The ACO rules obviously favor diesels in P1. Full details of smaller fuel tanks for them will be announced later this month. Peugeot will show their 700+ hp diesel-powered P1 later this month.

http://www.eemsonline.co.uk/news/14-07-06_20

Max displacement for a turbocharged diesel-powered P1: 5.5 liters

Max displacement for a turbocharged gasoline-powered P1: 4.0 liters

A look back at turbine engines at Indy

The following is from the September/October, 2006 issue of AUTO Aficionado:

"There's no doubt the Audi's technical achievment, in winning with their specially designed and built diesel V-12, was a stunning victory, but it brought to mind the first use of turbine engines at the Indy 500. The whooshmobiles were incredibly fast and there was no doubt that if permitted to continue in that USAC series, they would have overwhelmed the piston-engined racers. The problem was that turbines were a clever technical novelty and should never have been allowed to run at Indy. Sure, one has to applaud the innovation of technical achievement but not at the expense of the entire series. The turbines were almost silent, much like the Audi R10 diesels, and thus almost as interesting to watch as traffic on the freeway.

Even if Pescarolo had matched the Audi's speed, there's no way the French cars could have won as the diesel's superiority in mileage gave them the edge, just as the direct gasoline injection Audi R8s did for four years over every other constructor at Le Mans [Team LNT's GT2 Panoz had the fewest stops of any car at Le Mans this year]. The Indy officials, seeing the threat in having the whole field of piston-engined cars immediately become obsolete, banned the turbines and saved millions of dollars for the entrants who would have had to scrap their old cars to compete.

The present situation in France is far more difficult as it now would be immpossible to ban the diesels because the French, in formulating the new rules to include diesels, thought that Peugeot would immediatley develop a diesel that would bring victory and glory to France."

How Gas Turbine Engines work:

http://science.howstuffworks.com/turbine3.htm

IMSA changes for R10 TDIs in ALMS

July 14th news

http://www.americanlemans.com/News/Article.aspx?ID=2276

"The current regulations permit the same 90-liter tank on both diesel and gasoline cars but permit the larger restrictor on the refueling rig of diesel cars because of the different viscosities of the fuel."

IMSA changed the flow rate on Audi's refueling rigs by around 13 %.

 

I say bravo to Audi for building the R8. Diesel technology is actually used in street vehicles, so I say force the other makers to play catch up.

 

Er, R10 there, Bubby?

 

Actually the R8 too! They took endurance racing to a whole new level with the R8.

 

True, but the needs of a racing diesel engine is far different from production diesel engines.

Dallara builds the R10's chassis.

The Audi R10 project costs Audi €70 Million per year according to the April, 2006 issue of Sport Auto (German car magazine).

On 8-21-2006 00:40:33 UTC, that equated to $89,856,196.77 USD.

Privateers currently make up the majority of P1 and P2 fields in ALMS and LMS.

Remember Audi's threat to leave ALMS a month or so ago?

Check news from 8-13-2006

http://www.mulsannescorner.com/news.html

 

I'm with Colin. This technology has real world application and is very cool. Watching the R10s at Road America a couple of weeks ago was incredible. Also, I've always been a Peugeot fan. I hope they get back into road racing no matter what fuel they use.

 

Me three. Force the others to catch up. Audi developed some very innovative technology and they should reap the rewards.

Have you seen the video of that engine on their website? Impressive design elements.

 

First of all I applaud Audi on a great achievement with the R10. I think it is cool that they tried something new and didn't just do a minor update to make the R8 meet the new rules.

That said, what I see as the main problems with diesels in LMP is that none of the current privateer engine providers build them (Judd, AER, Cosworth, etc). With Peugeot entering the mix with a diesel and the current ACO rules greatly favoring diesels, down to the increased size of the refueling equipment, I wonder if there will be any room left for privateer teams in any other class than GT2 at
Lemans. Even if the race engine suppliers dedicated all of their resources to building diesel engines I doubt they would be able to compete with Audi unless they had heavy factory backing from someone. So the diesel favored rules seriously screw the private teams in LMP1, and these private teams historically make up 70-80% of the grid in LMP1. With Penske Porsches and Factory backed Hondas racing in LMP2 in the future these teams are going to have a hard time being competitive in any kind of prototype.

As far as what should be done, I think the diesel rules need to be revised for next year so they don't give such an advantage over a gasoliine engine. Audi has won Lemans with the current rules so they've gotten some return on their investment and it has been proven that diesels can win- now the playing field should be leveled a bit more. If the rules stay as is then the ACO needs to do something to develop a diesel engine supplier for privateers.

 

I'd like to see this in ALMS...

(1,000 km of Donington...Pescarolo completed 1,000 km before the 6 hour limit was over which was the first time that has happened in the LMS)

http://www.xynamic.com/gallery/displ...lbum=32&pos=15

not just this

http://www.americanlemans.com/Galler...0610524562.JPG

 

Privateers versus factory race programs end up with factory win most of the time. No surprise here.

The ACO designed the rules to favor diesels and when a German team comes up with a dominating engine they want to "equalize" the field. Nice.

 

What if Peugeot's P1 dominates?

 

Why should others catch up to make a boring-sounding engine?

 

All you hear is the wind as the R10 flies by you!

 

Because it pushes diesel technology ahead. Why should we continue to invest in a fuel technology which is inferior?

 

The engines purpose is not to "sound cool." That is just an awesome side-effect of most gas race engines