RE: Diesel-powered Audi wins Le Mans
Monday 19th June 2006
Audi R10: 2006 Le Mans winnerThere can be no doubt about it: diesel is firmly on the motorsport map after the oil-burning no.8 car Audi R10 won the LMP1 class and the 24 Heures du Mans race overall, with Frank Biela, Emanuele Pirro and Marco Werner behind the wheel (not all together you understand). The no. 8 car completed 380 laps.
Diesel-powered Audi wins Le Mans
Historic victory changes the face of motorsport
Audi R10: 2006 Le Mans winner
The sister car no. 7 driven by Dindo Capello, Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish came third. And the face of GT racing will change as a result, as Peugeot has announced that it will field a similar, V12 diesel next year.
The Pescaraolo Sport team's car no.17 came second, four laps behind with Eric Helary, Franck Montagny and Sebastien Loeb driving.
Following a titanic battle in the GT1 class, fourth across the line came the class-winning Corvette Racing's Corvette C6.R no. 64 driven by Oliver Gavin, Olivier Beretta and Jan Magnussen, while Aston Martin Racing's no. 007 DBR9 came second in GT1 with Thomas Enge, Andrea Piccini and Darren Turner. The second DBR9 no. 009 could have won the class had it not been for a clutch problem.
In LMP2, the No.25 RML Lola AER of Thomas Erdos, Mike Newton and Andy Wallace won following fierce attrition -- the Lola led the class for most of the race. Behind it were the No.24 Binnie Motorsports Lola Zytek of William Binnie, Allen Timpany and Yojiro Terada, and the No.27 Miracle Motorsports Courage AER of John Macaluso, Andy Lally and Ian James.
GT2 was won by No.81, Team LNT's Panoz Esperante driven by the all-British team of Tom Kimber-Smith, Richard Dean, and Lawrence Tomlinson. Second place was won by the No.83 Seikel Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 RSR driven by Lars Erik Nielsen, Pierre Ehret, and Domink Farnbacher, which suffered a technical problem that snatched victory away from the leading car.
Discussion
yeah, I was not a fan of this years LeMans in which it was just a show case for the diesels and for some 'aim' for it to be the future of motorsport.
Either have a level playing field with all cars in the class having the same engine capacity, same air restrictions, etc. etc. or not at all.
I've never liked those speed boat things with wheels anyhow and much prefer to watch the GT2 cars such as the Aston's and the Ferrari 550's etc. (well they call it GT1 now, but they are still GT2 to me).
Well done to the british element that was over there!
Either have a level playing field with all cars in the class having the same engine capacity, same air restrictions, etc. etc. or not at all.
I've never liked those speed boat things with wheels anyhow and much prefer to watch the GT2 cars such as the Aston's and the Ferrari 550's etc. (well they call it GT1 now, but they are still GT2 to me).
Well done to the british element that was over there!
Surely Audi just exploited a loophole that favored Diesel powered cars? And surely the same loophole is available to all other teams? Motor sport is all about working right up to the edge of the rules in order to win an advantage and every one of the teams on the grid work this way. If they know what is good for them they will be speaking with their suppliers about going Diesel too. Or accepting their place as best petrol powered competitors.
kudosdude said:
A great result, but it would have been more interesting to see it race with the same intake restrictors (ie 50% smaller) as something like the Pescarolo-Judds, if only to level the playing field a bit (and stop comments such as this)
If the diesels have bigger capacity, more boost, and bigger restrictors (50% as you say but i'm not sure what the official size is) then why wasnt the gap beetween the Diesel Audi and Petrol Pescarolos 50% greater? I think the ruling bodies have come up a spec that has kept the 2 versions fairly close together.
hendry said:
Surely Audi just exploited a loophole that favored Diesel powered cars? And surely the same loophole is available to all other teams? Motor sport is all about working right up to the edge of the rules in order to win an advantage and every one of the teams on the grid work this way. If they know what is good for them they will be speaking with their suppliers about going Diesel too. Or accepting their place as best petrol powered competitors.
Didn't the Pescarolo have air-con (in an open top car, so no need to turn it on) as that ment they could run a bigger air restrictor. Everyone exploits the rules to the maximum possible extent. That is the technological challenge of motorsport surely?
Pete
Hendry you're right of course, the rulebook is always ready to be "interpreted", my point was merely to highlight that the race could have been easily made a closer fight. The R8's nearly always dominated the field, looks like the R10 will do the same. It is a fantastic win for audi, it may even persuade more americans to the dark side.
Quantum-c-c said:
Diesel car wins le mans , whatever next , wont be long and their will be female racing drivers ........................lol
Biodiesel car wins le-mans
Powercell car wins Le-mans
Hydrogeen car wins le-mans
Gas(lpg or home-gas) car wins Le-mans
Elecktric car wins Le-mans
In the early days it was more fare though...read this...
Flinstone car wins Le-mans see picture
JabadabadooOOOooOoooo
GTRene
Edited by GTRene on Monday 19th June 14:07
Was at the race. IMHO as well as the visual there is a big sensory element in racing. The Vettes sound great, the Panoz thundered and then the Audi looked great but sadly sounded like a wet beer fart. I have to say if the pugs car is quiet I shall give LM07 a miss, does anyone else agree??
off_again said:
Couldnt watch it on subscription TV so had to resort to web news and Crash.net radio. But everyone kept going on about how quiet the Audi was.... anyone who was there care to elaborate?
