Small technical point I wanted to add: Not only does diesel have more energy density as a fuel (which means efficiency in terms of storing energy), but the thermodynamic process/cycle is more efficient (or at least usually is, which means using the energy that is stored in the fuel more efficiently). Great video btw :)
That whole bit in the video about longer stroke = more torque is rubbish. You've got it right - the constant PRESSURE inherent to the diesel cycle (as compared to the constant VOLUME process of the Otto cycle) is what generates the torque diesels are known for.
@@GroovesAndLands if you're saying that longer stroke = more torque is rubbish then you must not acknowledge the fact that a longer stroke means higher inertia and also that it helps harvest heat energy generated more as it takes longer for the power stroke right? Edit: (I meant momentum instead of inertia but inertia isn't all that wrong either)
Correct me if I'm wrong, but i recall reading that technically the Otto cycle is more efficient if at the same compression ratio, only issue is that Gasoline explodes way before it can reach the pressures Diesel can.
@@Appletank8 yes thats true for the efficiencies for sure. As far as I know you dont wanna go above certain pressures in the cylinder that you reach way earlier with a otto process than with diesel (isochoric part of otto means that pressure will rise while burning the fuel, and quite a lot actually, if you only consider ideal processes). There might well be a certain pressure that you dont wanna go over with gasoline because of self ignition, although usually you tell it to ignite with sparksplugs anyways (if all goes well ;)), but I am no expert on that. For the diesel the burning of the fuel is isobaric which means that the pressure will not rise but volume will change and thus allow for much higher compression in the first place as you dont exceed the pressure limits that easily. Thanks tho for mentioning this for all us engineering nerds 😅
@@recarsion I as hooping that Audi would make a turbo diesel V8 or V10 for the road-going R8. That would have been a beast with that much torque and quattro power-train. The question is would or could the gearbox survive that much torque and grip.
This Audi terrified the gasoline powered racing industry. What I absolutely loved about this car is that the drivers could never use fulkl throttle until they got near top speed. The engine made so much torque , it would spin it's wheels, in a straight line, at any speed.What a spectacular machine.
@@polar_inertia The whole point is it's bullshit. If you turbocharge the shit out of a 5.5l V10 it's going to have torque no matter what fuel you've got. But you know what? A 5.5l petrol engine turbocharged to 3 bars would have a power band twice as large at least, because it can rev to at least twice the rpm of a diesel... That's the reason a diesel engine is very limited in the power band. Why do you think diesel trucks have 18+ gears for instance? The truth is that people want easy answers and narratives and are clamoring to soundbites to satisfy their meager curiosity.
Imagine doing a lap in one gear just to make a point? They could have pulled stunts like that after they had secured enough laps to win the race, like Porsche 956's lapping the course in a formation of 1-2-3. Audi laps Le Mans in fourth (or sixth, or whatever) gear!!! They could even do one-gear laps with different gears to see which one was best!
Being from a small Scandinavian country, without proper tarmac racetracks, it's pretty impressive that Tom Kristensen was able to achieve the level of success that he did in Le Mans.
Not having proper racetracks is the exact thing that makes him and other Scandinavian drivers so extraordinary. Those guys used and still do go to Finland and do Ice track racing without studded tires to learn car control. There is a reason why those guys usually have incredible car control even in the wet!
1100Nm of torque is just nuts For reference, a 2021 Volvo FH16 truck is among their top of the line truck offerings, designed to haul 60 tons of weight. It has around 3000Nm of torque. This car reaches a third of that which is insane considering one is a racecar and one is a literal truck
@@supersst838 it puts things into perspective though, packing 1/3 of the torque with roughly 1.6% of the truck's weight capacity will help you imagine how fast this car is.
AMG V8 4.0 engine - 900 Nm - PETROL turbocharged, same as 900 Nm made by top of the range TDI 4.0, except the TDI needs not only turbos but also a compressor, and still makes less hp than the AMG petrol engine, with just turbos on it.
Considering it is a 5.5L V12 that is pretty low. The bmw b57 is a 3.0 I6 production engine which came out with 400hp and 760nm in 2016, 10 years after the r10. They could turn those in a v12 and get 800hp/1600nm, but sadly those times are over...
@@Grievance_Studies_Affair_2018i dont know that engine is twincharged, wikipedia says it is twinturbo. also you forgot to mention that the AMG also have two turbos
In short, under the same regulations, be it limited by restrictor/boost or fuel Flow, a Diesel has more power and a wider powerband. Full stop. Yes, if you compensate for the weight a Diesel is more powerful and has a better rev range in absolute terms.
how can a diesel have better rev range? most times they go to 5000rpm petrol 7000rpm and with a petrol with direct injection it will have the torqeu like a diesel down low so i dont understand how a diesel hase better ev range then petrol?
@8alakai8 Better rev range doesn't mean highest peak RPM, it means on how big a percentage of the RPM Band, does it have peak power. For a Naturally Aspirated Petrol Racing engine it's 5% at best, usually its only a peak of a percent or two. For a Turbocharged petrol racing engine it's up to 25% of the rev range. For a Turbocharged Racing Diesel it's over 35% of the rev range. Peak Power, during full throttle acceleration, is directly linked to the wheel torque. The more time you spend at max P, the longer you have peak wheel torque, for the given speed. That means of the three engines, the diesel accelerates the fastest by a huge margain, even if they all have exactly the same power. (Up to 600kW for the last 5,5 Diesels in 2010).
It means that the engine can produce usable amount of torque at a wider range of rpm than a petrol engine, because of the energy density properties of diesel, the preheated fuel, the longer stroke length and the because of the direct injection mechanism. This is why I love driving good diesel cars any day of the year.
I am currently going through an internship at AUDI. One of my Colleagues was a former Engineer at AUDIs racesport department and the Storys he told me about le mans are great. A highly motivated team trying to push to the limit.
My favorite part was they knew the gearbox they had wasn't likely going to last so they made it quck-change, and how gobsmacked the coverage was when they pushed it in the garage, bits flew, and suddenly they unplugged the whole setup, plugged in a new one and rolled it back out of the garage. And people though fast brake changes were neatness . . . Then they were told they couldn't do it that way, so they came up with another still fast method, and that to was disallowed Now we have, "No Transmission Changes Allowed" except the NASCAR thing.
Fastest "this should be a rule..." to it actually becoming a rule in history. They were in the garage for 5 minutes or something ridiculous... If Toyota thought of that, how many Le Mans would the GT-One have one?
@@jpkalishek4586 I remember, not sure if this is right or not, but Speed was headed to a commercial break promising to get more details after, the international feed did their usual international highlights, and when they got to the pit reporter, the car was already back on track and everyone was left wondering what it was. Then the Audi Dr said what they did...
@@slwsnowman4038 recalling back (I watched most of the race live on Speed back then) you might have it. The second one they certainly paid close attention to. Then they had a clue that things might happen, and did they.
Audi is like that perfect combination of comfort and performance,in other words, perfect combination of Mercedes and BMW. Balance is the word I am looking for.
I'm assuming you're being sarcastic man lol American muscle cars are real torque monsters but that's what we Americans want, of course it's not needed, but with 1000hp and 1000ft lbs of torque, well, nuff said lol
@@johnserrano9689 Then please let the rest of the world enjoy precision engineering and premium quality while you keep thinking that everything from the United States America is great.
@@ismarwinkelman5648 oh, no little one, you missed my point entirely. I much prefer the build ideology of German cars as much as you clearly, except they're not built with raging raw power. That's simply not the idea behind the vehicle's, yet that is the main idea behind American muscle cars. I genuinely hope that was as simple and straight forward for you to understand, rather than your original misguided comment of someone believing anything made in America is better, as I'm sure you understand the depravity of your comment now, I will leave it there Best of Luck Bud
As a guy who has driven a diesel car for the past 30 years, I couldn't help but think the Audi Tdi Le Mans cars were out of this world, and the fact they were so quiet (turbos act as a silencer in diesel engines as opposed to petrol engines), made them so much more fascinating. I do wonder if Audi will attempt something off the charts in F1. And on a footnote, maybe Sains should reconsider and invest head on into the Audi project.
I love the torque-at-any-revs pull I get with mu Q5 TDI. Wish so hard those Audi diesels hadn't fallen out of favor in the US. Such miracle engines. Incredible power and fuel economy. 550 miles on a tank of in-town driving and nearly 700 on a road trip.
Yeah agreed. One of the main reasons tho is because over here, we don’t have a lot of people who know how to fix those diesel engines. We’re better at fixing diesel engines in pickups & semis.
@@NeedForSpeed.2004it's been a while since I looked into (I wanted a tdi but settled for an S4) but I think it was something regulatory was well that prevents them being widespread.
