Audi is the contemporary king of Le Mans, with not only twelve victories to their name they won the 2014 race, not by pace, but misfortune from the Porsche team on their return. This has instigated a new approach from Audi in terms of aerodynamics.WEC 6 Hours of Spa 2015
After struggling throughout 2014 with a much slower car compared to its rivals, Audi has spent and recruited wisely over the winter in the hope of a more successful 2015 WEC campaign.
Audi’s 2015 e-tron runs the same monocoque as their 2014 challenger; a Carbon Fibre composite construction with honeycomb Aluminium Zylon side panels featured on three completely new cars this year. Apart from chassis and the gear casing, the 2015 e-tron features 80% new parts.
On the Hybrid side, Audi will be running in the 4MJ (Mega Joules) class with a single hybrid system which offers them best lap time gain combined with reliability – a trait that was strong with their 2014 package. The Hybrid system in question is a flywheel accumulator storage capable of squirreling away 750KJ. This acts just as a RAM storage system would on your computer at home; 0where its spins a disk to hold information, although in this case it stores electrical energy.
The actual Hybrid unit, or MGU (Motor Generator Unit), is mounted on the front axle (which is water cooled) and can gather 200KW, which to put into perspective is the entire allowable limit on a Formula E Renault eSpark. This is a big step up from 2014, when Audi ran in the largely uncompetitive 2MJ recovery class. The new system is the equivalent of nearly 270BHP, which while compared to Porsche’s 400BHP, isn’t overly impressive, it’s a massive leap from last year’s system which had a potential power output of just 170kW.
Audi have stuck to the 4.0L V6 turbocharged TDI diesel engine featuring four valves per cylinder; with a cylinder head position of 120°. All this is mounted to the seven speed electronically activated racing gearbox residing in the same casing as last year – a design which has been constant since 2013. A feature very high on the to-do list was a new wiring loom which leads to the power unit forbetter reliability.
Suspension comes in the format of double wishbone all round with front and rear pushrods with adjustable dampers. These work unison with the FRIC (Front-Rear-In-Connected) system which is mounted from the chassis tub to the monobloc light alloy carbon vented brakes and discs.