Audi Le Mans qauttro

[majaV8]

Audi has revealed a new high-performance sports car which shares its genes with the Audi R8, three-times winner of the Le Mans 24-Hours race. It also hints what we can expect from the next TT.



This concept car is called the Audi Le Mans quattro and its styling is an example of the company's new design trend. It has the same design cues as the Pikes Peak and Nuvolari concept cars

This fascinating driving machine is a synthesis of the experience gained from numerous racing triumphs, allied to advanced design and Audi's technical competence - which has in turn become synonymous for Audi's technological leadership (Vorsprung durch Technik) on the racetrack and the road alike.

Even the first glimpse of the car gives the observer a clear picture of its calibre. The Audi Le Mans quattro, with its Jet Blue paint finish, has a wide stance and a bullish appearance on the road.

Its powerful rear end seems to be bracing its muscles in order to jump, like a sprinter on the starting line. The car's front end and the broad curve of the roof seem to have been drafted with a single stroke of the pen.

The car is 1.9 metres wide but only 4.37 metres long and 1.25 metres high. A wheelbase of 2.65 metres accommodates a spacious cockpit and the longitudinally installed V10 bi-turbo engine with FSI direct fuel injection behind it.

To the rear of the doors, between the sill and the roof, there is a large outward-curving intake that supplies the V10 engine, the brakes, the oil cooler and the charge-air intercooler with sufficient air.

The trapezoidal shape of the Audi single-frame grille is a distinctive feature of the front end, flanked on the right and left by additional large air inlets.

Their upper ends are flush with the flat-strip LED headlights, which have clear-glass covers. The centre of the bonnet curves up above the line of the front wings, which spread out at the sides over the large round wheel arches typical of an Audi.

The cockpit architecture, which is oriented consistently to the driver's needs, dominates the car's interior.

The driving position is integrated into the space between the instrument panel with its changeover display graphics and the centre console.

An aluminium Audi Space Frame (ASF) forms the central structure of this concept study.

The outer skin and add-on parts use a weight-saving mixed aluminium and carbon-fibre concept - thus satisfying the demand for utmost rigidity at a simultaneously low weight of 1 530 kg, and providing a foundation for top road dynamics.

This mid-engined two-seater's 5-litre V10 bi-turbo develops 449 kW at 6 800 r/min.

The maximum torque of 750 Nm is available at an engine speed as low as 1 750 r/min. and remains constant over a broad engine speed range up to 5 800 r/min.

A sequential-shift six-speed sports gearbox enables the driver to use this powerful torque in the appropriate doses.

As a matter of course, any Audi as powerful as this will have quattro permanent four-wheel drive, which distributes the power variably - based on a 40:60 ratio - to the front and rear axles and thus gives this mid-engined sports car its optimum road dynamics.

The car accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h in just 3.7 seconds and to 200 km/h in 10.8 seconds.

Double wishbone suspension is used at the front and rear. Firm basic suspension settings have been chosen to ensure the most effective road dynamics.


Edited by - majaCRX on 23/09/2003 18:13:25