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Autocar staff
http://www.autocar.co.uk
04/11/2008 - 04:53 AM
Miami, Fla.
"The main differences between the R8 TDI’s appearance and that of a standard R8 stems from the incredible appetite for air that its 12-pot turbodiesel has." » More Photos
There’s something monstrous lying in wait in the glass-covered, LED-lit engine bay of Audi’s latest sports car. At 27 inches in length, there’s only just room for it in there, and at over 670lbs it weighs more than a typical family of four.
The beast in question has 12 cylinders, two turbochargers, two intercoolers, two oil pumps, two ECUs, two catalytic converters, and an exhaust system so complicated that it probably costs more than the average supermini. It is directly related to the engine that Audi used to win at Le Mans last year. It produces enough power to send the mid-engined R8, the car in which its incarcerated, past 60mph in around four seconds, past 100mph in a little under 10 seconds, and on well beyond 190mph.
Yet, despite all of that, there’s only one thing that’s really worth discussing about this leviathan: the fact that it sips fuel from the dark side of the pump. That gives the car to which it’s fitted the potential to become the first proper diesel-engined supercar that anyone, in 239 years of recorded history of the automobile, has ever made. Or if not quite a supercar, than certainly close enough to one to give the likes of Ferrari and Aston Martin reason to look into bulk-buy prices on heater plugs.
Right now, the Audi R8 V12 TDI Le Mans is just a concept car. However, even as you read these words, someone in an undoubtedly well lit, surprisingly clean and perfectly organized corner of a German factory is probably working out a way to give it a future in production. So keen is Audi to build this car – and strengthen its reputation as the maker of the most advanced diesel engines in the world – that it has been flying in journalists and photographers by the dozen to drive it. And recently, on a closed section of Florida highway, I was among them.
It’s just after 10 a.m. on Saturday morning as we wind through the quiet avenues of South Beach. “Everybody’s hung over,” says our driver; last night was a big one. Many of America’s cash-rich college-goers descended on Ocean Drive’s nightspots, unshackled on Spring Break, dude.
Extra air intakes and vents are essential to feed and cool the 6.0-liter V12 crammed into the R8’s engine bay. (Autocar photo) » More Photos
Our main attraction is just across the bay, though. We breeze past Star Island, home to the area’s native movie and music megastars, leave the freeway, come around a corner. And there it is: the same red R8 that appeared at both the New York and Geneva motor shows. The same one, but for the paint job, that is alleged to have attracted offers of between $5 million and $7 million at Detroit a few weeks earlier. There is only one R8 V12 TDI and, unfortunately for the few rap stars, basketball players and wealthy collectors who supposedly tried to buy it back in Motown, it remains emphatically unavailable.
And a dangerous-looking weapon it is too. Audi has removed the enormous-looking 20in rims fitted to the car for its show appearances, and slapped on standard R8 19s with a bit more sidewall. Even so, this is a car with as much menace and malice in its almost criminally purposeful aesthetic as an AK47.
The main differences between the R8 TDI’s appearance and that of a standard R8 stems from the incredible appetite for air that its 12-pot turbodiesel has. The new grilles at the front, underneath the LED headlights, feed cold air to the car’s radiators. They’re 20 percent bigger because this R8 has gone from 4.2 liters of capacity to 6.0 liters, and to a higher compression ratio too.
The flank intakes on this R8 exclusively feed its two intercoolers; on the 4.2 they’re big enough to feed the entire engine with air. There’s a third air intake integrated into the roof of the car, NACA-style, through which the turbos suck their fill of oxygen. And finally, the extra grilles at the back of the car, just above the new exhausts, allow all that hot air a route out of the engine bay. By which time it may have been heated, cooled, mixed, compressed, combusted, filtered, cleaned, or any permutation of the above.
“You expect an explosion of 12-cylinder exhaust burble. What you get is virtual silence” (Autocar photo) » More Photos
Believe it or not, the R8 TDI has got exactly the same chassis ride height as a standard R8; those aluminum sill extensions just make it look lower.
They also hint at the full-length diffuser that’s been fitted to the underside of this car. That, combined with the large spoiler on its trunklid, should actually produce downforce above 100mph. Most road cars fail to cancel out lift at high speeds, let alone push themselves down onto the road, and anyone who doubts Ingolstadt’s seriousness about making this a proper autobahn aggressor should be reassured by that fact.
But Audi doesn’t know exactly how much downforce it produces, just as it has yet to produce a real coefficient of drag for the car. It has yet to put the car in a wind tunnel at all; there just hasn’t been time. And that’s because, six months ago, the R8 V12 TDI existed only in Audi CEO Rupert Stadler’s head.
“He came to me one day in September and said, ‘I want to make an R8 V12 TDI,’” explains Audi concept fabrication specialist Thomas Krauter. “He asked me if the engine would fit. I looked into it and responded, ‘Yes – just.’ And then two months into the project, having said he wanted the car for Geneva, he came to see it and said, ‘Let’s do it for Detroit.’”