It's because the US not only has expensive diesel(you produce a lot more per gallon of crude oil so it should be cheaper) but also is very rough on small vehicle diesel emissions. But they are very relaxed with big vehicle emissions
Always loved VAG TDIs. My first stick shift car was a 2000 Beetle TDI. I could get 600 miles on a single fill-up. Now I daily a 2013 Passat TDI SE and has been a dream
I have a '99 A6 2.5 TDI, and I only use 3/4 of the tank (70L), and that gets me 600kms (372 miles), which does not sound a lot, but take into consideration that I mostly drive in city (80% of the time). When I went on a long roadtrip (in Europe 400 kms/248miles counts as long lol) I only used about 28 litres of diesel, which translates to 32.67 mpg, and with that I can achieve over 1000kms/621miles of range. Note that this is a 1.6 ton/3200lbs car with a 2.5L V6 diesel, from '99. The 3.0 TDI after this has a way better fuel economy and range. :D
Love this. I was at the R10 TDI's first race in 2006: 12 Hours of Sebring that year. A lot of people were in disbelief that this eerily quiet, diesel-powered LMP was kicking everyone's butt. To the point of the heavier internals, I'll give a good example. I was rebuilding an old VW 1.9 TDI at the same time as a shop-mate of mine was rebuilding an old small block Chevy. I was pretty gob-smacked when he handed me this much bigger bore than what I was working on piston WITH connecting rod attached, and it felt so wildly light. I get out a piston for the 1.9 TDI, which is nearly a full inch smaller in diameter, and the TDI piston by itself weighed MORE than the significantly larger small block Chevy piston WITH ITS CONNECTING ROD ATTACHED. That's insane. It really boggles the mind to see this assembly that is substantially larger and with more parts feel noticeably lighter weight than just this small TDI piston by itself. Absolutely bonkers. Well-done on the technical details in this video. As a technician myself, there's a lot of poorly informed videos out there that get a lot of details wrong, but overall on this one, you're bang-on.
I love this video! Im an American with a VW Golf TDI and rarely see them. But this beast is quick, and gets between 45-50 mpg on average. I drive 3-4 hours round trip for work. Its awesome. Never knew about this history. Thank you
Really interesting. With the right e fuels produced, diesel is still one of the best ways for cars etc. Love my 80l diesel tank for easy over 1000km in a big transit custom... Even 1200km are not a big problem in summer time on highway with 110kmh
When driving long distance very carefully I can get 1000km out of my 55l tank in my Caddy. Usually between 850 and 900km. My girls 50l petrol powered Golf asks for more after 550km if driven by me (more like 450 for her). I'd love a 80l or even 100l tank so I could refuel 4 times a year 😂
Kinda makes me wish my f150 was diesel. I normally get around 690 miles per 33 gallon tank which equals out to 20.9 mpg (epa combined estimated mpg is around 16). Now if i had diesel, id have more efficiency than the 5.0 v8 produces and get better gas mileage with more torque!!
Really? 1000km in a Transit custom? My Transit custom won’t do that, sadly. Which engine does yours have? My 1.9 tdi Passat made up to 1100km (very slow though). I really miss that car
False. Just misinformation to get money/favours/content from Volkswagen. He even censors my comments about the real backgrounds of this diesel racing program, obviously because his sponsor doesn't want to be embarrassed with the truth.
One interesting aspect of the Audi and Peugeot diesel cars at the Le Mans series (was it called WEC then?) is that they were a lot less noisy than the gasoline cars, and that is because on diesel engines the turbocharger acts like a muffler of sorts.
@@Assimilator1 I think ONLY because they don't rev so high, as petrol engines have turbochargers also (so if there's any muffling going on, it happens there too).
I was lucky enough to see these cars run at Road America in WI many many moons ago. It was amazing to watch them WOOSH by on the back straight. They were SOO quiet.
I remember being at LM 24 the year they were introduced. The wierdest thing was the lack of noise; after the screamers and throaty 'Vettes etc they really sounded like a Flymo!
I loved these cars as a teenager. Grew up learning to drive with TDI engines so these were like hero cars to me. These Audis were as cool to me as the Mazda 787B for their quirkiness and different approach to racing.
Same experience here. I spent a lot of time driving different Audi TDI's during driving lessons. Always loved that you could let the car roll in idle, and they were comfortable.
Another victim of marketing and poor education. I guess you didn't even want to try critical thinking because it gave you such a good feeling to pretend that the car you were driving was "the best", huh?
I watched those R race cars diesel and regular fuel loaded crush Le Mans all too easily with Tom Kristensen for many years. Audi was at the top of thier endurance game no doubt.
Bold statements for someone who has no clue. Or hey, if you claim to know anything about this subject then: Who did "Audi" compete against? Why was diesel so successful...against what exactly? Why were the rules the way they were?
@@pistonburner6448 1. the rest of the grid. 2. it was successful against petrol because the manufacturer put its effort into it instead of it being a side project. why were the rules like that? because they wanted more pit stops, to make the racing closer
It's not a particularly good sound even at 6.5k rpm, from most racing games I have played that is.... found myself banging the Rev limiter a lot of the time thinking I was high in the rpms😅
Diesel is so fun. Although it's not the best for racing,for daily drive it's just too good . Loads of amount of torque in low revs is all needed in the most practical scenarios. Racing engineers just don't care diesel
Diesel was really big until 2015. Before, in some car categories you had more diesel than petrol cars! However the fallout of the dieselgate killed the technology.
@@PerfectTangent europe was mostly diesel for years until recently. they're being a bit unfairly targeted for emissions so they're starting to go away again.
Not the screaming v12 we'd all love to see Audi build, but a cracking one nonetheless! Definitely made me fascinated with the v10 touregs of the time-still have a bit of a list for one of those, or want to expierience the engine at least!
I really hate when regulatory bodies stifle innovation with stupid rules. What's so wrong with diesel having its own class to compete in? They'd rather just nerf it into oblivion instead 🤦
I really wish we had more (reliable) diesel cars in the states, im a little jealous of what yall have across the world. I drive 100 miles (or 160km) a day for work and knowing I dont have really any good little commuter diesels option sucks.
There is no "good little diesel". You need at least V6/I6 if you don't want an awful tractor sound and low power (unless you want to tune a smaller engine).
I was there when it first appeared at Le Man's. It was literally insane and walked the race. The difference in engine sound was the most striking element. All other cars roared past and these just glided by! Bizarrely brilliant!
The modern diesel (and probably so with those LeMans Audis) is quieter mainly because of the Commonrail system and because of the turbocharging which played their sound wave, hence, a nice nearly quiet ride. The old ones, which uses fuel pumps (either mechanical or electric) are a bit noisy but for me, they are fantastic and had a beast character. The aluminium blocked diesel engine is not only in that Audi. In 1940, USSR had built the cast Al-Si diesel engine block installed in the T-34 medium tank, KV-1 and KV-2, IS series tanks dubbed the V-2 which is a V12 delivering 500hp and a monstrous 2160Nm torque. The engine is a bit unique, because the right bank side stroke and the left bank side stroke had a different length. It is so unique, even the Germans try to copy the engine with the same Al-Si block but they failed with complaints of block melting, but somehow the Soviet made it. Well, in between 1941 - 1943, the engine had to use cast iron because the lack of aluminium. Volkswagen's (and also Audi's) V10 is fabulous but a bit disastrous for. There are also other V10 diesel, built by Isuzu, Nissan Diesel, Hino, Mitsubishi Fuso, Mercedes Benz, Deutz, Tatra, and some Soviet prototype engine that basically add a set of V cylinder behind the existing KamAZ-740 V8 diesel engine. I think the biggest V10 for road-going vehicle is Isuzu's with the 10TD1 which is a 30.3 liter V10 Naturally Aspirated Diesel putting out 600hp of power and a whopping 2059Nm of torque AND it is quite famous because Isuzu is a well-known brand that put out staggering fuel efficiency even with big engine like the 10TD1. The other V10 by Nissan Diesel, Hino, and Mitsubishi Fuso (and probably Mercedes Benz's) are a diesel-guzzler compared to the Isuzu.
fun fact that V2 engine is still being used till this day in the modern T- 62 and up tanks, its been heavily modified but it is still that same engine block.
It must be pointed out Audi may have created it but Peugeot perfected it. The Peugeot 908 was undoubtedly faster. The 908 was so stupidly fast it was built to compete with the R10 TDI, entering in 2007. But it was still faster than the new R15 that Audi fielded to replace the R10 in 2009! When they went head to head over a season's racing in 2008 the Peugeot mopped the floor with the R10 throughout the Le Mans series championship. Winning every race ahead of the Audis EXCEPT the last one, because both Peugeots suffered accidents. It let Audi take all the titles. A twist of fate and history shows Audi won, but anyone that knows saw the Peugeots battered it. Echoes of Group B rally. The Audi Quattro was a revelation, but the Peugeot 205 T16 was really the star and ultimately proved much faster.
And that VW decided to turn Porsche into the WEC and take Audi out of it, says much more. It seems that even VW lost their hope in Audi's engineering abilities.
@@alicethegrinsecatz1611 To me it was always kind of sus that Audi often competed in an era where they had virtually no serious big works rivals, and the one time they had a serious works rival they were generally slower. It took Audi until considerably altered regulations in 2011 to properly overcome the first generation 908 by basically admitting the closed cockpit was the better design and building a completely new car and engine. Even then the now aged first generation 908 was still competitive and won races against the third iteration of Audi LMP1 diesels. Notably a customer Oreca 908 at Sebring! Peugeot's second gen works 908 that year cleaned up against the Audis once again in the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup. Seven races and a Peugeot won six of them. Afterwards Peugeot pulled the plug on their racing program.
@@noobsaibot7006 Audi won more at Le Mans due to various accidents and failures of Peugeot at those particular races, generally the Peugeot was faster. However if you think that these teams build their cars to do one race per year and that's how you judge their success in the LMP1 category which holds a whole season of endurance races then that's mostly what I expect from people that don't really know about racing. Kind of like asking who won the Monaco Formula One GP any given year and then that forms their entire opinion of a racing series for that year. That's literally the equivalent of your comment. Good way to broadcast ignorance though I suppose.