It was surreal....I watched it at many different points on the circuit...Dunlop Bridge, Tetre Rouge, Mulsanne Corner, Indiananpolis, Arnage and at the Porsche Curves...and it was like hearing a high performance golf kart go by.
I really hope they persist with fossil fuels as long a possible...it would become too sterile and no noise. 
Don't 'alf handle well though...like *hit to a blanket. yeah but was it a superior car though? it won the race yes but because they were allowed to run a different spec which gave it more torque.
If you put a normal apriated 3L petrol engine up against a 3L normal aspirated diesel in the same weighted car then which do you think would win?
Lots of people say that diesels are catching up with petrols in terms of performance but they are still miles behind. Petrol engines have become much more efficient and poewerful and so have diesels... but diesels nearly always have to be turbo charged to compete with the same non-turbo equivalent capacity petrol engine.
If you put a normal apriated 3L petrol engine up against a 3L normal aspirated diesel in the same weighted car then which do you think would win?
Lots of people say that diesels are catching up with petrols in terms of performance but they are still miles behind. Petrol engines have become much more efficient and poewerful and so have diesels... but diesels nearly always have to be turbo charged to compete with the same non-turbo equivalent capacity petrol engine.
... exactly my point: same rules for all (and Diesel stinks BTW!)
But don't forget this: Diesel enginges (and especially turbochard ones) are much more efficient under partial load than petrol engines. This will give them an advantage over petrol ones on wet or "slow" tracks, where the drivers don't burry the throttle all the time.
But don't forget this: Diesel enginges (and especially turbochard ones) are much more efficient under partial load than petrol engines. This will give them an advantage over petrol ones on wet or "slow" tracks, where the drivers don't burry the throttle all the time.
While the performance has to be respected and shows almost anything can be made to win with serious investments, diesel has brought no further enthusiasm to endurance racing. The R8 already sounded pretty dull and performed undramatically. They're as sexy as a Maths equation taken from an old university book.
I suppose organizers had little clue how the Audi would perform, hence the relatively minor restrictions made to the engine. Hopefully things will be tied up next year and the *diseasel* won't spread much further, unless serial diesel maker Peugeot adds its grain of salt ...
I am looking forward to 2010 when open cars will be banned.
As much as I loathe Formula 1 we need similar drastic restrictions to bring back some actual Sport to endurance racing.
I suppose organizers had little clue how the Audi would perform, hence the relatively minor restrictions made to the engine. Hopefully things will be tied up next year and the *diseasel* won't spread much further, unless serial diesel maker Peugeot adds its grain of salt ...
I am looking forward to 2010 when open cars will be banned.
As much as I loathe Formula 1 we need similar drastic restrictions to bring back some actual Sport to endurance racing.
See those reps in there TDis are the fastest in all the land 
. I am not sure of the regs in sportscar racing so I couldnt comment but it seems the Audi's do have some kind of advantage but to say they should have been 50% quicker as someone did? What? If thats 50% a lap quicker, even an F1 car couldnt manage that. Le Mans suits the charecteristics of the R10 due to the lonnnnggggg straights and of course there frugality with fuel use. However worth remembering in the USA ALMS series the R10s havent had it all there own way being beaten at one of the more twisty tracks resoundly by the Porsche RS Spyders which are in a lower class. So there 
. I am not sure of the regs in sportscar racing so I couldnt comment but it seems the Audi's do have some kind of advantage but to say they should have been 50% quicker as someone did? What? If thats 50% a lap quicker, even an F1 car couldnt manage that. Le Mans suits the charecteristics of the R10 due to the lonnnnggggg straights and of course there frugality with fuel use. However worth remembering in the USA ALMS series the R10s havent had it all there own way being beaten at one of the more twisty tracks resoundly by the Porsche RS Spyders which are in a lower class. So there To those who say that the diesels should be restricted to the same capacity/restrictors etc as the petrol engines, consider what would happen if that were applied across the board. In particular, imagine what would happen if by the same token a 3L turbocharged two stroke were allowed. Or a 3L turnbocharged wankel rotary?
That's way too simplistic a way to compare engines. Clearly the diesels demonstrated massive advantage over the petrol cars (though much of that was due to having less fuel stops, not just quicker lap times). A bit of tweaking of the rules maybe to level the playing field a little, but are they going to artificially restrict the diesels to the point where there laps times are necessarily slower than a petrol car, to compensate for the better economy of the diesel?
I seriously doubt it. They may restrict the engines to the point that the diesel would be lapping at the same speeds as the petrol cars, but the diesels will still win be virtue of staying out on the track longer. Which is the way you win endurance races after all.
That's way too simplistic a way to compare engines. Clearly the diesels demonstrated massive advantage over the petrol cars (though much of that was due to having less fuel stops, not just quicker lap times). A bit of tweaking of the rules maybe to level the playing field a little, but are they going to artificially restrict the diesels to the point where there laps times are necessarily slower than a petrol car, to compensate for the better economy of the diesel?
I seriously doubt it. They may restrict the engines to the point that the diesel would be lapping at the same speeds as the petrol cars, but the diesels will still win be virtue of staying out on the track longer. Which is the way you win endurance races after all.
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