The legacy of Le Mans

摘要

While Formula 1 teams make efforts to improve their green credentials, it's endurance events - notably Le Mans - that manufacturers like Audi and Peugeot use as a proving ground for more powerful but cleaner engines destined for road cars. The carmaker that has demonstrated the benefits of Le Mans to engine development most clearly is Audi. While the engine that powers Schumacher's F1 Mercedes has nothing to do with Mercedes road cars - indeed it is built by a specialist operation in Northampton - the gasoline direct injection engines in cars such as Audi's new RS5 Coupe are direct descendants of the power unit that dominated the Le Mans 24-hour race in the early 2000s.