Sounds like you’ve either A) you’ve got a bee in your bonnet with Audi or B) you are ginormous Peugeot fan? What you’ve basically just explained is that competition eventually catches up with the innovator. It’s the cycle of motor sport and engineering in general and to go out your way to taint the success of a team/innovator of their time isn’t exactly fair. People do catch up and do supersede, that’s sport.
exactly, they need that stroke to pull in enough air to compress to the ridiculously high ratio. some diesels ive worked on in the past were a solid 30:1 ratio, whereas a normal road going petrol engine today is around 10:1, and lower if it was a turbo.
@@PistonAvatarGuy which is why ulrich baretzky is a genius. man went from conventional gasoline fuel to diesel, and finally to hybrid era. from V12 to v6 across 16+ years of le mans
I've seen these race at Mosport back in the 2000's. They were awesome and beat the entire field. I remember getting close to them when the mechanics fired it up but man did it smell pretty bad lol
Another well done video on an interesting topic. Thanks for breaking it down in a way we can understand. I learned so many things in just this one video! Thank you.
Audi was paddocked next to us at Laguna and one of their guys spilled their diesel fuel drum, spilling a bunch all over our area. We went to get some absorbent materials and when we got back it had almost all evaporated. Some special diesel they were running. 🤔
You probably mean Joest...Audi doesn't race anything themselves...and they didn't develop any of that diesel stuff or any engine tech themselves either, they buy everything from outside. You're probably right about that 'special diesel', as they even had 'special rules' which they negotiated for themselves before they even started the whole program to begin with...and started competing in that empty series with no real competition, only privateers with at best 1/10th of the budget. Actually that diesel was just synthetic diesel, it's not what you could buy at diesel pumps. It was made from natural gas.
@@pistonburner6448 it was the Champion Racing Audi sport of North America R10. That was kind of my point, they called it a diesel but it wasn’t really diesel fuel like we know it. When we were at LeMans the Audi teams made the track clean out the large underground fuel tank for their garage twice and then they themselves ran a cleaner through it and then they brought the fuel in and didn’t let anyone near it.
@@pistonburner6448 It was Champion Racing The chassis was designed by Audi and made by Dallara .The engine was all Audi. Designed by Ulrich Baretzky and build by Audisport in Neckarsulm Germany . Audi buying engine stuff from outside??????🤣
There is a technical reason why diesel engine typically have longer stroke, lower RPM, and higher torque Combustion takes time. Gasoline engine advance the ignition timing so the piston is at TDC (top dead center) when the flame is fully developed. Diesel don't use spark plugs, so combustion always starts at TDC. As the piston moves faster, the flame fully develop later relative to TDC, and less power is extracted. This effectively puts a relatively low RPM cap on diesel engines. Horsepower is a result of torque and RPM - more torque and more RPM equals more horsepower. So if RPM is limited, then the only way to increase horsepower is to increase torque. Torque is a result of force (from combustion) and leverage. The leverage that matters is the radius of the crank. A larger radius will need a larger connecting rod, which results in a longer stroke.
Sorry to go off topic. But would definitely be interested to hear your thoughts on SVJ's brilliant drive as a rookie in NASCAR. Cheers from New Zealand
10:00 I hate the fact that regulations stifle innovation. F1 is the same. The regulations notionally were there to enable smaller budget teams to compete, but what that meant is they had to compete in the same “game”. Go back to when regulations were looser and the smaller teams tried unconventional solutions to win. Aero, turbos, 6 wheels, fans, side skirts, carbon, engine placement, traction control etc. None of those things can happen today as it is so prescriptive. In my eyes, racing is worse off for this.
Note that the torque of this V12 is VERY LOW! And this was actually by design! You can only transmit so much torque to the ground and Le Mans has often been a rainy race. You can calculate HP from Torque. So this engine is a very high rev. Diesel. When you compare this to a non tech Cummins 5.9l Similar engine size: These 6BT produce 1100NM with an easy 300-350HP. When you push a 5.9 higher, like 650 HP with a big turbo or a compound one, the torque that these produce is in a range of 1500 - 1800 NM easily. The German articles about that engine said the Audi had a hard time to control the torque. A gearbox to hold 1100NM for 24h FF is a real pain. The choice to make it a high volume V12 was just MKT! An idiot idea. A R6 3l or 3,5 would have been way better. But: Audi tried to convince idiots to pay high prices for a Q7 with V12 Diesel, VW to do so with a 5l V10 ... As we all know today: 3l is big enough to get you 400HP from a endconsumer diesel.
Racing diesels at the beginning were not running lean. In 2012 Audi started playing with Lamda > 1, but it was not anything near to what we have on the road. Peugeot's engine was breathing more like a gasoline one. And it had very cool fully-machined block.
Haha, I can relate. My car is a BMW X5 M50d, a 3L 6 cylinder Diesel with 3 turbos, 740Nm and 381hp. There are so many people being confused how fast a Diesel car can be.
That's one thing I hate about motorsport - engineers come up with brilliant ideas and execute them perfectly, but then the FIA says - nah mate, can't do that. And change the rules to peg them back OR ban the innovation altogether. Long story short - FIA are pricks.
You know that Audi only ever won anything because they fixed the rules for themselves beforehand, right? I mean just look at who they competed against: privateer teams, and no-one else even tried to compete using the same tech...
The end of this video is a little misleading, diesels didn’t go away because of fuel tank restrictions. It’s just by 2016 the big diesel engines were too heavy in comparison to Porsche’s small V4. And plus dieselgate happened which caused Audi to pull out.
2010: Mike Rockenfeller wins overall in a Audi R15 TDI at the 24hrs of Le Mans. 2023: Mike Rockenfeller drives in the Garage 56 Camaro in a class winning effort at the 24hrs of Le Man.
2010: "Audi" competed against absolutely no real competition, in a series whose rules they had arranged with the organisers beforehand in exchange for Audi saving that series from bankruptcy. 2023: That was a class with exactly one car in it, so it's really hard to not win that class if you make it to the finish.
@pistonburner2448 by the way dude, i really recommend you to ACTUALLY GIVE US YOUR SOURCES (this is really important. Dont expect people to just believe what you say), as well as not acting the way you're acting in this comment section if you want people to actually want to listen to what you're saying. Seeming all that emotional just takes away from your credibility and makes it seem like you're just driven by hate for Audi and VW as a whole
@@lRedKill3r Yes, but Volkswagen had honed their machine and operations for years and years of racing in the series (against no real competition), and still had a much higher budget than Peugeot. In such a situation it's virtually impossible for new competitors to win, it would take them many years of developing their car, gaining the same experience as Volkswagen had, while not benefitting from marketing returns...only negative image as they're seen losing time and time again for years. There's a reason why Volkswagen Group only enters "empty" series with no constructor teams participating, at least on full commitment. Or they enter with a budget-"blitz" (and pre-developed car, usually buying racing operations from a team who has gathered experience in the series) in a situation when the series is in a slide downwards with manufacturers having massively cut funding PLUS with Volkswagen having secured a huge rule change which massively reduces the benefit of past development of the competitors. And remember that Volkswagen was pouring money into the series for years and for sure demanded the organizers (who owed their whole remaining in business to VW) to always implement the exact rules Volkswagen wanted...which are rumored to always include at minimum some little strategic changes to *_perfectly_* suit Volkswagen's car and the development trajectory they had.
I saw the car a few times and the thing I remember was the sound of tire clag hitting the inside of the fenders at certain times because it was quiet. The way it navigated corner entry and exit was a precursor to formula-e.
I have a VW TDI and it is a blast to drive.. no wonder Audi TDI power is monstrous. There's no match for Diesel drivability, all the dirty fuel drama is for dummies. And the fuel economy is off the charts, I'd fill the tank and wouldn't bother for a month or more. Diesel all the way!!
Petrol All the way! Diesel for poor people, who are worried about filling up more often, and even then it's not entirely true. I drive the Alfa Stelvio with the 2.0 280HP at 7 litres per 100km and it's a better ride than the Audi.
my dads 2015 jetta with a dpf delete/Egr delete and cr190 turbo upgrade (EU spec is bigger than NA spec) is getting just under 430ft lbs of torque and about 190ish horsepower on a 2.0 4 cylinder maintaining 53-55 mpg. that thing has more torque than our 2008 f150 with a 5.4 V8 in it.
Why would you tell that to Audi engineers? You know that for the LeMans stuff Volkswagen bought all the tech from Fiat, Bosch and other outside companies, and also bought all the racing activities from Joest and other outside companies, right? Volkswagen even bought the tailor-made rules from the race series in order to guarantee victories for them.
*THE BEST ENGINE* I have ever had was a tuned Opal 2.2 Diesel with a Garrets variable vane turbo on it - it was in an Opal Astra Cabrio I took in part exchange and it was ASTONISHING. It had so much torque it would shear the centre out of clutch plates. Cos the variable geometry turbo, it had the power all the way from 1000rpm to 5,000rpm it just pulled and pulled and pulled. I wanted to buy a Caterham and put this magnificent engine in it but life got in the way. I let a "friend in need" have the car and the proviso they gave it back to me, and we fell out...
Diesel is still the best of the engine designs. Better for efficiency, torque spread and longevity when all are combined. Its being phased out under the scam of being bad for pollution but with the latest after treatments thats also untrue. It takes less energy to refine the fuel and less of it is required compared to petrol. They may not be as exciting to thrash as a petrol but diesels certainly make more sense as daily use engines.
