Concept Car Auto: February 2010

Saturday 27 February 2010

Audi unveiled the new R10

It's official - Audi will become the first manufacturer to compete for the overall victory with a diesel engine at the most famous sportscar race in the world - the 24 hours of Le Mans.

Audi unveiled the new R10, its successor to the brilliant R8, today in Paris. The engine is a marvel - a 5.5-liter, all-aluminum v12 twin-turbo TDI. It develops 650 hp and more than 1,100 Nm torque - more power than the R8.

The best news, especially for North American motorsports fans? The R10 will make its competition debut at the 12 hours of Sebring in March. In the picutre above, a smiling Tom Kristensen (a multiple Le Mans winner in the R8) seems pretty happy with his new ride.

Truly a ground-breaking machine. Full press release after the jump.

Audi R10 world premiere in Paris:
V12 TDI engine produces over 650 hp
First test successfully completed

AUDI AG is once again one step ahead of the opposition: The inventor of �TDI� will become the world�s first automobile manufacturer to fight for overall victory with a diesel engine at the famous 24 Hours of Le Mans. The all-new Audi R10, which was unveiled on Tuesday in Paris, is powered by a totally new 5.5-litre, twelve-cylinder bi-turbo TDI engine, which is extremely quiet and economical.

The Le Mans Prototype, with over 650 hp and more than 1,100 Newton metres torque, significantly exceeds the power produced by the majority of previous Audi racing cars � including that of its victorious R8 predecessor. Audi ventures into previously unexplored diesel-engine terrain with the V12 power plant manufactured completely from aluminium. As with the TFSI technology, which triumphed initially at Le Mans before being adopted for mass-production, Audi customers should benefit once again from the lessons learnt in motorsport.

�With the A8 4.2 TDI quattro, Audi already builds one of the most powerful diesel cars in the world,� explained Prof Dr Martin Winterkorn, Chairman of the Board of Management of AUDI AG, at the R10 presentation in Paris. �The Le Mans project will help our technicians to extract even more from TDI technology. Nowadays, every second Audi is delivered with a TDI engine. We expect that the percentage of diesel engines will be even larger in the future.�

The R10 prototype�s V12 power unit, which is equipped with two diesel particle filters, is hardly recognisable as a diesel thanks to the engine�s smooth running nature. The TDI engine�s specialities presented the Audi Sport engineers with a whole list of challenges. The injection pressure easily exceeds the 1,600 bar achieved in production cars. The usable power band lies between 3,000 and 5,000 revs per minute � an unusually low rev range for a racing engine. The driver must change gear in the R10 far less often than in the R8 because of the TDI engine�s favourable torque curve.

The enormous torque of over 1,100 Newton metres does not only make extreme demands of the R10 transmission system � even the latest generation of engine dynamometers at Audi Sport had to be re-equipped with special gearboxes capable of withstanding the unusual forces.

Additionally, radical changes to the chassis were also necessary. The Audi R10 has a significantly longer wheel base than the R8. The overly wide front tyres are, up until now, unique for a Le Mans Prototype. New technologies were also implemented during the development of the carbon-fibre monocoque. Chassis, engine and gearbox form an extremely rigid, fully stressed unit.

�The R10 project is the biggest challenge ever to have been handed to Audi Sport,� said Head of Audi Motorsport Dr Wolfgang Ullrich. �TDI technology has not been pushed to its limits in motorsport yet. We are the first to confront the challenge. The demands of such a project are accordingly high. Long-term technology partners such as Bosch, Michelin or Shell support us in our quest. Together we have the chance to write new chapters in the history books of motorsport and diesel technology.�

The new Audi R10 successfully completed its first test at the end of November. An extensive test programme, including the 12-hour race at Sebring (USA) on 18 March, is scheduled before the 24 Hours of Le Mans on 17/18 June 2006. The development team from Audi Sport is supported by Reinhold Joest�s squad, which also performed this task during the R8 project.

