15 years ago, diesel got the best record in the history of Le Mans
In a few hours they will start 24 hours from Le Mans. A year ago, in Xataka We had the opportunity to be there. I remember the expectation of the minutes before. We arrived with hours of advance but in Le Mans you breathe nervousness from the early morning. Those nerves that cause a smile contained halfway between illusion and fear. I wasn’t there 25 years ago But I’m sure something very similar was lived. The 2000 race served to collect the new millennium with open arms. What we did not know is that one of the most dominant eras in the history of the competition was beginning. One that starred Audi. One that began, like all, with a victory but that completely changed the idea of understanding Le Mans. One that began with the smell of gasoline and ended with the smell of diesel. The golden years of Audi in Le Mans Although it was in 2000 when Audi won for the first time in Le Mans, the previous year he had already served the company of the four hoops to take temperature with the most famous resistance race in the world. In 1999, BMW had managed to impose itself as the last winner before the millennium change. No one predicted that during the next 18 editions a team got the victory in thirteen of them. And of these, nine joined consecutively. For the year 2000, Audi appeared again with his R8. He did it with a 3.6 -liter V8 engine with which they had already tried luck the previous year but made changes in the transmission. From the beginning it was confirmed that the three Audi were going to have very few rivals. Courage, Oreca, Dams and Panoz were not rivals for some Germans who added 368 laps with the unit piloted by Frank Biela, Tom Kristen and Emanuele Pirro. Audi copied the podium and his third unit added 368 laps. To understand the domain, the fourth classified was the C52 Courage that mounted Peugoet motor and only managed to add 344 turns. The distance was sidereal and would be certified in later years. Between 2000 and 2008, Audi scored each and every one of the victories of its LMP900 and, later, LMP1. Of the 24 possible drawers of the podium, Audi copied 19 of them with his official team or a private team that mounted any of his audi r8. The domain was overwhelming as we see but after three years dominating as an official team, the Germans left the competition and the Audi that were put in the starting line did it with private equipment. The situation was repeated between 2003 and 2005. But in 2006, the thing changed. Audi showed his interest again in the queen category of Le Mans but did it with surprise. He arrived with a diesel engine to show that fuel efficiency had no rival. The strategy was simple: less consumption involved less reposses and, therefore, longer on track. A diesel record And the strategy worked. In 2006Audi appeared at the starting line Of the 24 hours of Le Mans with two cars instead of the usual three to focus efforts. However, he managed to occupy two places of the podium, adding a 1-3 to his record and growing his private prustle account between 2000 and 2008. The car mounted a supercharged V12 with two turbocharger that could generate a maximum of 659 hp. According to its initial calculations, without shocks, the Audi R10 TDI He could take two more turns to the circuit of the pan than his predecessor before reproducing. That implied that he could travel 26 more kilometers before stopping. Although there had been previous attempts, that was the first year in which a car that used diesel fuel was made with the victory. It would not be the last because Audi repeated Victoria in 2007 and 2008. However, the fence was narrowed and in 2007 Peugeot also appeared in the output line with a diesel engine. In this case a Peugeot 908 HDI FAP that repeated the structure of the German: 5.5 -liter V12 engine and supercharged with two turbos. That year, the Peugeot went to 700 hp. In spite of everything, in 2007 Audi dominated again and put ten laps away to Peugeot. But the following year the competition matched so much that Audi and Peugeot added both 381 laps. However, the best would come. In 2009, Peugeot He finally managed to get the victory and did it with sufficiency, with the end of six laps above the Audi. A year later, the Germans would compensate getting one of the most spectacular records in history. In 2010, Audi returned to the three seats of the podium, already without Peugeot in the competition. The domain was so overwhelming that the first LMP1 No Audi It was a oreca that ended 26 laps from the winner. It was not for less, Mike Rocknfeller, Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas managed to complete the cross circuit 397. They matched the number of turns achieved by Helmut Marko and Gijs van Lennep with a Porsche 917K In 1971 but there was a small difference. In the 70s, the circuit measured 13.47 kilometers, while in 2010 it had lengthened 13.63 kilometers. Those almost 200 meters apart, return to turn, made, since then, Audi shows the record of distance covered in the 24 hours of Le Manswith 5,410,713 km. The record was achieved with the Audi R15 TDI Plus. The car then rode an engine V10 5.5 -liter TDI that gave a maximum of 600 hp. It was an evolution of the previous year and served to find a winning path that extended until 2014, with change to hybridization along the way. The second half of the past decade became dominated by Porsche and Toyota (with that victory of Fernando Alonso included). The year 2014 closed, therefore, Audi’s most glorious story with Le Mans. Photo | Audi In Xataka | The most … Read more