@@subilasikwese5459 Good luck mate. There is some great info out there. I used to make my own biodiesel in my shed - a very simple process once you understand titrations and so on. I'm a little too lazy these days but its certainly scaleable. Have a look into basing it from mash - effectively using waste to make fuel. It consumes quite a lot of energy to do but if you are getting that energy from waste its hardly a bad thing anyway.
Efficiency - yes, if you don't count hybrids, which are almost exclusively gasoline. And even non-hybrids are very close once you take in the account different energy density. Torque - turbocharged gasolines are better Longevity - depends on how an engine is built, and diesels aren't as good anymore once manufacturers learnt how to cut corners on diesels, too. Can you explain why it takes less energy to refine the fuel?
@@Papinak2 Efficiency is a given. No point going on about the fuel's specific energy density because petrols can't run on diesel. They are quite a lot more thermally efficient and the horsepower hours per litre are noticably better with diesel. Hybrids are a sticking plaster for the petrol's poor efficiency - there are diesel hybrids too and they are better though they usually cost more. Torque over rpm is another place where its pretty much all one way. You can make a petrol produce more torque but its at the expense of efficiency again - once they are past a certain amount of boost they have to pull timing or feed in more fuel simply to keep the engine happy which diesels simply don't need to. Longevity wise I see loads of diesels with over 200k miles for sale running but hardly any petrols and none of the high pressure DI, heavily boosted ones which they need to make similar torque. As for refining - diesel is refined from a lower temperature and requires much less after treatment. Less temperature means less energy going into the process. In most refineries all the useful stuff is taken form a barrell of crude so the heat will go up anyway but if we just look at the diesel and petrol diesel is noticably easier to make - as is bio-diesel over bio-ethanol.
Diesel won only because regulations allowed bigger capacity of engine for diesel then for gasoline. Then it was 4000 cc allowed for turbo diesel and only 3000 cc for turbo petrol
Got to see this car at Laguna seca during car week and it was such a treat to see a 5 time lemans winner in the flesh. I was also told a complete transmission change takes 3 mins lol
Diesel has always been a good idea. Now if there's a group willing to refine the Bio-Diesel Fuel production process, the petrol engines will start wheezing.
Caterpillar supported entering a VW V10-derived diesel the year before Audi brought their diesel engine to Le Mans. It was developed in Peterborough at the Perkins engines facility and raced in the 2004 race. The engines were bought from the local VW dealer and modified to race. It didn't finish as the gearbox ate itself from the torque.
Yeah Audi wasn't the first attempt at a Diesel LMP, as far as I am aware there was a diesel powered Le Mans entrant as far back as the late 1940s, however they were the first to attempt it as a full on works entry with VAGs vast technological capabilities and resources backing their effort.
the most important aspect of why diesel creates more torque is because the fuel can be injected up to about 45 degrees past TDC which provides a much longer duration of combustion on the power stroke... and then add that to the longer stroke and you get a very twisty beast indeed.
No, turbocharging is the main reason diesels produce significantly more torque. A naturally-aspirated diesel produces barely more torque than a NA petrol, but a lot less power.
a friend partakes tractor pull racing, his engine is diesel, 10 cylidner, Ironically from Leopard 1 tank. it has been overhauled, with both partnership with CAT and Mercedes Benz. it produced 2200 horsepower and 5,200lb torque, engine block itself is from 1965. edit: once in a while hed been asked to stand by and wait for evenings. because his turbos and ducting's glow red. steady blue flames out of exits, both sides... such a spectacle! but you should have seen how much black smoke it produced. it nearly rivaled old timey steam train.
So when motorsports use the "we champion the innovation of the industry of road cars, therefore we are a necessity" excuse remember this, they single handedly killed off that diesel innovation that was happening purely because it was winning races.
Even as a German I have to admit that the Peugeot 908 HDI is my all time favorite at Le Mans. The engine sounds unbelievably relaxed under any condition and it is a beautiful vehicle.
ulrich baretzky really is a genius on making engines, imagine from 1999 to 2016, all Le Mans car of Audi specially Engine is designed and led by him, from the Audi R8 to R10, R15 and ofc R18. from V12 to V10, to V8 and latest was V6 hybrid.. imagine how complex it is and advance you are that you can adapt to those eras
Audi's thought process: *We're winning....but what if we win harder?*
And then Toyota come
@@kazuya4133*Porsche broke the streak first
@@JaydonNgoh well, after too much butthurt by the ACO, and petrol heads, introducing crippling regulation changes to limit Audi, did this streak end.
It's like when they went to Trans Am, absolutely dominates there, car got banned, they went to IMSA to dominate and get the car banned again 😂
@@JaydonNgoh But then Toyota come
What a compliment to diesel racecar that they kept adjusting the rules in order to get rid of them. Speaks a lot to their potency.
Small technical point I wanted to add: Not only does diesel have more energy density as a fuel (which means efficiency in terms of storing energy), but the thermodynamic process/cycle is more efficient (or at least usually is, which means using the energy that is stored in the fuel more efficiently). Great video btw :)
Yes, most efficient engine as of now is Wärtsiläs marine diesel engine.
That whole bit in the video about longer stroke = more torque is rubbish. You've got it right - the constant PRESSURE inherent to the diesel cycle (as compared to the constant VOLUME process of the Otto cycle) is what generates the torque diesels are known for.
@@GroovesAndLands if you're saying that longer stroke = more torque is rubbish then you must not acknowledge the fact that a longer stroke means higher inertia and also that it helps harvest heat energy generated more as it takes longer for the power stroke right?
Edit: (I meant momentum instead of inertia but inertia isn't all that wrong either)
Correct me if I'm wrong, but i recall reading that technically the Otto cycle is more efficient if at the same compression ratio, only issue is that Gasoline explodes way before it can reach the pressures Diesel can.
@@Appletank8 yes thats true for the efficiencies for sure. As far as I know you dont wanna go above certain pressures in the cylinder that you reach way earlier with a otto process than with diesel (isochoric part of otto means that pressure will rise while burning the fuel, and quite a lot actually, if you only consider ideal processes). There might well be a certain pressure that you dont wanna go over with gasoline because of self ignition, although usually you tell it to ignite with sparksplugs anyways (if all goes well ;)), but I am no expert on that. For the diesel the burning of the fuel is isobaric which means that the pressure will not rise but volume will change and thus allow for much higher compression in the first place as you dont exceed the pressure limits that easily. Thanks tho for mentioning this for all us engineering nerds 😅
Loved those R18 onboards, at night. That low rumbling engine, but insane acceleration, was so special. I could watch it for hours.
Oh yes! When I think of the car, that's exactly what comes to mind. It just sounded powerful accelerating out of the corners.
@@warren010h 2011 le mans race was probably the best one to watch. especially how intense it was vs 908's
And the hybrid boost hitting the front axle makes it accelerate even harder. These were some of the coolest cars of all time.
@@recarsion I as hooping that Audi would make a turbo diesel V8 or V10 for the road-going R8. That would have been a beast with that much torque and quattro power-train. The question is would or could the gearbox survive that much torque and grip.
@@epistte a proper builder of gearboxes would have no problem building one that could handle it. look to bmw
This Audi terrified the gasoline powered racing industry. What I absolutely loved about this car is that the drivers could never use fulkl throttle until they got near top speed. The engine made so much torque , it would spin it's wheels, in a straight line, at any speed.What a spectacular machine.
And in any gear.....😂 One of the cars had gearbox issues, and was able to pull away in something like 3rd or 4th gear....
I bet this car was a blast to drive, being able to torque it's way thru a higher gear with no need to keep it in a tight rpm range
Diesels have way narrower power bands than petrol engines, so that's not how it's going to work.
@@MPI1000Try watching video again
@@MPI1000the fk are you babbling about? the whole point of the car was to exploit that large powerband
@@polar_inertia The whole point is it's bullshit. If you turbocharge the shit out of a 5.5l V10 it's going to have torque no matter what fuel you've got. But you know what? A 5.5l petrol engine turbocharged to 3 bars would have a power band twice as large at least, because it can rev to at least twice the rpm of a diesel... That's the reason a diesel engine is very limited in the power band. Why do you think diesel trucks have 18+ gears for instance?
The truth is that people want easy answers and narratives and are clamoring to soundbites to satisfy their meager curiosity.
Imagine doing a lap in one gear just to make a point? They could have pulled stunts like that after they had secured enough laps to win the race, like Porsche 956's lapping the course in a formation of 1-2-3. Audi laps Le Mans in fourth (or sixth, or whatever) gear!!!
They could even do one-gear laps with different gears to see which one was best!
Being from a small Scandinavian country, without proper tarmac racetracks, it's pretty impressive that Tom Kristensen was able to achieve the level of success that he did in Le Mans.
Well he had The Tradium Ring Djursdland LOL, but seriously he had to race in Germany and Japan to be able to compete Le Mans at his level
Finland is Scandinavia as well
@@Colby_0-3_IRL_and_title_fights ?
@@Colby_0-3_IRL_and_title_fights No, Finland is Nordic but not Scandinavian.
Not having proper racetracks is the exact thing that makes him and other Scandinavian drivers so extraordinary.
Those guys used and still do go to Finland and do Ice track racing without studded tires to learn car control. There is a reason why those guys usually have incredible car control even in the wet!
1100Nm of torque is just nuts
For reference, a 2021 Volvo FH16 truck is among their top of the line truck offerings, designed to haul 60 tons of weight. It has around 3000Nm of torque.
This car reaches a third of that which is insane considering one is a racecar and one is a literal truck
you cant compare the two
@@supersst838 it puts things into perspective though, packing 1/3 of the torque with roughly 1.6% of the truck's weight capacity will help you imagine how fast this car is.
