From Audi Motorsport
The race is just around the corner: on the weekend of June 12 and 13 the Le Mans 24 Hours will be held for the 78th time. Like no other motorsport event, the world's most famous endurance race has always been instrumental in accelerating the technological development of the automobile.
Audi delivered the two most recent technological milestones: the combination of turbocharging and direct injection (TFSI) proved to be unbeatable from 2001 to 2005. In 2006 Audi made worldwide headlines by clinching the first victory of a diesel-powered vehicle at Le Mans. There is no other race at which there is as strong a focus on efficiency, sustainability, fuel economy and the associated reduction of CO2 emissions and innovative powertrain concepts as at Le Mans. In 2010 Audi is bringing a plus in efficiency to the grid: after its third-place finish last year, the first second-generation diesel race sports car, the Audi R15 TDI, was updated in numerous details and trimmed for even higher efficiency. Through numerous modifications the engineers from Audi Sport managed to maintain the power output of the 5.5-liter V10 TDI engine at last year's level despite regulatory restrictions. The complex aerodynamics of the LMP1 sports car that is internally designated as the "R15 plus" has been completely revised and trimmed for top speed. The radiator package has been repositioned. The cockpit is now even more ergonomic than before. And the standard LED headlights from the Audi R8 high-performance sports car, which are used as additional lights on the 2010-specification Audi R15 TDI, now provide even more efficient lighting on the track at night. Since March more than 40,000 test kilometers have been completed with the "R15 plus" in order to leave nothing to chance. The tests included two endurance runs of 30 hours each, aerodynamics tests in the wind tunnel as well as on different race tracks and airfields, simulations on an artificially dirtied race track to simulate the soiling of the radiators, two test races in the Le Mans Series at Le Castellet and Spa-Francorchamps and a final test in Southern France at the end of May during which important final findings were obtained in the areas of aerodynamics, set-up and tire inflation pressures.
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