Audi R10 TDi is derived from the successful Audi R8,

he Audi R10 TDi is derived from the successful Audi R8, but equipped with a diesel engine. That engine develops officially 650 bhp, but it's generally expected that power is over the 700 bhp, thus slightly higher than that of the Peugeot 908 Hdi FAP. Motor bloc is in aluminium and equipped with a to Garrett turbos, injecting diesel directly. Respecting the ACO rules concerning the brides a maximal pressure of 2.94 bar can be reached at 5000 rpm. Handicap of the motor is (just as on the Peugeot 908 using also a diesel engine) it's weight around 200 kg. That's e.g. 70 kg more than the Judd fuel motor. Wolfgang Appel, responsible for technological progress at Audi, announced already by the end of 2005 that the German make had the intention to win the Le Mans 24 hours with a diesel motor, something that never happened before (despite the fact that already in 1949 and 1950 the Delletrez Bros tried to win Le Mans with a diesel engine: they never reached the finish due to overheating problems). The V12 motor development went under control of Ulrich Baretsky. There can be no doubt that the diesel motor was already under construction early 2005, and certainly not by December, because Audi came in March 2006 to Sebring with two reliable R10s. Chassis was still of the honeycomb type and body of carbon fibre, very similar with the extreme-ly successful R8. Although Wolfgang Ulrich announced early 2004 that Audi had decided to retire from competition, and that it should its cars let being raced by privateers, the whole 2005 season was used to prepare the new R10 TDi.

RESULTS 2006 - First race outing of the R10 TDi was on March 17-18, 2006 at the famous Sebring 12 hours. Nobody expected that one of the two brand new cars should be able to win already at their first show such a difficult race as the one on the former airfield. The #2 realised the pole on setting a new track record. Allan Mc Nish, Rinaldo Capelli and Tom Kristensen dominated the race from start to finish with their extremely silent R10. The other car went out with overheating problems.

Sebring was the first round out of ten of the AMLS. The three following rounds were disputed with the old R8 (having won two of them). The six following rounds were all won by the new R10 Tdi: five times by McNish/Capello/Kristensen and once by Biela /Pirro/Werner. That made a total of nine victories on ten AMLS outings. The most important race of 2006 was of course the Le Mans 24 hours at La Sarthe. It was the first open confrontation of the diesel powered race car with the famous Pescarolo Judd C60. At the European LMS over five rounds the #17 Pescarolo, shared by Jean-Christophe Bouillon and Emmanuel Collar won them all five. Enough to say that good old Henri Pescarolo had reasons enough to believe that an all-French car should win the 74th edition of the Le Mans 24 hours. At the test day on June 2006 the fastest Pescarolo C60 Judd headed the fastest Audi R10 TDi by nearly two seconds, and the second fastest Pescarolo C60 headed the second fastest Audi R10 Tdi by one second. So hope seemed justified that Pescarolo was able to beat the German works team. At the eventual qualifications, however, it became obvious that the Audis could go a lot faster than they did two weeks earlier. Indeed they realised the two first places on the grid, followed at two seconds by the two Pescarolos C60. Drama however at the warm-up, just before the race, when McNish has no more transmission on the Audi #7. Now the two Pescarolos were fastest. But at the start of the eventual race McNish was pulling away. After one hour of racing the #7 was leading the #16 Pescarolo C60 by 11 seconds. The #8 was third, seven seconds down. During the second hour both Audis were much too fast for the French cars. After 3 hours of racing the #7 had 43 seconds in hand over the #8, with the #16 Pescarolo already at 1'57". Drama however after 3h 19 min. of racing, when the #7 came into the pit to let replace the injectors at the right bank of its V12. Six laps are lost and the two Pescarolos are now second and third. Once repaired the #7 flies over the track, setting a new lap record during the race. After six hours of racing the first Pescarolo limps already two full laps behind the #8 Audi R10 TDi.

Eventually Audi will win for the sixth time in seven years the Le Mans 24 hours. Henri Pescarolo, however can be proud that he finished second at four laps, and ahead of the #7 Audi finishing third. With eight wins on nine outings the R10 TDi is the best prototype of the year.