AMG V8 4.0 engine - 900 Nm - PETROL turbocharged, same as 900 Nm made by top of the range TDI 4.0, except the TDI needs not only turbos but also a compressor, and still makes less hp than the AMG petrol engine, with just turbos on it.
Considering it is a 5.5L V12 that is pretty low. The bmw b57 is a 3.0 I6 production engine which came out with 400hp and 760nm in 2016, 10 years after the r10. They could turn those in a v12 and get 800hp/1600nm, but sadly those times are over...
@@Grievance_Studies_Affair_2018i dont know that engine is twincharged, wikipedia says it is twinturbo. also you forgot to mention that the AMG also have two turbos
In short, under the same regulations, be it limited by restrictor/boost or fuel Flow, a Diesel has more power and a wider powerband. Full stop. Yes, if you compensate for the weight a Diesel is more powerful and has a better rev range in absolute terms.
how can a diesel have better rev range? most times they go to 5000rpm petrol 7000rpm and with a petrol with direct injection it will have the torqeu like a diesel down low so i dont understand how a diesel hase better ev range then petrol?
@@8alakai8 When did he say they have a better rev range? He said wider powerband
@8alakai8 Better rev range doesn't mean highest peak RPM, it means on how big a percentage of the RPM Band, does it have peak power. For a Naturally Aspirated Petrol Racing engine it's 5% at best, usually its only a peak of a percent or two. For a Turbocharged petrol racing engine it's up to 25% of the rev range. For a Turbocharged Racing Diesel it's over 35% of the rev range. Peak Power, during full throttle acceleration, is directly linked to the wheel torque. The more time you spend at max P, the longer you have peak wheel torque, for the given speed. That means of the three engines, the diesel accelerates the fastest by a huge margain, even if they all have exactly the same power. (Up to 600kW for the last 5,5 Diesels in 2010).
It means that the engine can produce usable amount of torque at a wider range of rpm than a petrol engine, because of the energy density properties of diesel, the preheated fuel, the longer stroke length and the because of the direct injection mechanism. This is why I love driving good diesel cars any day of the year.
@@Jajeweet I did say better rev range. But Rev Range means usable rev range. Not peak RPM.
I am currently going through an internship at AUDI. One of my Colleagues was a former Engineer at AUDIs racesport department and the Storys he told me about le mans are great. A highly motivated team trying to push to the limit.
Whats his name?
My favorite part was they knew the gearbox they had wasn't likely going to last so they made it quck-change, and how gobsmacked the coverage was when they pushed it in the garage, bits flew, and suddenly they unplugged the whole setup, plugged in a new one and rolled it back out of the garage. And people though fast brake changes were neatness . . . Then they were told they couldn't do it that way, so they came up with another still fast method, and that to was disallowed Now we have, "No Transmission Changes Allowed" except the NASCAR thing.
Fastest "this should be a rule..." to it actually becoming a rule in history. They were in the garage for 5 minutes or something ridiculous...
If Toyota thought of that, how many Le Mans would the GT-One have one?
@@slwsnowman4038 iirc one was just over 6 minutes, and the other less than 6
@@jpkalishek4586 I remember, not sure if this is right or not, but Speed was headed to a commercial break promising to get more details after, the international feed did their usual international highlights, and when they got to the pit reporter, the car was already back on track and everyone was left wondering what it was. Then the Audi Dr said what they did...
@@slwsnowman4038 recalling back (I watched most of the race live on Speed back then) you might have it.
The second one they certainly paid close attention to. Then they had a clue that things might happen, and did they.
@@jpkalishek4586 However long it actually was, wasn't long enough for the ACO's liking. lol
Can’t go wrong Audi’s TDI! Absolute torque monsters 😈😈
Audi is like that perfect combination of comfort and performance,in other words, perfect combination of Mercedes and BMW. Balance is the word I am looking for.
@@adnan4688I couldn’t agree more!
I'm assuming you're being sarcastic man lol
American muscle cars are real torque monsters but that's what we Americans want, of course it's not needed, but with 1000hp and 1000ft lbs of torque, well, nuff said lol
@@johnserrano9689 Then please let the rest of the world enjoy precision engineering and premium quality while you keep thinking that everything from the United States America is great.
@@ismarwinkelman5648 oh, no little one, you missed my point entirely. I much prefer the build ideology of German cars as much as you clearly, except they're not built with raging raw power. That's simply not the idea behind the vehicle's, yet that is the main idea behind American muscle cars.
I genuinely hope that was as simple and straight forward for you to understand, rather than your original misguided comment of someone believing anything made in America is better, as I'm sure you understand the depravity of your comment now, I will leave it there
Best of Luck Bud
As a guy who has driven a diesel car for the past 30 years, I couldn't help but think the Audi Tdi Le Mans cars were out of this world, and the fact they were so quiet (turbos act as a silencer in diesel engines as opposed to petrol engines), made them so much more fascinating. I do wonder if Audi will attempt something off the charts in F1. And on a footnote, maybe Sains should reconsider and invest head on into the Audi project.
I love the torque-at-any-revs pull I get with mu Q5 TDI. Wish so hard those Audi diesels hadn't fallen out of favor in the US. Such miracle engines. Incredible power and fuel economy. 550 miles on a tank of in-town driving and nearly 700 on a road trip.
Yeah agreed. One of the main reasons tho is because over here, we don’t have a lot of people who know how to fix those diesel engines. We’re better at fixing diesel engines in pickups & semis.
@@NeedForSpeed.2004it's been a while since I looked into (I wanted a tdi but settled for an S4) but I think it was something regulatory was well that prevents them being widespread.
My 2014 Jetta TDI is awesome I love it
It's because the US not only has expensive diesel(you produce a lot more per gallon of crude oil so it should be cheaper) but also is very rough on small vehicle diesel emissions. But they are very relaxed with big vehicle emissions
Be sure to regularly check the fluids on your vehicle as well as keep up with standard maintenance. Have a good one.
Don’t forget the indicator fluid
I will piss in the gas tank
Oil is a meme bro.
Don't forget the blinker fluids
@@v4skunk739oil defeats friction, but isn't friction the way to transmit power?
Curious. 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔
Always loved VAG TDIs. My first stick shift car was a 2000 Beetle TDI. I could get 600 miles on a single fill-up. Now I daily a 2013 Passat TDI SE and has been a dream
I have a '99 A6 2.5 TDI, and I only use 3/4 of the tank (70L), and that gets me 600kms (372 miles), which does not sound a lot, but take into consideration that I mostly drive in city (80% of the time). When I went on a long roadtrip (in Europe 400 kms/248miles counts as long lol) I only used about 28 litres of diesel, which translates to 32.67 mpg, and with that I can achieve over 1000kms/621miles of range. Note that this is a 1.6 ton/3200lbs car with a 2.5L V6 diesel, from '99. The 3.0 TDI after this has a way better fuel economy and range. :D
I also love the Vag
My Mk6 2.0 tdi Golf has range of 1000 km on motorway..just incredible with no sacrifice of decent power
Love this. I was at the R10 TDI's first race in 2006: 12 Hours of Sebring that year. A lot of people were in disbelief that this eerily quiet, diesel-powered LMP was kicking everyone's butt.
To the point of the heavier internals, I'll give a good example. I was rebuilding an old VW 1.9 TDI at the same time as a shop-mate of mine was rebuilding an old small block Chevy. I was pretty gob-smacked when he handed me this much bigger bore than what I was working on piston WITH connecting rod attached, and it felt so wildly light.
I get out a piston for the 1.9 TDI, which is nearly a full inch smaller in diameter, and the TDI piston by itself weighed MORE than the significantly larger small block Chevy piston WITH ITS CONNECTING ROD ATTACHED.
That's insane. It really boggles the mind to see this assembly that is substantially larger and with more parts feel noticeably lighter weight than just this small TDI piston by itself. Absolutely bonkers.
Well-done on the technical details in this video. As a technician myself, there's a lot of poorly informed videos out there that get a lot of details wrong, but overall on this one, you're bang-on.
I love this video! Im an American with a VW Golf TDI and rarely see them. But this beast is quick, and gets between 45-50 mpg on average. I drive 3-4 hours round trip for work. Its awesome. Never knew about this history. Thank you
I’ve got a vw Jetta (mk4 2.slow) at about 20-24 mpg, what generation is your tdi?
Interesting! Where i live (Spain) we can see a TDI in each corner. Its not difficult to see 4-5 old tdi in a row parked. Greetings from Spain
Really interesting. With the right e fuels produced, diesel is still one of the best ways for cars etc. Love my 80l diesel tank for easy over 1000km in a big transit custom... Even 1200km are not a big problem in summer time on highway with 110kmh
We still have our 2014 diesel Audi A6. Fantastic car with 750+ miles range.
@@jstogdill how many miles on the car already?
When driving long distance very carefully I can get 1000km out of my 55l tank in my Caddy. Usually between 850 and 900km. My girls 50l petrol powered Golf asks for more after 550km if driven by me (more like 450 for her). I'd love a 80l or even 100l tank so I could refuel 4 times a year 😂
Kinda makes me wish my f150 was diesel. I normally get around 690 miles per 33 gallon tank which equals out to 20.9 mpg (epa combined estimated mpg is around 16). Now if i had diesel, id have more efficiency than the 5.0 v8 produces and get better gas mileage with more torque!!
Really? 1000km in a Transit custom? My Transit custom won’t do that, sadly. Which engine does yours have?
