2011 Endurance news

[Formula None]

R18 rear bellcrank:



Beautiful piece. Looks laser sintered or cast from a sintered part.

[Formula None]

[Formula None]

[Saribro]

At first I thought they had a really narrow v6, but looking closer, it appears they have a wide angle v6 with topside exhausts. Look at the cam cover in the 2nd pic. Very cool! An amazing batch of cars running Le Mans this year.

Today Audi revealed that the R18 is using a single VTG (VariableTurbine Geometry) turbo located in between 120 degree opposed cylinder banks. The very short exhaust manifolds emerge from the inside faces of the cylinder banks to feed the 'V' located turbo.

[Formula None]

[Formula None]

AMR-One engine rapid prototype components.

[donskar]

I go back to the old days of "Group 6" and "Prototypes.' I appreciate those of you who contribute to this thread. Audi's engine man, Dr. Ulrich Baretzky, has called Aston's decision to go with an inline 6 "incomprehensible." Intuitively, he would appear to be correct. What is going on with this Aston straight six? Does it appear to have any chance? Is it supposed to give Astone some aero advantage?

[machin]

I assume the in-line 6 has one head off one of their V12's? So its a down-sized engine as per current trends, but does have some relevance to their road cars...??? That's my guess...

[Pandamasque]

I don't think it has anything to do with any current road engine. Why turbo i6? Possibly that could be the 'torquiest' solution apart from going diesel or using a big N/A petrol engine which is not allowed anymore. Torque wins at Le Mans. Even if they allow petrols to be on par with diesels in terms of power, they'll still have no chance due to gigantic torque difference (the old 5.5l Peugeot V12 produced over 1200Nm).

[Formula None]

Monza testing:

[machin]

I don't think it has anything to do with any current road engine. Why turbo i6?

Given a clean sheet surely a Vee configuration is better.. -more compact and stiff?

Torque wins at Le Mans.

I guess by that comment you mean "a nice wide power band wins Le Mans, not just the peak power figure", and on that note I totally agree. I've written a short note on power and torque and their relationship which hopefully makes for interesting reading.... click here

[Pandamasque]

Turbo i6 could be the next-get engine for AML road cars. Aston Martin Turbo? @ bridgetogantry.com

[Gori]

Audi´s chief of engines Ulrich Baretzky said, that he has no idea why the AM guys build an i6. He believes that this is for marketing reasons. An i6 has to much disadvantages and is not reliable enough. The engine is very long and the single-sided crankshaft generates torsional vibrations. (short summarize)

Source (german): http://www.motorsport-total.com/mehr/ne ... 50304.html

[wesley123]

I think it has to do with packaging, the cooling layout of the AM is so complex I do not think there was the space to built an V6, Plus torque is a huge problem with the gasoline cars, so I think a i6 has a bit more torque then a v6 for example.

Overall I am sure packaging was a main reason to build in a i6

[machin]

Wesley, Why would an I6 have more torque than a V6 if all other parameters were the same (bore, stroke, inlet/exhaust lengths and diameters etc)?