Audi displayed this turbodiesel-powered Audi R8 at the 2008 Detroit Auto Show earlier this month. Peek through the rear hatch where the engine bay is and you will see the huge 6.0 litre V12 TDI turbodiesel engine based on the 5.5 litre V12 TDI engine used in Audi’s 24 Hours of Lemans 2006 and 2007 winner, the Audi R10 race car. The engine is mated to a 6-speed manual gearbox.
This road-going, Euro VI-compliant version of the engine is built at Audi’s Gyor plant in Hungary, and puts out 500 horsepower and 1,000Nm of torque from as low as 1,750rpm, just over idle speed! This massive amount of power and torque sends the Audi R8 V12 TDI to 100km/h in just 4.2 seconds. Putting all that torque to the wheels is Audi’s famous quattro system, sending power to all four wheels in a 40:60 front to rear ratio. The engine bay is illuminated at night with LEDs and can be seen through the rear glass hatch.
The V12 TDI’s crank case is made of gray cast iron with vermicular graphite, a material that Audi calls GJV-450. Audi is already using it in its V6 TDI and V8 TDI engines. This material is 40% more rigid and 100% more fatigue-resistant than conventional gray cast iron. This allowed Audi to make the engine block thinner, cutting weight by 15%.
The mind-boggling grand total of 1000Nm of torque between 1,750rpm and 3,000rpm are thanks to two variable turbine turbochargers located outside of the V bank that blow up to 2.6 bar of boost pressure into the two banks of cylinders. These turbos have two large intercoolers. Exhaust exists from each turbo into its own exhaust system – this means twin exhaust and even twin particular filters.
The cylinder head is made from 3 main elements, a high-strengh aluminium alloy base, an oil bearing upper section and a reinforcing ladder frame supporting the two camshafts. Low-friction roller cam followers actuate the 4 valves per cylinder, and cylinder compression ratio is 16.0:1. Diesel is injected via a Bosch common rail system featuring two new dual-piston high pressure pumps and eight-hole nozzle piezo injectors, injecting with a pressure of up to 2,000 bar.
The piezo injectors can inject up to 5 fuel operations per cycle. Other than main injection, pilot and post injections are possible. Pilot injections tone down the acoustic harshness of the combustion process. Post injections are designed specifically to increase the temperature of the exhaust gas for the two standard particulate filters.
I cannot even begin to imagine 1,000Nm of torque, all of which you can feel during acceleration because they are put down to the ground efficiently thanks to quattro. I just can’t. Can you? More photos after the jump.
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1kNm. I’m quite sure it’ll be hard to control with that much torque so early on. I think it’ll be like being in a fighter jet, having the Gs fling u around.
should be enough to pull few units of train!
Hope this one would not burn as seen before on net….
Can’t imagine how much heat generated ???
Then what about brake upgrade ?
Does it comes with a parachute type of brake? :)
Design wise, its hell of an improvement from the normal r8. Normal r8 just looks wrong.
Can’t believe they’ve made it. Whatever happened to the early V10 test mules that had been burnt down? Has Audi finally succeeded in making an R8 that has more than 8 cylinders? XD
Since it’s a V12, DIESEL, it should be called the R12 TDI. Hope it’ll break cover soon.
thank goodness, it run much cooler on diesel compared to petrol like what they did in Nur.i believe, next time, when Top Gear racing team going to race again, they will use this audi without much engine modification.
i think this will be the RS8.
yeah…wat bout brakes??500 horses and 1000torque…somemore at such a low rpm….
1000Nm torque on engine .. then, after the process of torque multiplying by the gearbox .. o.O!
Poor clutch……
1000Nm of torque into a basically unslipping 4wd and sticky tyres…….
I’m pretty sure they have some torque limiting (either lower boost or throttle cut) in the lower gears. 1000NM is enough to shread gears, snap driveshafts and melt rubber.
Besides, there is no easy way to launch a car with 1000Nm. Traction would be an issue. Hence the supprising poor 0-100 time (given 500hp and 1000nm of torque…). But then again given the usable rev range of a diesel, the gear ratios are probably taller than the average car.
My old AWD DSM with 450 Nm of torque is enough to spin 3 of the 4 wheels (LSD on the back axle only) on launch . It does do 4.8s to 100, which is probably why I think traction is already an issue.
Need a good method to put the 1kNm on the road, if not traction control will go nuts.
with that amount of torque,u can easil accelerate from third…that amount of power is just unusable….bt its abt bragging rights i supoose….!
diesel rules!!
i do have a very high interest on diesel-powered car that performs better than other petrol-guzzler..
1000Nm
got launch control?
or the wheel spin will b enormous
I’m not thinking about anything on this superb car except for the road tax, this tax, those tax, that tax, many many tax laa….
When the G is going to reduce Tax, I am thinking to buy one….:D
1000Nm of torque? welcome to last year. Mercedes have been making cars with 1200nm of torque @2000-4000rpm since 2005 and then limiting them to 1000 because of gearbox constrain. All M275 series engine from AMG produces more than 1200nm of torque stock. Dont even get me started on the brabus version, those reactors pumps out more than 1400nm torque. Then amazing this is… all these engines are running on petrol instead of diesel. And unlike Audi, mercedes have been putting them on their road cars since 2005.
Am I impressed with this audi diesel? If I was born in 2000 I might.
1000nm torque! It’s comparable to trucks!! Can tow containers.
i don give a damn on the performance… the design look juz melt me in first place… sweet yet mean looking beast!
Insane amount of torque, but what Javanese said is true, I’ve seen the AMGs and Brabus tuned/built engines pull out equally insane amount of torque at very low RPM.
But anyway, this car will never survive here. To achieve that amount of torque on a diesel, the injectors need to be under super-high pressure. Our local sulphur saturated/ impurities ridden diesel will totally devastate the engine. THAT will probably make it blow up…LOLZ.
The 1st 12V TDI in the world ???
wow… Audi is cool! Maybe Peugeot will do this in future…
so how much an owner needs to fork out to pay for the tires ?
i think u can use the engine power to do heavy duty stuff…
Roof air scoop deliver air to the rear engine bay…MARVELOUS. and it looks better than the current vers …thanks for redesign the rear exhaust
this baby vs. FXX vs. Koenigsegg vs. Saleen S7 vs. Veyron vs. Murcielago vs. Carrera GT vs. Ascari KZ1 vs. Viper vs. McLaren F1 vs. SLR McLaren……
who will be the fastest on track? haha, lame question~
If I’m not mistaken, Jeremy Clarkson once said, you can’t floor the pedal for an AWD during launch, as it might breaks the gearbox. And I think he was testing the Subara Impreza back then.
Hmmm….for a monster with 1000Nm of torque at low rev. Shiok!
superb!!!
Very Nice!!!!!! I hope they are sold here in the U.S.
Does the car have airbag?
This car is way underpowered with that engine it has.