My 1.9 tdi Passat made up to 1100km (very slow though). I really miss that car
I saw that car race at Road Atlanta. Truly amazing. It hardly made any noise you could hear the tires more than it's engine.
I like learning about F1, but I really enjoy seeing videos about Le Mans and rally cars. Excellent work!
False. Just misinformation to get money/favours/content from Volkswagen. He even censors my comments about the real backgrounds of this diesel racing program, obviously because his sponsor doesn't want to be embarrassed with the truth.
One interesting aspect of the Audi and Peugeot diesel cars at the Le Mans series (was it called WEC then?) is that they were a lot less noisy than the gasoline cars, and that is because on diesel engines the turbocharger acts like a muffler of sorts.
That and because they don't rev so high.
@@Assimilator1 I think ONLY because they don't rev so high, as petrol engines have turbochargers also (so if there's any muffling going on, it happens there too).
@@1258-Eckhart Turbo's do cut some of the sound down, so yea with petrol's too👍
@@Assimilator1 The 962 at speed was more of a woosh than a scream.
I was lucky enough to see these cars run at Road America in WI many many moons ago. It was amazing to watch them WOOSH by on the back straight. They were SOO quiet.
one of my all time favorite motorsports clips is Allan McNish narrating a lap of le mans in a R10
I remember being at LM 24 the year they were introduced. The wierdest thing was the lack of noise; after the screamers and throaty 'Vettes etc they really sounded like a Flymo!
i remember getting introduced to this beast in Forza motorsport 3!
it absolutely shredded everything
I loved these cars as a teenager. Grew up learning to drive with TDI engines so these were like hero cars to me. These Audis were as cool to me as the Mazda 787B for their quirkiness and different approach to racing.
Same experience here. I spent a lot of time driving different Audi TDI's during driving lessons. Always loved that you could let the car roll in idle, and they were comfortable.
Wow, learning driving using diesel manual... hope it wasn't hard for you when you started to drive petrol/gas engine cars
@@tomvsas I got too used to that I found it difficult driving manual petrol cars😅
Another victim of marketing and poor education. I guess you didn't even want to try critical thinking because it gave you such a good feeling to pretend that the car you were driving was "the best", huh?
@@pistonburner6448wtf are you even talking about? Are you offended that these people drive diesel cars or something? I'm so confused lol
The combat between this R8 and the Peugeot 908 hdi.... I loved it.
I watched those R race cars diesel and regular fuel loaded crush Le Mans all too easily with Tom Kristensen for many years. Audi was at the top of thier endurance game no doubt.
Bold statements for someone who has no clue. Or hey, if you claim to know anything about this subject then:
Who did "Audi" compete against?
Why was diesel so successful...against what exactly? Why were the rules the way they were?
@@pistonburner6448found the petrol head
@@pistonburner6448 1. the rest of the grid. 2. it was successful against petrol because the manufacturer put its effort into it instead of it being a side project. why were the rules like that? because they wanted more pit stops, to make the racing closer
@@jordanwardle11 If they wanted more pit stops, why did the rules favor diesels?
@@PistonAvatarGuy they wanted more put stops. And no one had been racing diesel much so it wasn't considered
Thanks for the awesome video. Can you imagine finding one of these engines. Love to hear a diesel engine rev up to 6500 rpm
It's not a particularly good sound even at 6.5k rpm, from most racing games I have played that is.... found myself banging the Rev limiter a lot of the time thinking I was high in the rpms😅
The Audi's didn't reach 6500 rpm. There is great in-car of the R18 hybrid (4.0L V6 diesel) running LeMans at night. Max revs is about 4500 rpm.
Diesel is so fun. Although it's not the best for racing,for daily drive it's just too good . Loads of amount of torque in low revs is all needed in the most practical scenarios.
Racing engineers just don't care diesel
The automotive industry should have switched to diesel decades ago. It's a shame that it didn't replace gas in standard consumer vehicles.
Or you can just use gears to provide torque.
Diesel was really big until 2015.
Before, in some car categories you had more diesel than petrol cars!
However the fallout of the dieselgate killed the technology.
@@PerfectTangent europe was mostly diesel for years until recently. they're being a bit unfairly targeted for emissions so they're starting to go away again.
The industry should have focused on diesel fuels for sick efficiency gainz instead of sheepishly following the electricshit con-job.
hi Scott! Any chance we can see an analysis of kimi's driving style? he used to be bloody quick in his prime
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I saw it run before, it was amazing. So much quieter than the other cars, it just zipped along.
I still miss the TDI sound in WEC, both by AUDI and Peugeot.
I remember seeing the R10 at Road America in 2006. It was amazing to hear it whoosh by so quietly that could hear the wind on the aero package.
Same for me at Sebring and Road Atlanta! That low powerful rumble as it whooshed by.
40mins Video Compressed to 10mins that is Epic . The Best Motorsports Channel on TH-cam
Not the screaming v12 we'd all love to see Audi build, but a cracking one nonetheless!
Definitely made me fascinated with the v10 touregs of the time-still have a bit of a list for one of those, or want to expierience the engine at least!
I really hate when regulatory bodies stifle innovation with stupid rules. What's so wrong with diesel having its own class to compete in? They'd rather just nerf it into oblivion instead 🤦
I really wish we had more (reliable) diesel cars in the states, im a little jealous of what yall have across the world. I drive 100 miles (or 160km) a day for work and knowing I dont have really any good little commuter diesels option sucks.
My mk6 tdi gets about 45mpg is manual and is not a slouch at around 360ftlbs of torque
There is no "good little diesel". You need at least V6/I6 if you don't want an awful tractor sound and low power (unless you want to tune a smaller engine).
You can thank the EPA for killing diesel cars in the USA.
Cdi
Cdi 800 miles per tank full size car
I was there when it first appeared at Le Man's. It was literally insane and walked the race. The difference in engine sound was the most striking element. All other cars roared past and these just glided by! Bizarrely brilliant!
The modern diesel (and probably so with those LeMans Audis) is quieter mainly because of the Commonrail system and because of the turbocharging which played their sound wave, hence, a nice nearly quiet ride.
The old ones, which uses fuel pumps (either mechanical or electric) are a bit noisy but for me, they are fantastic and had a beast character.
The aluminium blocked diesel engine is not only in that Audi. In 1940, USSR had built the cast Al-Si diesel engine block installed in the T-34 medium tank, KV-1 and KV-2, IS series tanks dubbed the V-2 which is a V12 delivering 500hp and a monstrous 2160Nm torque. The engine is a bit unique, because the right bank side stroke and the left bank side stroke had a different length. It is so unique, even the Germans try to copy the engine with the same Al-Si block but they failed with complaints of block melting, but somehow the Soviet made it. Well, in between 1941 - 1943, the engine had to use cast iron because the lack of aluminium.
Volkswagen's (and also Audi's) V10 is fabulous but a bit disastrous for. There are also other V10 diesel, built by Isuzu, Nissan Diesel, Hino, Mitsubishi Fuso, Mercedes Benz, Deutz, Tatra, and some Soviet prototype engine that basically add a set of V cylinder behind the existing KamAZ-740 V8 diesel engine.
I think the biggest V10 for road-going vehicle is Isuzu's with the 10TD1 which is a 30.3 liter V10 Naturally Aspirated Diesel putting out 600hp of power and a whopping 2059Nm of torque AND it is quite famous because Isuzu is a well-known brand that put out staggering fuel efficiency even with big engine like the 10TD1. The other V10 by Nissan Diesel, Hino, and Mitsubishi Fuso (and probably Mercedes Benz's) are a diesel-guzzler compared to the Isuzu.
VW's PD diesels were the worst in terms of noise. All fuel in a single high-pressure, finely atomised dosage did quite a loud bang.
fun fact that V2 engine is still being used till this day in the modern T- 62 and up tanks, its been heavily modified but it is still that same engine block.
It must be pointed out Audi may have created it but Peugeot perfected it. The Peugeot 908 was undoubtedly faster. The 908 was so stupidly fast it was built to compete with the R10 TDI, entering in 2007. But it was still faster than the new R15 that Audi fielded to replace the R10 in 2009! When they went head to head over a season's racing in 2008 the Peugeot mopped the floor with the R10 throughout the Le Mans series championship. Winning every race ahead of the Audis EXCEPT the last one, because both Peugeots suffered accidents. It let Audi take all the titles. A twist of fate and history shows Audi won, but anyone that knows saw the Peugeots battered it. Echoes of Group B rally. The Audi Quattro was a revelation, but the Peugeot 205 T16 was really the star and ultimately proved much faster.
And that VW decided to turn Porsche into the WEC and take Audi out of it, says much more. It seems that even VW lost their hope in Audi's engineering abilities.
@@alicethegrinsecatz1611 To me it was always kind of sus that Audi often competed in an era where they had virtually no serious big works rivals, and the one time they had a serious works rival they were generally slower. It took Audi until considerably altered regulations in 2011 to properly overcome the first generation 908 by basically admitting the closed cockpit was the better design and building a completely new car and engine. Even then the now aged first generation 908 was still competitive and won races against the third iteration of Audi LMP1 diesels. Notably a customer Oreca 908 at Sebring! Peugeot's second gen works 908 that year cleaned up against the Audis once again in the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup. Seven races and a Peugeot won six of them. Afterwards Peugeot pulled the plug on their racing program.
Peugoet lost to Audi in Lemans in 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2011. Peugoet won in 2009.
Pretty pathetic in my opinion.
