I don't understand why people keep commenting on how it "sounds"... it's a race car meant only for speed, extreme g-force and fast lap times. It's not meant to impress at a bar
One thing it does remind you of is that the high powered yet quiet turbo diesels on high end cars would not sound so smooth if not enclosed within an acoustic box. As James May once said about diesel sport cars after driving the Audi A4 Convertible 2.0d , 'gorgeous looking, sporty but something not quite right, a bit like seeing a super model smoking a tobacco pipe!'
I am so glad you did not ruin the vid with the usual journalist/driver 'commentary' that everyone seems to do these days - maybe you were not allowed to? i say wring something to death with proper concentration and THEN layer the commentary on top afterwards in edit
particularly it's been a very special and pleasant year. I've driven the RS6 and also seen this e-tron in interlagos. what an incredible machine!!! just couldn't be happier
"Think you so much for that, that was amazing!" "No problem Richard, glad you enjoyed it." Sounds like someone wasn't impressed with your performance... Regardless, I'm very impressed!
I liked the video before the first second started cause I knew this would be a good one. Meaden is very lucky being able to drive an f1 car and a le man car.
jake Stevens The best sounding diesel in my opinion is the Audi 4.2 V8 TDI used in the Audi A8, Audi Q7, Porsche Cayenne diesel S and VW Touareg V8 TDI. I own an Audi A8 4.2 TDI and it sounds like a petrol V8. You'd never know it was a diesel.
More technology than the last three years of F1 combined. And that's before we get to the Toyota! And before 2014, 4WD LMP1 cars could only release their harvested energy above 120 KPH
I'd actually call the Toyota more advanced because it's electric powertrain is in a completely different league to Audi's. But the 919 has them both beat.
Patrick Palony I should have been more clear about my meaning as more is really the wrong word. My point is that how advanced something is isn't measure in the amount of parts, but more in the amount of technological innovations and optimizations at hand. What Audi, Porsche and Toyota is bringing to the table are all very advanced and I simply thing it's wrong to assume the one is more advanced than the other - they are just advanced in different ways.
Well you've never watched formula 1. The pinnacle of motorsport and technology. If Le Man was more advanced then they would be at the pinnacle. They also malign hybrid engines. 1.6 letre V6 turbo charged hybrid systems. Not including the KERS systems either. The engine alone is far more advanced then your hybrid V6 diesel. Just because they have a thousand buttons just means their cars aren't well structured and organised. Your comment has to be one of the stupidest I've ever read!
Cole Jones Let me get this right. Formula 1 is the "pinnacle of motorsport and technology" because exactly what? Your statement about F1 being more advanced does not give any real arguments as to why that should be true - it seems to me you are just repeating FIA marketing and old wives tales. Sure back in the day F1 was the most advanced, but for some time know the most advanced technology is found elsewhere, simply because the rules are so restrictive that other sports has moved past and the WEC (which includes the Le Mans race) has been at the forefront for some time now. It sounds as if you think a Diesel is somehow not advanced, but you are mistaken and the same goes for all the other bits on the most advanced WEC cars.
Well made video. As another person said below, it avoided the usual babble of consciousness reactive in-car commentary, instead going with intelligent and considered voice-over laid down after having done the drive.
Really awesome! Congrats on getting this opportunity and documenting it. Thanks a lot! By the way, was that Randy Pobst at the begging on the video?! I'm a FAN!
The video reminded me, that I have this car in my virtual garage in Forza 5. I did a 6:17 on Nordschleife today, but only with half downforce, I noticed later. With the full 862 kg downforce it's much more sticky to the track but gets sluggish. My lap times aren't that good compare to others in the leaderboards, but pretty close to real hot laps on this track with other cars (Sim-Racers are far better). So I doubt, that it could beat the old Bellof record from 1983 with a better driver. It needs more horse powers or less weight. The old P-cars had both and all the electronics today can't beat the physics after all. But with sportscars it's far more worse. Today they weight much more than a ton, but with all this horse powers you have to break even before divining the coming turn. You have to memorize all breaking points on a track, especially on LeMans. With the P-cars it's so more natural because they break so much better. They have the same breakpoints than a normal car with a fraction of speed. And F1-cars could drive most of time without breaks, just down shift...
