Next, eco-racing!

[niky]

Originally Posted by some_other_dave

How about the TDI Audis that have won Le Mans something like seven years in a row? I believe this year's winner was a diesel-battery hybrid, even. And most of the P1 class were hybrids of some kind.

-soD

The first years were Audi taking an advantage of a rule loophole that gave diesels an advantage over gasoline cars. Even now, diesel entries get a near 50% bonus in allowed displacement, bigger intake restrictors and an exemption from the ban on variable geometry turbines. I think they might have lifted the ban on VGTs for gas engines, and they've been making the fuel tanks on diesels smaller over the years, but the other advantages are still there.

An engineer for Audi in a recent interview reckons that they could now build a gasoline LMP that will match the diesel, after the latest rounds of changes, but there's no real incentive to, since the gasoline LMP would still have the economy handicap.

Hybrids are yet another free ticket from the rulebooks, but I haven't studied the rules covering them in detail.

This is not to say that diesels don't belong in racing. They're great in endurance racing, whatever the series.

[gone-ot]

Will I be declared "...the winner..." if I just stay home and thus use absolutely NO fuel what-so-ever?

[some_other_dave]

Originally Posted by niky

The first years were Audi taking an advantage of a rule loophole ....

Very true, but they are still racing. And doing pretty well...

-soD

[niky]

Originally Posted by some_other_dave

Very true, but they are still racing. And doing pretty well...

-soD

Before the R10 program, Audi had back-to-back-to-back-to-infinity wins in LeMans with the R8 program. You're talking about a team that has a hard time losing.

As said: there are still rules advantages for diesels and hybrids. A diesel running at 1:1 specs with the gasoline entries, at 3.5 liters of displacement, would be nowhere near as competitive.