And so the R8 TDI went from drawing board to show stand in the blink of an eye. “I called a supplier for a clutch that would handle 738lb ft of torque,” Thomas went on. “They said they would design one specially, and quoted me six months for delivery. “That’s great,” I said, “but I need it in three weeks.”
You have to thumb the red starter button on the steering wheel of the R8 TDI twice to start it – once to heat the glow plugs, and then again to turn it over. The first noise you hear is starter motor whine – the same as you would in the gasoline version – but what comes next is different. And fascinating. And mildly disappointing to begin with.
It’s disappointing because you expect an explosion of 12-cylinder exhaust burble – perhaps the guttural growl of a Ferrari 599, but taken down a couple of octaves and given a grittier edge. What you get is almost silence from the twin pipes. That’s because the extent of exhaust treatment that goes on in the R8 TDI almost removes the need for a silencer completely. Thanks to the catalytic converters, particulate traps and AdBlue urea treatment systems, the air that gets thrown out the back of this car must be clean enough to bottle; unfortunately for the enthusiast, though, it’s delivered so noiselessly that you struggle to hear it from the curb, let alone the driver’s seat.
You can feel V12’s extra weight, but grunt is impressive. (Autocar photo) » More Photos
What you do hear is a multi-faceted symphony of valve chatter, turbo whistle and induction hiss. The engine’s 48 valves dominate at idle, clacking away like so many of those shake-to-mix paint aerosols. But blip the throttle and you’ll hear the air rush in above your head, the turbos blowing and that mighty crankshaft really beginning to spin. As a soundtrack to a driving experience, it’s not as rousing or as satisfying as that of a big multi-cylinder gasoline engine, but it certainly isn’t quiet, and the more you listen to it, the more interesting it gets.
So, it’s off with the leather-bound handbrake, slot the aluminum gearlever into first, ease off the clutch, and just let the V12 pick up the drive. You won’t need any throttle; this thing’s more likely to chew up the road surface than stall. In fact, it feels like you could choose any one of its first four gear ratios and ease it off the mark before dusting off your right foot – without particularly subtle clutch control, either.
We’re on the move now. The steering feels a mite heavier than a standard R8’s, but just as communicative, and with Audi’s magnetic dampers set to dynamic mode, the ride quality is good. A touch softer than standard, I’d say – the extra mass of the engine and body add-ons is evident in a bit of extra body movement over low-frequency undulations – but the option of two firmer modes is just the twist of a dial away.
I do a couple of passes of the short, closed route Audi has lined up, being careful not to incur the wrath of the minder next to me. It’s a flat, rather uninspired course, and the rules are: no aggressive cornering, keep the speed down, please, please, and careful with the clutch.
That leaves me with one option to get a feel for the performance of this thing. Audi says peak torque arrives at 1750rpm with this engine, but that it pulls with big strength from as little as 1000rpm. So I slot third at about 20mph and, as covertly as possible, give it a full portion of loud.
The response is instant; there’s no lag, even at such low crank speeds, and no problem finding traction. I feel the lumbar support of the car’s scooped driver’s seat for the first time as the turbos begin drawing down air. I want to look up through the car’s polycarbonate roof for the tornado forming above the air intake, but the rate at which the car is going from idle to maximum attack is forcing my gaze straight ahead.
Within a couple of seconds it’s all over; as we pass 2000rpm and 55mph, there’s a whimper from the passenger seat. But I’ve done it; I’ve felt the full force of this car’s in-gear acceleration. Or at least I think I have.
“Fast, no?” says the man in the passenger seat. “So did you miss the other 500Nm of torque?”
“What?”
“We had to fit an A4 manual gearbox to this car,” he says, “because right now we don’t have one small enough to fit but strong enough to handle the punishment. So the car is only running at 500Nm (369lb-ft). When it’s finished, it’ll have twice as much torque.”
I take a moment to process this. The finished R8 TDI – and be in no doubt, Audi is determined to make one, probably with a DSG gearbox – will be twice as torquey as this concept car. Twice as mighty in gear. Twice as capable of correcting posture problems at a single flex of the right foot.
Having felt the guts of this one, that’s a stunningly powerful thought. Not a thought powerful enough to shake up the order of things in supercardom too much, I grant; the R8 TDI is never going to tempt you to trade in your Ferrari, Lambo or Porsche 911 GT3. The driving experience just isn’t raw, visceral or thrilling enough for that.
But it promises to be just as fast as those cars, perhaps a little easier and less demanding to drive too. It’s certainly no one-trick pony – although its effortless acceleration is quite something. This car could even turn out to be the best sports car for everyday use the world has ever known. After all, it’s capable of 200mph and more than 25mpg; what would any owner really have to complain about?
-Matt Saunders /Autocar
Every week since motoring began more than 100 years ago, Autocar has been the essential news, entertainment and reference magazine for committed car enthusiasts. Visit http://www.autocar.co.uk to learn more.
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