You mention the power figures but with diesel it is all about the torque, which the Audi has around 850nm of the stuff. Got to love a tuned Diesel, they sound awesome and I love my 3L Diesel bm.
I'm trying to get an idea of the torque this thing produces with 570hp from the engine, some websites were suggesting its around 400something lb/ft which I find impossible considering its a turbo diesel and didn't sound in the video like it revs past 5k. Anybody know where to find this info?
Here we are understanding there are massive difference in performance and feel of the cars from supercars, hypercars and race cars being many many levels above those 2 previously mentioned. Meanwhile, down the chain we have difficulty in making people understand and appreciate the difference between driving automatic (automated manual, DSG etc) and Manual transmissions.
Here we are understanding there are massive difference in feel of cars from supercars, hypercars and race cars. Meanwhile, down the chain we have difficulty in making people understand and appreciate the difference between driving automatic (automated manual, DSG etc) and Manual transmissions. They just think it is the same. They will likely think a self correcting (semi autonomous) car or even a fully autonomous car gives the same experience (risk, fear, adrenaline rush) as a Manually steered and controlled car.
I was watching another video where they said that they really don't even need a driver in these cars or formula one cars! Everything could be completely computer controlled by actuators and the engineers back in the Pitts using telemetry, almost like how the military use computer control predator drones! But they said no one would go pay money to see remote control cars rase! 😂 So people still want to see a driver win! Is the ultimate combination of man and machine! Even though is mostly now machine and really would be more efficient with just machines! I mean an adult male easily weighs 170lbs. So that in itself affects the performance!
While I agree that technology has taken it to the next level in all forms of top tier motorsports, what you are saying totally discrediting the drivers amd that they don't need skill anymore to drive these cars which is absurd to the highest degree. Any which one of these guys could get into an analogue vehicle and absolutely slaughter with it.
kuetmin I understand what you're saying! And I agree that the driver's are the most skillful drivers on the face of the planet! But a computer when it comes to very specific task will always outperform a human, especially when it comes to math like following a very specific racing line to optimize maximum efficiency! Or being able to take a corner and existing a corner at maximum speeds especially when is able to calculate into 10th of 1000th where ever 1000th of a second counts. Racing is pure math! So logically a computer would be the optimum choice! By the way I respect your opinion! Have a very merry Christmas! And a happy and healthy new year. 🎅
2007suprasport Technically you're right. Really when there are so many factors involved the computer would need a LOT of inputs to get anywhere near enough real time information to even do a reasonable lap. Anything which happens that it doesn't expect it can't account for which would lead to massive loss of time or a crash - something as simple as a leaf blowing onto the track could be enough - where a human could feel the car start to slide, correct and carry on, the computer would only know after a slide had started. Computers aren't good at catching slides at the best of times. Even things like overtaking would be massively difficult to acheive since it would involve deviation from the norm. Computers are great at repeating something where humans can't usually get it perfect. Unfortunately the environment we live in is anything but predictable.
I do agree with you racing is very unpredictable and yes your absolutely right! Computers normally are more efficient at repeating a task more than a human. Now as far as the input sensors which gather data pertaining to whether a car is loosing grip or is a slide or overtaking. The technology already exist! Information gathered by the 100th if not 1/1000 of a second is being gathered and recorded by the onboard CPUs which may several and transfered to the Pitts in real time via onboard Telemetry. There engineer's can monitor anything from lateral G's, tachometer speeds, oil pressure, engine temp, vehicle speeds, aerodynamic drag, fuel consumption, lap times, to anything from tire pressure to tire temperatures and the list goes on and on. The computers are also know if a car is sliding by and is able to apply several different actions, to prevent, from the traction control to abs, which is found are cars today. It was all derived from racing technology! As far as overtaking computers can actually accurately measure the distance and the time it may impact the that object, and based on the information gathering it can apply the brakes in accordance to the closed it is close it is to the object, and that technology is being used today in some luxury cars like Mercedes Benz. I understand that the human elements is always necessary because we make decisions based on our knowledge and experience which computers can't because of the limitations of their respective programming. But computers can also gather data and make decisions solely based on pure facts and statics. Which in the long run yield high chances of achieving your primary objective! Which in this case would be achieving the quickest time around the track. But to be honest if all cars would be run by computers and the human elements would be removed! We would know the outcome of the race even before it started! Because the quickest or fastest car would almost win! Provided all conditions were accurate. Oh! Merry Christmas! 🎅
2007suprasport How about adapting to changing road conditions? Someone controlling the car with telemetry can't feel the vehicle about to lose traction.
