Audi TDI Power helps overtaking

Three races, two wins: The results of the Audi R10 TDI in the 2008 American Le Mans Series 2008 are impressive. Boosted by two overall victories on the street circuits in St Petersburg and Long Beach, the Audi Sport North America team comes as championship leaders to Salt Lake City, Utah, where Audi’s diesel sportscar has already played a leading roll twice.

Emanuele Pirro in particular made the headlines in the previous two years. In 2006, the Italian kept Lucas Luhr, at that time sill at the wheel of a lighter LM P2 Porsche, at bay during the dramatic closing stages and crossed the finish line as winner by a mere 0.318 seconds. Pirro managed quite probably the most spectacular start of the year at Miller Motorsports Park in 2007: Starting in eighth position with the Audi R10 TDI, he stormed into the lead before the first corner after overtaking every competitor, who had started in front of him, on the long start-finish straight.

The sensational manoeuvre was viewed frequently on many Internet based video portals afterwards. It was yet another impressive demonstration of the performance of Audi TDI Technology, which is long since established in Europe and is also launched on the American market at the end of 2008. The Audi R10 TDI, which is known as the "whispering revolution" in the USA because of its quiet engine, heralds Audi’s diesel offensive on the US market.

The more than 650 hp V12 TDI engine powering the Audi R10 TDI provides its drivers with the same advantages that a TDI engine has in a road going Audi: reduced consumption, a pleasant low background noise and enormous torque which is available spontaneously.

The V12 TDI engine produces more than 1,110 Newton metres of torque, against which no other competitor has anything comparable to offer in the American Le Mans Series. At the start or during a re-start after a full-course yellow the Audi drivers always have a good chance of overtaking cars in front under acceleration thanks to TDI Power – just as Emanuele Pirro succeeded in doing at Salt Lake City last year or, more recently, as Lucas Luhr and Marco Werner demonstrated to win in St Petersburg and Long Beach.

The race at Miller Motorsports Park is one of two races in the American Le Mans Series which are not held on a Saturday but on Sunday (18 May). It runs for the duration of two hours 45 minutes. The start is at 1:05 p.m. local time. SPEED broadcasts live in the USA, Motors TV in Europe.