Hour winner Tom Kristensen briefly drove the new Audi R10 today in a closed section of public road in the shadows of the Eiffel Tower close to the Trocadero.

The car looks similar to the R8 but has a longer wheelbase. The engine is new all-aluminium, 5.5-litre, twelve-cylinder bi-turbo TDI engine. It will be quieter and more economical on fuel, which could be a crucial competitive advantage in endurance racing. The German manufacturer estimates that the engine will have 650bhp with more than 1100 Newton Metres of torque, vastly exceeding that of the R8.

The usable power band is unusually low for a racing engine - between 3,000 and 5,000 revs per minute - and the driver will have to change gear less in the R10 than the R8 because of the engine's favourable torque curve. The large torque has meant that engineers have had to design a stronger transmission system, because of unusual forces exerted on the gearing.

"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. Together we have the chance to write new chapters in the history books of motorsport and diesel technology."

Audi executives said that the reason they are entering with a diesel is that their customers would directly benefit from them pioneering the technology at sportscar level.

Professor Dr. Martin Winterkorn, chairman of the board of management of Audi AG said: "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."

Sten HÃ¥rd

<a href="http://www.audi.com/audi/com/en1/experience/motorsport/r10.html">R10 diesel power...</a>

Tanner

Pretty impressive piece of engineering

John Stahmann

It was wierd to see it come by and not make much noise. It sounded like a vacuum cleaner as it drove by.

They ended up retiring early because of gearbox problems. Hopefully Audi has done plenty of strengthening of the gearbox...

JamesWatkins

I can imagine that it might pit less for fuel than petrol cars.

John Stahmann

I'd have to look up the exact stats, but it did have to pit less for fuel.

Of course, that doesn't matter if you have to keep coming in for drivetrain issues....