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It's relatively quiet on the Sebring circuit in late January.
Central Florida's sunny, but still chilly, days are perfect for
those anxious to begin testing for the 2006 season. Teams
planning on running the 12 hour event in March gather for
IMSA's official "Winter Test" on the old refurbished World
War Two bomber base to test and gain valuable development
information. The cost of bringing a full team for three
intense days of practice is no small investment, especially
when the most noteworthy participants have to come from
Germany, but the appearance of fully prepared teams gives a
pretty good indication of who's really serious.
Audi Sport, under the guidance of famed team manager
Reinhold Joest, arrived with two of their brand new, revolutionary,
5.5 liter, twin-turbo, V-12 diesel-powered R10 prototypes
that whistled around the 3.7 mile circuit. Longtime
works' driver Dindo Capello recorded a 1:47.3 with zero
trace of diesel smoke. The stunned opposition, with their
latest high revving, gasoline-fueled prototypes, wondered if
they were seeing the beginning of another era of Audi invincibility.
Audi's famed R8s were retired last year at Laguna
Seca after winning Le Mans a record five times and Audi
finally pulled its long-rumored, next generation dieselfueled
racer off the shelf for Sebring and began testing in
public; and what a show it was.
The R10 is technically more sophisticated and certainly
more attuned to the future of Audi's marketing plan, as
almost every other Audi now being built is diesel powered.
The real influence of Audi's new-era diesels hasn't yet been
felt here in the US, as modern low-sulfur diesel fuel is just
now being introduced in America. The cleaner blend has
been available in Europe for some time and Audi is betting
heavily on the R10's presence at the 12 Hours to make the
general public aware that its new diesel-powered automobiles
aren't the glacially unresponsive, noisy, smelly and
smoky devices that most Americans equate with the fuel's
not so popular past.
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