RFESULTS 2007 - This year two Audi R10 TDi prototypes will be raced at the rounds of the AMLS (now twelve instead of ten last year) and a third car, entered by Reinhold Joest, will join them at the Le Mans 24 hours. Since Peugeot enters this the LMS and not the AMLS, Le Mans will be the unique confrontation between the two diesel powered cars: Audi and Porsche. At the ALMS already five rounds have been completed. The R10 TDi won again Le Mans and was faster than the 150 kg lighter Roger Penske Porsches RS Spyder (class LMP2) at the street circuit of Sint-Petersburg, but at the short circuits of Long Beach, Houston and Utah the much lighter Porsches had all the advantage, so that none of those rounds was won by the Audi T10 TDi. With only two wins on five outings Audi remains under its last year performances (seven victories on seven outings). [JPVR]

LMP1
engine: 90 degree Audi TDi 5,500cc 675 bhp [1,100 Nm torque], aluminium bi-turbo
engine weight: 200 kg (compare with 130 kg for a Judd motor)
turbochargers: Garrett TR3076R (max. 2.94 bar)
gearbox: electro-pneumatic controlled X-Trac, 5 gear ratios
Clutch: ceramic ZF Sachs
differential: self-locking, ASR traction control
fuel capacity: 81 litres
weight: 935 kg
tyres: Michelin

Honda City 2009 2010 Photo Gallery

Honda City 2009 2010

Honda Cars Philippines, Inc. eagerly opens year 2009 and the rest of the automotive industry with the arrival of its highly anticipated model, the All-New Honda City. Following the recent success of the new Jazz, the introduction of the 3rd generation City reinforces its claim in the passenger car segment.

The new City presents cutting-edge design and technologies that shall set new standards in it class. Bearing refined and class-leading features that are once reserved for luxury vehicles, the City neatly merges modernism with practicality for an ultimate driving pleasure. It simply changes the rules on how subcompacts should be like.

Taking inspiration from an arrowshot form design concept, the All-New City ascertains sleek and powerful stance from any angle. It features streamlined grille, harmonized with sharp headlights, smoother contours with rooflines that finish off to a higher rear deck and a 15” tire size to enhance its over-all sporty design. Read more

Honda City 2009

new Honda City

The Indian market version of the highly respected automotive publication from UK, AutoCar, has released the first exclusive images of the new Honda City. This is probably the most important car launch of the year for ASEAN region markets, in terms of volume. Credits to autoincar for the scans below.

Sources cited by AutoCar indicates that global launch will be on November 2008, so expect launch in other countries like Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand to follow suit within the next few months after that.

The current generation City. Image courtesy of Honda Malaysia

Unlike previous generation City which is built mainly with input from Thailand, the next City is developed with a lot of emphasis on the growing Indian small passenger car segment (on top of Thailand's market requirements) that is currently dominated by Maruti-Suzuki. Earlier, there have been spyshots of pre-production development units being driven around cities of India but I hesitated to post it up as I wasn't too convinced that it was the real deal. But if AutoCar publishes it, rest assured that it is the real deal.

New Honda City i-VTEC fully undisguised exterior and interior revealed!

It’s confirmed - the car we’ve been seeing in China and India is indeed the new Honda City. Reader xstan pointed out this flickr page with photos of the new Honda City - fully uncovered including photos of the interior!

It’s not known at the moment which country these photos come from. As expected, the interior is no longer based on the one in the Honda Jazz but instead uses a design that is perhaps cheaper to cast and manufacture.

The front is definitely inspired by the likes of the European Honda Civic and the Honda FCX Clarity. The headlamps feature reflector lense instead of the more expensive projector type, which is expected at this price range.

This new alloy wheel design has been seen on the previous rendering. It may differ from country to country. This shot of the rear wheel shows the use of disc brakes on the rear.

Another shot of the grille, headlamps and the 4 cylinder SOHC i-VTEC engine in the background

A light interior. Some markets may get a dark interior, hopefully. Our current City i-DSI and VTEC come with either a dark interior for the VTEC or a light interior for the i-DSI.

The 4-cylinder i-VTEC engine is expected to be the 120 PS 1.5 liter unit from the newly launched Jazz.

A clean and simple interior featuring integrated audio and the new design Honda steering wheel.

The meter illumination at night. Notice the paddle shifts behind the steering spokes.

honda city 2009 pics

With the new City, you no longer get that airy feeling that was present in the old City. This is the result of the seating position being much more car-like rather than mini-MPV-like, thanks to Honda distancing the City from its boot-less Jazz sibling. While the Ultra Seats are gone, things like using the bottom of the rear seats to store an umbrella is a great idea. Never again do you have to place it in some random area on the floor of your car and get your whole carpet/mats soaked more than necessary.