That engine... the noise is sooo low-pitched at max revs... I would let it rev more even if I know the sweet spot for gear changes is when the lights tell you, just to get a more high-pitched.
The R18 may have won Le Mans ( a single race) but it lost the overall LMP1 constructors' competition to Toyota as the R18 could not duplicate the monstrous consistency of Toyota's TS040 V8 Petrol Hybrid over multiple race tracks. The future looks like it probably will be Toyota's Normal Aspirated Petrol Hybrid Tech.
I think you're basing your prediction on a very limited basis. Toyota won the WEC this year, but Audi did so last year and with Audi winning the Le Mans both 2013 and 2014 one could also make the point that Audi has 3 out of 4 wins (the WEC is really secondary to the Le Mans). So one could just as well argue the odds are in Audi's favor :-)
bzdtemp Many things can be argued about, but one thing for sure is that racing flat out for 24 hours at La Sarthe shows the absolute requirements of both car, driver and team. Looking at the consistency of Audi's wins at Le Mans shows, that they have the right overall formula. If Toyota or Porsche can prove as successful over a long period of time then it will change things. But yeah, completely agree with you. There's so much that can go wrong in endurance races that it is really anyone's guess who will win Le Mans and WEC, what proves it is who can take the titles again and again, and only Audi have done that in the last decade
Bit disappointing really didn't really understand what the car is like to drive, as a guy whose been to Le Mans 10 times i would've been really interested in the faults you feel in the car but don't really get those. I'm sure Chris Harris would've done a much better job.
He had about 8 minutes in the car and really doesn't have a reference point. What do you compare the R18 to? A hypercar? Well, he made some reference to them. Comparing it to other race cars he hasn't driven is near impossible and since he readily admits he couldn't get anywhere near the limits of the car's performance, he still couldn't give a really accurate assessment anyway.
Yeah the guys at Audi completely forgot Le Mans was about your hearing pleasure. I don't know who was the idiot who told them it was about performance.
Grman Rodriguez lol.😁 I mean don't get me wrong! I know these are like the fastest most technological advance cars of the planet but dang! I mean if I closed my eyes I would think it was a broken down lawn mower!
Prashanth Panicker lol.😁 actually the last time I was in something like that was when I was in a flat bed truck! Getting towed!, and your right! I never heard of any diesel engine ever sounding good! 😖🙌
2007suprasport It sounds like crap inside the car (again, it's a diesel and there's basically no effort to either keep sound out of the cockpit or muffle the exhaust), but outside the car, you get very little of that. I was at Le Mans in 2009 and one of the things I found remarkable is that you could have an Audi R15, a Peugeot 908, and a Ferrari 458 pass in a group and it genuinely sounded like one car was going by. With the hybrid technology, that probably isn't as true as it once was since the MGUs whistle, but still they are remarkably quiet cars for all the power they produce.
Sounds shitty. Amazing tech yes, Why? Is there a gas shortage I don't know about? I will fight this we need hybrids in a sport that is filled with passion, noise and wonderful sounding motors until the end. This includes F1.
@@KunoMochi it wouldnt even drift lol, the car is so glued to the ground that if you try to do that the car would just straight itself... its fucking amazing honestly
Racing to see who can use the least fuel and getting penalized for using too much fuel....what a fucking joke racing is becoming... I miss the days off Audi and Peugeot going head to head with their diesel V-12s and V-10s.
