Audi wins Le Mans. 5000rpm at a time.

[SGladwell]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...s&refer=europe

Discuss.

 

[skalogre]

Good news. More exposure (if limited) for clean diesel technologies in the NA market.

 

[imageWIS]

Nice.

Jon.

 

[Mr. Checks]

Don't wanna talk about it. Missed the whole thing...

I have to go once before I die.

 

[imageWIS]

Originally Posted by Mr. Checks

Don't wanna talk about it. Missed the whole thing...

I have to go once before I die.

I saw the start of the race on Speed TV, but I missed both night into day AND the finish (damn it). They are changing the rules for the P1 class, so in the future all the cars are going to have to be coupes and not roadsters. Apparently they think this brings the cars "˜closer' to production cars somehow and that the public perception is that Lemans cars look more like road-going cars if the Lemans cars are coupes...

Jon.

 

[Kai]

I watched a good part of the race on Speed TV.

The amount of r&d that went into that Audi was pretty staggering. They really wanted to win and made the investment to get there. I can't imagine how much money they spent on this race.

In the end, however, I don't really care much about the prototype classes. I find the GT races much more interesting.

American teams did pretty well. Corvette won GT1, and Panoz won GT2.

I kind of feel sorry for the Aston Martin guys. How many times in a row is it now that they suffered mechanical issues at the end of the race? They just can't seem to keep their cars together for the full 24 hours. If it was the 20 hours of Lemans, they, (and not Corvette) would have several consecutive wins under their belt.

 

[imageWIS]

Originally Posted by Kai

I watched a good part of the race on Speed TV. The amount of r&d that went into that Audi was pretty staggering. They really wanted to win and made the investment to get there. I can't imagine how much money they spent on this race. In the end, however, I don't really care much about the prototype classes. I find the GT races much more interesting. American teams did pretty well. Corvette won GT1, and Panoz won GT2. I kind of feel sorry for the Aston Martin guys. How many times in a row is it now that they suffered mechanical issues at the end of the race? They just can't seem to keep their cars together for the full 24 hours. If it was the 20 hours of Lemans, they, (and not Corvette) would have several consecutive wins under their belt.
Best team ever I think was the McLaren F1 (GTR) team…by god they were good. Jon.

 

[Brian SD]

Very nice! Something related: the Mechanical Engineering department at my school managed to make a Diesel/Electric hybrid car that hits 0-60 in 4-5 seconds and gets 70 mpg.

 

[skalogre]

The VW group needs to get back in the WRC with diesels. Preferably what used to be called Group N...

 

[imageWIS]

Originally Posted by Brian SD

Very nice! Something related: the Mechanical Engineering department at my school managed to make a Diesel/Electric hybrid car that hits 0-60 in 4-5 seconds and gets 70 mpg.

How much did it weigh?

Jon.

 

[Brian SD]

Originally Posted by imageWIS

How much did it weigh?

Jon.

My guess is somewhere around 2500 lbs. It's a two-seater, though I heard that UPS contracted them for the engine, so they're making it powerful enough to pull the delivery trucks. It's pretty cool, it looks like a little porsche.

 

[imageWIS]

Originally Posted by Brian SD

My guess is somewhere around 2500 lbs. It's a two-seater, though I heard that UPS contracted them for the engine, so they're making it powerful enough to pull the delivery trucks. It's pretty cool, it looks like a little porsche.

Interesting. Got any pics?

Jon.

 

[Brian SD]

I can't find any good photos. Here is their old website: http://www.engineering.sdsu.edu/~hev/ It's incredibly out of date, though. The project has been going for longer.