Most Peculiar

[rain_gryphon]

Audi have put their diesel on the pole at Sebring. Strange days indeed.


Edit: And the R10 has to start from the pit lane to replace a heat exchanger, basically goes driving merrily through the lot of them, and motors away to be 4 laps in front at the finish. It's getting to the point of silliness anymore. It's like watching McLaren's CanAm cars in the early 70s.

Comments

I raced a TT once! ;)

[stu-ath.livejournal.com]

Sebring is cool

Re: I raced a TT once! ;)

[xolo.livejournal.com]

Did you race at Sebring?

Re: I raced a TT once! ;)

[stu-ath.livejournal.com]

Brands Hatch it was

Malaysia Quali is go go go

[canadian-beast.livejournal.com]

And why not? The fastest pickup truck in the world is a diesel-powered Dodge Ram pickup, at 222+ mph. Stock bodied and stock block, too, and actually street drivable. It was just a matter of time before Rudolf's clever compression-ignition engine came into its own...

[xolo.livejournal.com]

They're got a history on oval tracks (Freddie Agabashian put a diesel on the pole at Indianapolis in 1952 (http://www.indy500.com/photo/large.php?photo_id=11766&series_id=Array&o=h)) but I never really expected to see one on a road course. My impression of diesels was that the power band was narrow, and acceleration a problem, and that even though the power to weight ratio is quite good, a diesel just plain weighs more than a gasoline engine. On a big oval like Indianapolis, it can be made to work, but I'm just surprised to see it on a road course.

[mahto.livejournal.com]

The Audi R10 is fantastical. Now if only someone would sell a decent small diesel passenger car over here.

[loganberrybunny.livejournal.com]

I thought the diesel VW Golf was sold in the US? That's a pretty good car, as I understand it.

[mahto.livejournal.com]

In Europe perhaps, but the Mexico-derived Golfs and Jettas that are the US domestic product get very mediocre reviews. It's dissapointing, as I am sort of in the market.

[spaceroo.livejournal.com]

I wonder if the diesel Golfs and Beetles are made in Mexico or not. VW has this strange habit of importing the "exotic" versions of their cars from Germany. (Mark IV GTIs were usually European, for instance, despite being the same body as the Mexican/Brazilian Golfs.)

[mahto.livejournal.com]

The Internet tells me that they are assembled in Puebla, Mexico (also where Chrysler builds PT Cruisers IIRC). The Internet also tells me that the engines are built in Poland, so, I don't know.

Either way, the TDIs are gone after this year anyway, so, :)

[xolo.livejournal.com]

The Audi R10 is fantastical.

It's not like the R8 wasn't still handing out comprehensive drubbings to all comers...

[mahto.livejournal.com]

True, but I suppose it's the concept of racing an oilburner that is the fantastical part, or perhaps amusing part.

[derechodragon.livejournal.com]

Good grief! Admittedly I do not follow racing, but I would have never expected anyone to make a diesel that could be put into a competitive racer. I presume this a two-stroke, not a four-stroke with what I would presume to be an insanely high RPM?

[xolo.livejournal.com]

It's a 4 stroke V12. 3000 to 5000RPM is said to be the useful power band. They're claiming to have broken an F1-rated engine dynamometer, because of the massive torque it produces. Audi also makes the interesting statement that the ignition pressures "reach values never before seen in an engine". Sadly, they put filters on the exhaust, so it won't belch out big clouds of black smoke when they get on it.