The Facts Behind Audis 11th Le Mans Victory

Last week, Audi captured its 11th Le Mans victory in the last 13 years, but the big news was the technology involved with achieving this year's victory for the German automaker.

In 2006, the brand captured its first diesel-powered victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans thanks to its TDI engine, and this year it was the first to ever achieve victory with a hybrid vehicle. Even more astonishing is the fact that all four Audi vehicles that entered the race, finished. Only 33 of the 56 original entrants were able to cross the finish line this year.

While all the attention is on the victory itself, and rightfully so, the German automaker also had the best time in qualifying and the fastest race lap. Those that follow motorsports knows that having achieved either of those hardly guarantees victory on any race weekend. And despite going 6.4 percent faster than last year, Audi managed to reduce fuel consumption by 10 percent on this year's race cars.

To give you an idea of the improvements made in the race cars' technology, the winning trio of Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer, and Benoît Tréluyer, last year covered a distance of 3,006 miles with an average speed of 125-mph. This year, the team ran over 3,200 miles with an average speed of over 133 mph. Now it's worth mentioning this this year the safety cars were only out for a total of two hours and 22 minutes while last year they were out for four hours and 46 minutes, more than twice as long. But that's another testament to the reliability of Audi's newest generation of race cars utilizing e-Tron Quattro technology.

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Original Page: http://www.autoguide.com/auto-news/2012/06/the-facts-behind-audis-11th-le-mans-victory.html

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