Being someone about 181cm tall, I was quite happy in the driver’s seat of the City. Everything was quite ergonomic, from steering position to seat height and position. The storage compartments are also easy to use and the little storage area under the driver side air cond vent is quite usable for your Touch N Go card as its slant prevents the card from sliding out of the compartment. The fuel tank is located under the front seats so there’s not much room for you to install your aftermarket ICE amplifiers there.

The raised floor caused by the fuel tank also juts out a little when you push the front seats nearly all the way back as I needed to do because of my height, so you are quite limited in where you can rest your leg if you want to fold it inwards towards you instead of placing it on the footrest.

The all roads quite well, absorbing road irregularities to a level that is expected from a car like this, and striking a good balance between comfort and handling which is what a Honda buyer would expect. The steering and pedals are light and easy to use for a beginner driver. The City can take corners with confidence and even when you start sliding out of control it is very easy to correct. The combination of the electric power steering accuracy, weight and the lack of any excessive bodyroll except in the extremes makes the City a car that’ll keep the driver happy, that is until he is joined by passengers.

Audi's diesel-powered R10

Remember Audi's diesel-powered R10 TDI sports-prototype, which won the Le Mans 24 Hours last month? Well, the brits decided to put it against a Harrier GR7 "Jump Jet" multi-role combat aircraft in a race at RAF Wittering in England yesterday (6 July). If you think the Harrier gave it a beating, guess again….

Although the R10 didn’t actually win in the standing one-kilometre race, it gave the Harrier a scare as the Jet won just by one-tenth of a second !

The Audi, the first diesel-engined sportscar to win the famous Le Mans race, was quicker off the line - despite the R10 TDI being designed to start races from a "rolling" as opposed a "standing" start and faster to 150mph than the aircraft.

But the Harrier, piloted by Flight Lieutenant Pete Keenlyside, ultimately just beat the Audi to the 1km by literally a "nose" before the jet took off in a spectacular vertical climb.

Audi R10 driver, Allan Mcnish, comments: "I had a practice run against the Harrier moments before the race ‘proper’ and I came very close to beating it - it was a very close run contest. It was essentially a ‘fun’ race but when a racing driver and a pilot get together it quickly becomes serious. For our diesel-powered Audi, which we didn’t modify or prepare specifically for this event in any way, to come so close to beating a Harrier jet-fighter I believe was a tremendous achievement once again for TDI power."

Friday 26 February 2010

2009 Audi S4 powers

we can say that Audi has improved its fuel efficiency by almost 26 percent. The 2009 Audi S4 Sedan

engine-driven belt of 2009 Audi S4 powers the mechanical charger, providing full thrust right from idling speed. The 3.0 TFSI delivers its maximum torque at 2,500 rpm and maintains this constantly until 4,850 rpm. As you move to the fourth gear, the car goes from 50 to 75 mph in just 4.4 sec. Customers will also be provided with an option of choosing between a regular six-speed manual gearbox and a seven-speed “S-Tronic” dual-clutch transmission.

Talking about the DSG, it can be operated in a manual mode, via paddles, as well as in an automated mode. The wide gear ratio spread of 8.0:1 will allow the seven-speed gearbox to take advantage of the increased power and torque of the 3.0 TFSI. The S-Tronic transmission will come equipped with Audi’s Drive Select feature, using which the driver will be able to 2009 Audi S4

select between “comfort,” “auto” and “dynamic” modes. These three modes affect shift speed, throttle response, and the speed-sensitive steering.

Apart from the three modes, “comfort,” “auto” and “dynamic”, there is a fourth mode as well, using which driver can program according to his or her own preferences. However, the latter will be available only if the car is equipped with the optional MMI operating system. 2009 Audi S4 will also have a new rear differential, which will be controlled by an array of sensors and a high-speed computer. Other features of the car include a sport new interior, xenon headlights, a more aggressive body kit, and 18-inch wheels. There will also be an option of going for Adaptive cruise control and Bang & Olufsen audio.

Audi S4

Audi justifies its smooth drive to fame yet again, with the superior performance oriented 2009 Audi S4. Style, technology and performance have always been hallmarks in all Audi models, but this time it’s even better. Exterior refreshment is seen in the 2009 Audi S4, as well as an engine redesign. The 2009 model has a V8 engine that improves the performance in most aspects. There are two trims available for 2009: the Cabriolet and Cabriolet with Tiptronic. The S4 sports convertible is like an altered version of the A4. With aggressive looks, comfort, convenience and super ride quality, the sports car looks good and feels great.