@@noobsaibot7006 Audi won more at Le Mans due to various accidents and failures of Peugeot at those particular races, generally the Peugeot was faster. However if you think that these teams build their cars to do one race per year and that's how you judge their success in the LMP1 category which holds a whole season of endurance races then that's mostly what I expect from people that don't really know about racing. Kind of like asking who won the Monaco Formula One GP any given year and then that forms their entire opinion of a racing series for that year. That's literally the equivalent of your comment. Good way to broadcast ignorance though I suppose.
Sounds like you’ve either A) you’ve got a bee in your bonnet with Audi or B) you are ginormous Peugeot fan? What you’ve basically just explained is that competition eventually catches up with the innovator. It’s the cycle of motor sport and engineering in general and to go out your way to taint the success of a team/innovator of their time isn’t exactly fair. People do catch up and do supersede, that’s sport.
Diesel engines have longer strokes because they need high compression. Longer distance for the piston = more force / pressure.
exactly, they need that stroke to pull in enough air to compress to the ridiculously high ratio. some diesels ive worked on in the past were a solid 30:1 ratio, whereas a normal road going petrol engine today is around 10:1, and lower if it was a turbo.
Compression ratios are independent of rod length.
@@ghomerhust "...some diesels ive worked on in the past were a solid 30:1 ratio..."
What diesels were those?
@@mrmedium7984 As well as stroke, as the combustion chamber size can vary greatly.
@@PistonAvatarGuy which is why ulrich baretzky is a genius. man went from conventional gasoline fuel to diesel, and finally to hybrid era. from V12 to v6 across 16+ years of le mans
I had the pleasure of driving this car... in the 2009 video game GRiD. Sadly, it seems it won't run on a modern PC, truly the end of an era. 😢
Upgrade your pc then lol
@danielainger8666 so, make it even *more* modern?
Not really gonna help, is it.
Huh? A 2009 game should easily work now, I play often TF2, a game from 2007
@@garbage2882 A lot do. Prostreet, Shift 1+2, Underground 2, old Assassins Creeds... but not GRiD. 😔
@@grimmriffer thats really weird, you can still play the original Half Life from the 90s
You know you are doing things right, when the organizers have to change the rules, to make the "competitors" competitive.
Proven reliability. My a3 has done 253000 and is 14 year's old and still going strong.
TDI does amazing things to your system...
I've seen these race at Mosport back in the 2000's. They were awesome and beat the entire field. I remember getting close to them when the mechanics fired it up but man did it smell pretty bad lol
Another well done video on an interesting topic. Thanks for breaking it down in a way we can understand. I learned so many things in just this one video! Thank you.
Audi was paddocked next to us at Laguna and one of their guys spilled their diesel fuel drum, spilling a bunch all over our area. We went to get some absorbent materials and when we got back it had almost all evaporated. Some special diesel they were running. 🤔
You probably mean Joest...Audi doesn't race anything themselves...and they didn't develop any of that diesel stuff or any engine tech themselves either, they buy everything from outside.
You're probably right about that 'special diesel', as they even had 'special rules' which they negotiated for themselves before they even started the whole program to begin with...and started competing in that empty series with no real competition, only privateers with at best 1/10th of the budget.
Actually that diesel was just synthetic diesel, it's not what you could buy at diesel pumps. It was made from natural gas.
@@pistonburner6448 That sounds interesting, where did you get thisinformation ?
So I couldn't take the diesel from the 5-ton truck I drove in the US Army to power this Audi? 😅
(I was stationed at Ford Ord)
@@pistonburner6448 it was the Champion Racing Audi sport of North America R10. That was kind of my point, they called it a diesel but it wasn’t really diesel fuel like we know it. When we were at LeMans the Audi teams made the track clean out the large underground fuel tank for their garage twice and then they themselves ran a cleaner through it and then they brought the fuel in and didn’t let anyone near it.
@@pistonburner6448 It was Champion Racing The chassis was designed by Audi and made by Dallara .The engine was all Audi. Designed by Ulrich Baretzky and build by Audisport in Neckarsulm Germany . Audi buying engine stuff from outside??????🤣
There is a technical reason why diesel engine typically have longer stroke, lower RPM, and higher torque
Combustion takes time. Gasoline engine advance the ignition timing so the piston is at TDC (top dead center) when the flame is fully developed.
Diesel don't use spark plugs, so combustion always starts at TDC. As the piston moves faster, the flame fully develop later relative to TDC, and less power is extracted.
This effectively puts a relatively low RPM cap on diesel engines.
Horsepower is a result of torque and RPM - more torque and more RPM equals more horsepower.
So if RPM is limited, then the only way to increase horsepower is to increase torque.
Torque is a result of force (from combustion) and leverage. The leverage that matters is the radius of the crank.
A larger radius will need a larger connecting rod, which results in a longer stroke.
Sorry to go off topic. But would definitely be interested to hear your thoughts on SVJ's brilliant drive as a rookie in NASCAR. Cheers from New Zealand
10:00 I hate the fact that regulations stifle innovation. F1 is the same. The regulations notionally were there to enable smaller budget teams to compete, but what that meant is they had to compete in the same “game”. Go back to when regulations were looser and the smaller teams tried unconventional solutions to win. Aero, turbos, 6 wheels, fans, side skirts, carbon, engine placement, traction control etc. None of those things can happen today as it is so prescriptive. In my eyes, racing is worse off for this.
Note that the torque of this V12 is VERY LOW!
And this was actually by design! You can only transmit so much torque to the ground and Le Mans has often been a rainy race.
You can calculate HP from Torque. So this engine is a very high rev. Diesel.
When you compare this to a non tech Cummins 5.9l Similar engine size: These 6BT produce 1100NM with an easy 300-350HP. When you push a 5.9 higher, like 650 HP with a big turbo or a compound one, the torque that these produce is in a range of 1500 - 1800 NM easily.
The German articles about that engine said the Audi had a hard time to control the torque. A gearbox to hold 1100NM for 24h FF is a real pain. The choice to make it a high volume V12 was just MKT! An idiot idea.
A R6 3l or 3,5 would have been way better. But: Audi tried to convince idiots to pay high prices for a Q7 with V12 Diesel, VW to do so with a 5l V10 ...
As we all know today: 3l is big enough to get you 400HP from a endconsumer diesel.
Racing diesels at the beginning were not running lean. In 2012 Audi started playing with Lamda > 1, but it was not anything near to what we have on the road. Peugeot's engine was breathing more like a gasoline one. And it had very cool fully-machined block.
Love your work scotty 😊❤
Simply can’t explain my love for dieselpower 😅
Is there any chance you could do an analysis on Alain Prost's driving style?
Haha, I can relate. My car is a BMW X5 M50d, a 3L 6 cylinder Diesel with 3 turbos, 740Nm and 381hp. There are so many people being confused how fast a Diesel car can be.
That's one thing I hate about motorsport - engineers come up with brilliant ideas and execute them perfectly, but then the FIA says - nah mate, can't do that. And change the rules to peg them back OR ban the innovation altogether. Long story short - FIA are pricks.
You know that Audi only ever won anything because they fixed the rules for themselves beforehand, right? I mean just look at who they competed against: privateer teams, and no-one else even tried to compete using the same tech...
@@pistonburner6448 fair point, but look at the history in general
@@pistonburner6448 They competed gainst Peugeot 908 which was the faster car all around
@@Keckegenkai Read my reply to your other comment
The end of this video is a little misleading, diesels didn’t go away because of fuel tank restrictions. It’s just by 2016 the big diesel engines were too heavy in comparison to Porsche’s small V4. And plus dieselgate happened which caused Audi to pull out.
2010: Mike Rockenfeller wins overall in a Audi R15 TDI at the 24hrs of Le Mans. 2023: Mike Rockenfeller drives in the Garage 56 Camaro in a class winning effort at the 24hrs of Le Man.
2010: "Audi" competed against absolutely no real competition, in a series whose rules they had arranged with the organisers beforehand in exchange for Audi saving that series from bankruptcy.
2023: That was a class with exactly one car in it, so it's really hard to not win that class if you make it to the finish.
@pistonburner6448 i'm not that much into Le Mans but didnt Peugeot actually compete with Audi by the late 2000s?
@pistonburner2448 by the way dude, i really recommend you to ACTUALLY GIVE US YOUR SOURCES (this is really important. Dont expect people to just believe what you say), as well as not acting the way you're acting in this comment section if you want people to actually want to listen to what you're saying. Seeming all that emotional just takes away from your credibility and makes it seem like you're just driven by hate for Audi and VW as a whole
@@lRedKill3r Yes, but Volkswagen had honed their machine and operations for years and years of racing in the series (against no real competition), and still had a much higher budget than Peugeot. In such a situation it's virtually impossible for new competitors to win, it would take them many years of developing their car, gaining the same experience as Volkswagen had, while not benefitting from marketing returns...only negative image as they're seen losing time and time again for years. There's a reason why Volkswagen Group only enters "empty" series with no constructor teams participating, at least on full commitment. Or they enter with a budget-"blitz" (and pre-developed car, usually buying racing operations from a team who has gathered experience in the series) in a situation when the series is in a slide downwards with manufacturers having massively cut funding PLUS with Volkswagen having secured a huge rule change which massively reduces the benefit of past development of the competitors.
And remember that Volkswagen was pouring money into the series for years and for sure demanded the organizers (who owed their whole remaining in business to VW) to always implement the exact rules Volkswagen wanted...which are rumored to always include at minimum some little strategic changes to *_perfectly_* suit Volkswagen's car and the development trajectory they had.
