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Audi R8 to Get 12 Cylinders--Diesel, No Kidding
By Marty Jerome January 04, 2008 | 2:04:18 PMCategories: Detroit Auto Show
Get used to the idea of diesel sports cars. After all, racing fans have. The Audi R10 TDI won the American Le Mans, the most prestigious sports car series in the world this past October (see photos after the jump). And in the next few weeks Audi is bringing to the North American International Auto Show in Detroit a twelve-cylinder diesel version of its just-released R8. This counters speculation that the car would get a gasoline V10 based on its Lamborghini cousin, the Gallardo.
Performance diesels present enormous engineering challenges, most notably the massive torque they have to tame. A crew member from the Audi team told me that in early testing, the race car dropped the transmission every time the driver dumped the clutch. As any fan will tell you, the race cars are eerily silent. During a test session, Marco Werner, winner for the 2006 season, told reporters that he hadn't used a tachometer for shifting since his early racing days, but "I cannot hear the engine."
