Audi R15 TDI

[Wouter Melissen]

Audi just released the first 'official' image:

2009 Audi R15 TDI - Images, Specifications and Information

It certainly deserves a thread of its own.

[LeonOfTheDead]

it seems to be retaining only the shape of the two roll bars behind the driver from the R10.
I just hope more contenders will face this car during its career, I hated the R8 just for the lack of competition to demonstrate it was good, even if I know it was that good.
looking forward fir more infos.

[Rasmus]

Sort of reminds me of a severely angry and monstrously fast duck-billed platypus.

Def looking forward to seeing how it'll fare against the rest. The R8 almost, almost made me a fan.

[RacingManiac]

I wish there were more clear pic like that one....with one from the back or something....

certainly looks interesting...I am wondering what the air intake from the side just right infront of the rear wheel is for. Seeing how the turbo intake kinda pokes out on an angle from closer to the center of the car, that leads me to think that intake(or more like a passage) is part of the air management rather than any sort of cooling. I am guessing its an extreme version of how Lola does the wake-infill thing from their LMP 2 car....it would explain I think why the engine cover is layered....

[f6fhellcat13]

I see a bit of Renault F1 in the nose.
I am also looking forward to seeing it race.
Are the pitot tubes and antennae (or whatever they are) in front of the cockpit only for testing prototypes?

[RacingManiac]

a lot of the cars runs with them in the race, I remember Prodrive used to run their 550/DBR9 with them during the race.

btw, here is to hoping they make a R15 version of that video with time lapse of putting the car together...

[cmcpokey]

I see a bit of Renault F1 in the nose.
I am also looking forward to seeing it race.
Are the pitot tubes and antennae (or whatever they are) in front of the cockpit only for testing prototypes?

that goes into the telemetry, so they can analyze the airflow in race so they can make any necessary modifications to the aero package.

[Zytek_Fan]

I can see the point of the angled intake now. Its grabbing the accelerated air coming off the fenders.

And I noticed something interesting, those metal clips (red) for some form of adjustment and the nose pylons appear to have an upright wing shape to them (blue).

[Dantera22B]

More importantly, this is uglier than the R10 which was uglier than the R8.

[RacingManiac]

I can see the point of the angled intake now. Its grabbing the accelerated air coming off the fenders.

And I noticed something interesting, those metal clips (red) for some form of adjustment and the nose pylons appear to have an upright wing shape to them (blue).

That is a good find....it looks like an adjustable flap.....

[Kitdy]

Here's a pic from Andy B's site and Mulsanne Mike's page.

[W.R.]

Pah! Diesel; winning due to unfair advantage since 2006. Absolutely ghastly.

[henk4]

Pah! Diesel; winning due to unfair advantage since 2006. Absolutely ghastly.

winning since it was entered by the two only real factory teams (with corresponding budgets) since 2006. (Like the R8 was winning before the R10).

[JRodrigues]

winning since it was entered by the two only real factory teams (with corresponding budgets) since 2006. (Like the R8 was winning before the R10).

Finally someone with sense...

[Chernaudi]

And why was the Audi R8 so dominant? It was designed to take on the likes of Toyota, BMW, and Mercedes Benz at Le Mans. So what happened? Toyota bolted for F1, M-B, after LM '99 ditched plans to run the CLRs in the ALMS after the blow over accidents(which has lead us to the horrible LMP areo rules), BMW did a lame duck year in the ALMS(most of BMW motorsport's budget was spent on Williams, and now Saulber(spelling)). That left for 2000 at Le Mans only a private 1998-spec BMW LMP, Pescarolo with half-hearted support from Peugeot, and Panoz in the ALMS and at Le Mans with equally half-hearted support from Ford.

And even when the R8 was run by privateers, there were at least an Audi engine and chassis/areo guy helping out with set-up info. Granted, Joest had a ton of Audi personell with the R8 and R10, and Champion only had 4 in 2008(probably a similar or lesser number during the R8 days), when you have the support of a factory slung behind you, and the rest have only half hearted, half baked support, or none at all, what does one expect to happen in a series such as the ALMS, which is about as close to formula libre as you're gonna get today?