@@pistonburner6448Peugeot literally had a faster car from the start and they won in 2009.
Would love to see content looking at the cars racing in wec and imsa this year!
Rest in Peace Dilano van 't Hoff. He died at only 18 years old today in a rainy race at Spa.
That happens in racing.
I saw the car a few times and the thing I remember was the sound of tire clag hitting the inside of the fenders at certain times because it was quiet. The way it navigated corner entry and exit was a precursor to formula-e.
I have a VW TDI and it is a blast to drive.. no wonder Audi TDI power is monstrous. There's no match for Diesel drivability, all the dirty fuel drama is for dummies. And the fuel economy is off the charts, I'd fill the tank and wouldn't bother for a month or more. Diesel all the way!!
Petrol All the way! Diesel for poor people, who are worried about filling up more often, and even then it's not entirely true. I drive the Alfa Stelvio with the 2.0 280HP at 7 litres per 100km and it's a better ride than the Audi.
Both of you are wrong , LPG all the way, cheap af and honestly not that different from petrol except you maybe lose 3hp at most lol
my dads 2015 jetta with a dpf delete/Egr delete and cr190 turbo upgrade (EU spec is bigger than NA spec) is getting just under 430ft lbs of torque and about 190ish horsepower on a 2.0 4 cylinder maintaining 53-55 mpg. that thing has more torque than our 2008 f150 with a 5.4 V8 in it.
i think someone has to tell the audi engineers that they cant use diesel in f1
Why would you tell that to Audi engineers? You know that for the LeMans stuff Volkswagen bought all the tech from Fiat, Bosch and other outside companies, and also bought all the racing activities from Joest and other outside companies, right? Volkswagen even bought the tailor-made rules from the race series in order to guarantee victories for them.
@@pistonburner6448 that tends to happen if you dont have a proper racing pedigree. Not everyone can be a Ferrari or Porsche
Engineers make this world go around. Amazing solutions to fascinating problems.
*THE BEST ENGINE* I have ever had was a tuned Opal 2.2 Diesel with a Garrets variable vane turbo on it - it was in an Opal Astra Cabrio I took in part exchange and it was ASTONISHING.
It had so much torque it would shear the centre out of clutch plates. Cos the variable geometry turbo, it had the power all the way from 1000rpm to 5,000rpm it just pulled and pulled and pulled. I wanted to buy a Caterham and put this magnificent engine in it but life got in the way. I let a "friend in need" have the car and the proviso they gave it back to me, and we fell out...
Diesel is still the best of the engine designs. Better for efficiency, torque spread and longevity when all are combined. Its being phased out under the scam of being bad for pollution but with the latest after treatments thats also untrue.
It takes less energy to refine the fuel and less of it is required compared to petrol.
They may not be as exciting to thrash as a petrol but diesels certainly make more sense as daily use engines.
Am using bio-diesel production as my final year research project, this has got me motivated 💪
@@subilasikwese5459 Good luck mate. There is some great info out there. I used to make my own biodiesel in my shed - a very simple process once you understand titrations and so on.
I'm a little too lazy these days but its certainly scaleable.
Have a look into basing it from mash - effectively using waste to make fuel.
It consumes quite a lot of energy to do but if you are getting that energy from waste its hardly a bad thing anyway.
@@siraff4461 a few studies I saw online were using groundnuts and other similar feedstock plants, using waste is even better, thanks for the knowledge
Efficiency - yes, if you don't count hybrids, which are almost exclusively gasoline. And even non-hybrids are very close once you take in the account different energy density.
Torque - turbocharged gasolines are better
Longevity - depends on how an engine is built, and diesels aren't as good anymore once manufacturers learnt how to cut corners on diesels, too.
Can you explain why it takes less energy to refine the fuel?
@@Papinak2 Efficiency is a given. No point going on about the fuel's specific energy density because petrols can't run on diesel.
They are quite a lot more thermally efficient and the horsepower hours per litre are noticably better with diesel.
Hybrids are a sticking plaster for the petrol's poor efficiency - there are diesel hybrids too and they are better though they usually cost more.
Torque over rpm is another place where its pretty much all one way. You can make a petrol produce more torque but its at the expense of efficiency again - once they are past a certain amount of boost they have to pull timing or feed in more fuel simply to keep the engine happy which diesels simply don't need to.
Longevity wise I see loads of diesels with over 200k miles for sale running but hardly any petrols and none of the high pressure DI, heavily boosted ones which they need to make similar torque.
As for refining - diesel is refined from a lower temperature and requires much less after treatment. Less temperature means less energy going into the process. In most refineries all the useful stuff is taken form a barrell of crude so the heat will go up anyway but if we just look at the diesel and petrol diesel is noticably easier to make - as is bio-diesel over bio-ethanol.
Very good explanation to complicated thermodynamic principals. Great video
Diesel won only because regulations allowed bigger capacity of engine for diesel then for gasoline. Then it was 4000 cc allowed for turbo diesel and only 3000 cc for turbo petrol
And I think diesels were also allowed to run 2x higher boost than petrol engines.
Wishing that there would be more diesel engines present in the sports and race car lines
rev a Diesel engine to 6.5k rpm is already insane
standard road car usually don't go beyond 4.5k rpm
Honda goes 9k RPM, V-TEC power you liar!!!!
@@EuntaeHwang He was talking about diesels.
Got to see this car at Laguna seca during car week and it was such a treat to see a 5 time lemans winner in the flesh. I was also told a complete transmission change takes 3 mins lol
The fact that the R8 V12 TDI roadcar never happened due to american customers is a shame.
No, but a Q7 V12 TDI and a Touareg V10 TDI did.
@@SgtNuker Very cool.. I bet the V12 is a heartbreaker when it comes to maintenance!
@@frostedbutts4340 The V10 definitely was. The way it had to be packaged meant that the things that should be easy access couldn't be.
@@SgtNuker Its a racecar derived engine in a 2 ton SUV. Congrats.
Even the newer V8 TDI which has turbos AND compressor is a pain in the ass and an endless money pit.
1.9 tdi f1 car in 2026?
I still think that period was Le Mans' peak. Peugeot also had a diesel V12 that was extremely good. The sound those cars made was heavenly
Diesel has always been a good idea. Now if there's a group willing to refine the Bio-Diesel Fuel production process, the petrol engines will start wheezing.
Caterpillar supported entering a VW V10-derived diesel the year before Audi brought their diesel engine to Le Mans. It was developed in Peterborough at the Perkins engines facility and raced in the 2004 race. The engines were bought from the local VW dealer and modified to race. It didn't finish as the gearbox ate itself from the torque.
Yeah Audi wasn't the first attempt at a Diesel LMP, as far as I am aware there was a diesel powered Le Mans entrant as far back as the late 1940s, however they were the first to attempt it as a full on works entry with VAGs vast technological capabilities and resources backing their effort.
I loved the looks of this car. And the fact it was diesel made it kind of cool :D
Great summary. I had no idea about that. Well explained!
I watched these cars race once and was blown away by how quiet they were. You could literally hear the gear box.
the most important aspect of why diesel creates more torque is because the fuel can be injected up to about 45 degrees past TDC which provides a much longer duration of combustion on the power stroke... and then add that to the longer stroke and you get a very twisty beast indeed.
No, turbocharging is the main reason diesels produce significantly more torque. A naturally-aspirated diesel produces barely more torque than a NA petrol, but a lot less power.
Far more exciting than the current hypercar category.
Everyone: "Audi how much do you want to win?"
Audi: "Yes."
a friend partakes tractor pull racing, his engine is diesel, 10 cylidner, Ironically from Leopard 1 tank. it has been overhauled, with both partnership with CAT and Mercedes Benz. it produced 2200 horsepower and 5,200lb torque, engine block itself is from 1965. edit: once in a while hed been asked to stand by and wait for evenings. because his turbos and ducting's glow red. steady blue flames out of exits, both sides... such a spectacle! but you should have seen how much black smoke it produced. it nearly rivaled old timey steam train.
So when motorsports use the "we champion the innovation of the industry of road cars, therefore we are a necessity" excuse remember this, they single handedly killed off that diesel innovation that was happening purely because it was winning races.
the special audi case aside, this is one of the best explanations of how petrol vs diesel engines work
I had a vw tdi golf for eight years, best car i ever had.
loved the video, so much interesting material and facts presented
Even as a German I have to admit that the Peugeot 908 HDI is my all time favorite at Le Mans. The engine sounds unbelievably relaxed under any condition and it is a beautiful vehicle.
This diesel story is my favourite motorsport story.
Color me interested!, I truly cannot wait to see what Audi brings to F1
Loved my 1.9 BEW TDI. So much torque for a light hatchback. I would throw my life savings away for a TDI R8.
Should talked about Peugeot aswell
it was so good, that no one has ever tried to replicate that.
I would give ANYTHING for a diesel racing series😩
BMW did it first in Nurburgring 1998 I think, it was E36 320d, (M47 version 2 liter diesel). It was also endurance race
E36 with a engine of the E46.
M47 136 cv.
@@TiagoSilva-nc2su Yes, it was bit tuned if I recall properly around 200hp
ulrich baretzky really is a genius on making engines, imagine from 1999 to 2016, all Le Mans car of Audi specially Engine is designed and led by him, from the Audi R8 to R10, R15 and ofc R18. from V12 to V10, to V8 and latest was V6 hybrid.. imagine how complex it is and advance you are that you can adapt to those eras
you have a great channel here... thanks