Audi R8 V12 TDI Le Mans Unveiled

Shut- the hell up.

well said lelu well said

Dude I won't be getting a life for you, since you obviously don't know a thing about sportscars. This car is more than 150kgs heavier than the petrol version, it sounds worse, it doesn't rev, power comes in brutally within a limited margin... all the ingredients that contradict the characteristics of driver's car. I bet all you could do with a sportscar is burnouts in a straight line so I undesrtand your excitement. In other words, this is plain marketing for muscle car fans in the US.

Its a beautiful car, but you may be right...however Merc is on top of the list in terms of adding muscle to all their AMGs

ck314. Those are massive claims you are making. Can I please see the dyno results of just how limited the rev range is, also a nice video of it driving (with sound) would be nice. Oh and could you please enlighten me as to where you found out this car weighs 150kg more? From actually reading the article I see nothing but shaving more weight here and there, but no numbers saying just how much the car gained or lost overall. This shouldn't be hard to do for someone who knows exactly how this car behaves.

Joe_Limon, it's plain logic: if you knew the way a diesel engine works and the way it's built, you'd realize it will never come anywhere near the petrol cars' (V8/V10) rev range (say under best scenario around 5,500 rpm vs 8,200-8,500 rpm @ tacho), and the inherent exhaust note, not to mention the quicker overall response within the engine itself. About the weight increase, I read it on this french magazine at the airport a cpl of weeks ago, not just due to it being an oil burner but because the transmission had to be heavily strengthened to cope with massive torque.

ck - if you've driven a modern European turbo-diesel YOU will realise that they are a greatly satisfying thing. It's not simply about rev range at the top end, they are delivering HUGE dollops of torque at engine speeds that would equate with the idling speed of a petrol engine, so they finish earlier but they are on the pace well before. And experiencing the WAVE of torque is so much fun because it's allied to the right gearing.

lol You must work for VW-Audi for sure. Look, I'm not saying it's going to be a load of crap, I am just saying that using plain logic this heavier engine with more inertia will never match its V8/V10 petrol counterparts in terms of power delivery, sound, handling, and if you claim the opposite you need your head checked. I am not talking about raw power in a straight line, but handling and fun at the wheel, since you apparently don't understand what a true sports car should be. Didn't VW put the Veyron on the road, yet many cheaper and lighter sportscars humilliate it as long as there are some nice curves around. So, yeah, it's a very nice engineering achievement, but no one's gonna buy it but perhaps some extravagant corn farmer in Kansas.

I dont know why you guys are messin with ck. GTR was debating to go with v6 or v8 but they decided to go with v6 to get faster response, better fuel economy, and get a better center of gravity. The only thing this car would be good at is an endurance race, because of the fuel economy. Handling will be better on a petrol and the petrol will be faster after the corners because of the high reving. The diesel has the reving of a truck, unless audi has found a way to find reving on a diesel to go to 7k rpm which I doubt. Plus the cooling system on this car is heavier to accommodate the big diesel. This is why the front air ducts are much bigger on this car than the normal r8. I think clarkson or tiff has to give us the result so that we really know because diesel technology has come up big in the past few years.

It's nothing to do with mentalities, it's about facts and thermodinamics, as M7 said. You're so clueless... if they used the kind of materials seen on the R10 this car would cost more than a Veyron. It's not so much about it being a diesel powered supercar, it's about the drag behind such a monster V12. To clarify further my point, I would have found it much more logical to use the all new 3.0/3.2(?) TDi (V6 biturbo) being developed with Porsche for the upcoming Cayenne Diesel.

facts and thermodynamics say you can get alot more power per liter of fuel from diesel engines then gas engines. Also, if the concept tdi R8 was just released to the public, then how could a magazine you read a month ago have the specs on a car that was just speculated at existing. Unless those specs as well were just speculated.

Well, as I said, it's not so much about quantitative but qualitative power, eventhough you're right about raw fuel efficiency. My point being, modern diesel engines are great in city hatches, big SUV's and even luxury sedans, but they won't kill the gas unanimity within the sportscar segment any time soon. About confidential specs, it was related to the first concept so the final version might well exceed the 150Kgs surplus. Let's say they have some quite good insider info.

I don't think anyone could deny this is an engineering masterpiece statically but, unfortunately, in practice things are different, and the hard facts are that not one single driver enthusiast would pick a heavy V12 diesel in place of the raging petrol V10, or even the sweetly consistent V8. Look at Porsche's approach for the Cayenne diesel in contrast: not only did they refuse this same V12, but even a V8 for the sake of lightness and sportiness, and focussed on building a whole new state of the art, high performance bi-turbo V6.