Audi was once going crazy with diesel engines. They were efficient and were quite economical and diesel passenger cars were slowly becoming highly popular in the European market. The Americans however were still fanatics of their petrol powered vehicles and Volkswagen decided to try their luck at selling diesels in the American market.
Diesels were looked down upon for use in passengers cars as they were quite rough and were not refined enough. They were mostly used in trucks and larger vehicles but new technology that diesels were becoming more and more usable with even more efficiency making them a no-brainer in some applications. Audi chose the age old mantra of going racing on a Sunday and winning and then selling on monday.
The Birth Of The Diesel Le Mans Car
The R10 TDI LeMans car was one of the most dominant racecar.
Yes, you read that right, Audi went racing with a diesel powered racecar in the prototype car. It was producing over 600 bhp and 1000 Nm of torque and absolutely dominated the track. Long endurance sessions were its forte and the diesel was highly reliable while also being efficient which meant not many stoppages for fuel. They could easily turn around lap after lap while using the half the fuel of their competitors. The engine was a V12 TDI with two turbochargers.
A V12 Powered Q7
After the domination of the TDI engine at Le Mans, it was finally time to put a V12 diesel into a road car to sell to the public. There was for a moment an R8 prototype which would have featured a diesel engine but then the Q7 was rightfully chosen and Audi plonked a 6.0L twin-turbocharged V12 right into a 7-seater family SUV. While the engine was far from the same engine as the Le Mans car, it was a behemoth still and had 500 bhp and 1000 Nm of torque only limited by the transmission as Audi said that they could extract more out of the engine quite easily. The 2.7 ton monster could be accelerated to 100 kmph in a mere 5.5 seconds and would do an electronically limited top speed of 250 kmph.
The V12 Q7 was powerful than any petrol or diesel SUV being sold at the time. It was a monster and even faster than the Porsche Cayenne Turbo at the time. The V12 also got some special touches, like executive seats, massive chrome wheels and carbon ceramic brakes to bring all that mass to a stop.
It was also really expensive. It was £20,000 more expensive than the V8 TDI Q7 and nearly double of the V6 TDI Q7 which made this vehicle a choice for only those who really knew what it was. Diesels were supposed to be bought by people for efficiency and cost savings so a V12 powered one was contradictory but it was something that defined the brand at the time. It was the flagship, truly deserving of the engine and something we might not get to see ever again.
Why Are Diesels Dying
It was the Volkswagen group which got caught cheating in emission testing and diesels were once again the bane of the society. The government put even more stringent norms and started cracking down on them with incessant laws which made it quite difficult to make a diesel economical to buy, specially in smaller passenger cars. There has been quite a downfall in the sales of diesels after the whole diesel gate fiasco and things haven’t recovered. Audi has completely moved away from selling diesels in some countries altogether like the USA and India. The V12 Q7 TDI has since then become a piece of automotive history.
