What a race! I didn't see you in the pits but congrats to you Laurent and your team this evening!!!

I can't believe how quite the turbo diesels are...

That's the same thing everyone says. I saw them at the Sebring 12 hour race last year and they were amazing. All you hear is the whoosh of the car going by.

I heard the car in the paddock at the Detroit GP while they were warming it up and it sounded like high speed jack hammers...very loud...I was equally surprised to hear how quiet they were once on the track...

technology not of this world...


I'm just sayin...

Thanks guys, I just got home yesterday and finished a well earned 15 hours sleep. This was the toughest race week I can remember. We crashed car 2 (bad) on Thursday 1st practice, then car 1 and 2 again on Friday in the rain, car2 (bad) and car 1(nose) again in the race. Car 2 got pole Saturday but lost it for driver change after Emanuelle Pirro was pulled out for medical reason (concussion from his crash on Thursday), just before the warm up. That gave me 2 hrs to make a seat for Lucas Lhur which was finished on the grid . Had to rebuild a nose from 2 crashed ones during the race, between pit stops, as we were out of spares!!!. We won the 10hr race by .9 of a second! Considering the size of the pile of junked carbon fiber on Monday morning it must have been the most expensive .9 second in history .

The banging noise that you hear at start up comes from the cold gear box, it is designed very loose and tightens up at operating temp. Straight cut gears are noisy but usually the engine noise overwhelms the gear box noise, not the case with the Diesel. You should have seen our faces the 1st time we heard this racket .

Those are gear noises!?!?! Wow

I can't believe how the TDI just pulls out of sight of the Porsche once they got onto the straights...

You made a seat from scratch in 2 hours? You must have some impressive support equipment in the garage. I won't forget when they pioneered the removable entire rear end assembly. It was amazing seeign how quickly they could get back into action.

Is there anything Audi can't do during a race?

Yep gear box , but it gets quieter under load ( wheels on the ground) and at temp!
Torque is every thing!! but did you see how fast they can catch up under braking? Our 300 extra Kilos didn't help there! As some famed Lotus designer once said: If you want speed in the straight, add Horsepower. If you want power everywhere add lightness! We are competing against a car from another class, with I believe equal HP and 330 kg of lightness

We try ed to make a foam sit, Lucas didn't like it, so we scratched that and hacked into Emanuele's sit on the grid to lower Lucas to the proper hight then Marco's seat insert (built to fit in emanuale's sit didn't fit) so both drivers ended up pretty banged up after the race.

Audi can do everything at the track, but predicting yellow flags! And even now that we cannot change the rear end in 3 minute 17 seconds, (rules change) we can replace the gears cluster in under 7 minutes on the new box

That was a great finish Saturday. What was that...8 straight wins for Audi at Petit LeMans? What a record. I must say I was disappointed to see that last yellow as that just made it too easy for you guys!

It didn't make it easy, just possible ,but the previous yellow and wave-by put them back on the same lap as us as they where a lap behind at the time and passed us in the pits durring the next pit stop. So we both got help from yellows . Just racing.

I was wondering how they got that lap back. The broadcast was confusing. I wish they would occasionally list the overall positions of the cars instead of always listing by class.

Whats the LEDs in the upper left of this picture for?


(Photo © 2007, John Thawley ~ Creative Communications Group. All rights reserved.)

interface with the mother ship

badoom... ching!

2 points for tuls.

WOW- We're way off topic here...

I just revisited this post to see if there's anything new with rear seat deletes & all I see is 3 pages about Audi race cars.

LEDs above the fuel dry lock are there for the fueler to know when to pullout. The pic shows a full tank. The 2 colors are for day or night vision. And yes Tuls, it is, at some point, related to a conection to the mather ship. Five points!

I drove my car up to Atlanta with our trucks and left it there, so after the last race in Laguna I and 3 of our guys on crotch rockets will fly back to ALT and get a test of the DRAGON . Can't wait!!!! Finlay!! And maybe the Skyway too .

Note on the RSD, I designed the thing for 200 lbs load and during last week had the oportuninty to test it when I had to bring the 3 rocket riders back to the tack, 2 of them back there on the RSD. One of them is a rugby player, 6ft+ and over 200lb the other is smaller maybe 170lb. I was waiting for the crushing sound of CF, but it never came during the 45 minute ride over very rural roads. Damned! I over build the thing!!!!

Who started this Audi diversion??? Si.i.id

Thanks

There are some great pics and an excellent writeup of the event in the weeks AutoExtremist. Scroll down to "The Line"

hmmm...trying to get mind out of gutter...

What are the three round LEDs on the sides of all of the race cars...they flash alternately during warm up laps then set to either one, two, three or none...we were guessing they were class position markers?

correct!

Lucky guess...

So when are we invited to go check out a race and the cars with special "backstage" passes??

Carbonized, weren't you going to make a rear diffuser? Anything happening with that?

Personal escort by Mr Carbonized himself!

I wouldn't mind working with Laurent on the rear diffuser...

Diffuser (think drooling) I can't wait

Haaa!! rear diffuser... I just got a PM from a NAM member working on it too, I know Sid is working on it, and I've been brain-storming on that subject for a couple of years. The problem for me is that I work everyday with the device and I have learned the intricacies of it's effect on a car. I don't know about you guys, but I would not install any non-operational, counterproductive, and potentially dangerous parts on my car . I am not an aerodynamicist by any means, but I love the subject ( my old sailboat days), so I research things before the jump and that's the stage I am still at, right now. Diffusers are down force devices. Does this car need down force? Where, front or rear? How much? What effect will it have on handling? At what speed? What are the side effects? Downsides (nothing is free in aero dynamic)? And a bunch of other ????. Our car is front wheel drive and mostly "pushy"(under steer). Logic would tell that we need D.F. (down force) mostly at the front, to help with traction, grip in turns and braking. There is a way to increase front D.F. from the rear diffuser but that require a real front splitter, not just the blades currently on the market. The rear diffuser is an air pump, at speed most of that air comes from the front of the car. A well designed diffuser works by increasing air velocity UNDER the front splitter (or wing) thus creating a low pressure area therefore D.F. at the front. Also it's natural rear D.F. effect can and will be acting on any rear wing above it, maybe creating more D.F. there that you might want, or stalling the wing, or dragging like an s.o.b. . It's a real balancing act, and getting it wrong can have serious repercussions on handling.
My first idea involving a diffuser was to get rid of the rear bumper drag, I hate the idea of dragging that parachute behind me. The diffuser seamed at the time the way to go. But as I researched and learned (real time)It became obvious that it could do more harm than good if not properly engineered (as the "inventors"(Jaguar) of the diffuser found out the hard way).
I still do not see any solution on getting rid of the rear bumper drag, other than a diffuser but it will, in my mind, have to be paired with an efficient front splitter .
Sorry for the long Blablabla' I hope I could relate how I feel about the subject. And no offense to those who willing to put any "ricy" parts on their car , it is just not my way .

Ah but I do have a need Laurent...My Mini has a splitter up front and my suspension setup is tuned to be neutral with throttle lift oversteer when necessary...I've been avoiding placing a top mounted wing for fear of going over the top (ha ha) and would very much like a stealthy under bumper DF device...I think due to practical constraints such two mufflers and a battery box, I still can design a diffuser similar to this highly over priced version sold in Japan which, although not 100% efficient, might still manage some degree of function...

My thoughts are to extend the trailing edge of the diffuser up farther and through the lower black trim...with aluminum, the shape would be limited to this example but hell, I know you can do anything with CF Laurent...

I'll work on a 3D model since I have the scan then send it to you for a look see...