Audi R8 (and a little Le Mans congratulations)

[Mike Veglia]

In a message dated 6/17/2002 Eric Kissell writes:

<< Yeah, impressive, but what was the 30-50 time? >>

Probably too short to measure ;-) Can you say a blink of an eye?

<< Does that car use a K24 or RS2 turbo? >>

Garrett Research twin turbos...no doubt as custom as they get. There was a
guy who used to post in the seventhgear.com forums (a CART fan site) who is
with Garrett (username "turbo" of course) who showed off some impressive
photos of the turbos used in R8s, apparently they had one on a stand in
their lobby at one point.

<< Was the turbo "optimized" or not? :-) >>

Well, the car is choked down by ACO/ALMS LMP900 class rules. Low boost,
inlet air restriction, etc. all keep the power well below what that engine
could crank out if fully unleashed. No doubt the turbos are as optimized as
they get for the job at hand. CART engines are only 2.65L and run very low
boost levels now, yet they still crank out over 900HP. Unleash that R8
engine and now doubt it would be way up, but as it is the engine makes a
bunch of power and runs 10,000km between teardowns. A truly amazing power
plant. Five Audi engines ran Le Mans this year, all five finished.

Hats off also to the LMP675 class winners (Lehman power, an engine formerly
known as VW) and huge congratulations to the Sears Point based Racer's Group
team (one time q-lister Mark Nelson once crewed for them...not sure if he
still does) for their GT class win!

Mike Veglia
Motor Sport Visions Photography
http://www.motorsportvisions.com