AUDI R15 TDI

Audi’s new Le Mans race car, the Audi R15 TDI, is here with 600 HP and a Star Destroyer-level of torque.

At last! Barely a week and a half before its first outing at Sebring next weekend, Audi has released three dozen photos of their new diesel racer, the R15. Gone is the V12 engine of the R10, replaced with a V10 which makes 600 HP and 774 lb-ft or torque. You have ten more days to learn the discrepancies between the model names and cylinder counts in Audi nomenclature to arrive in Florida an educated man, ready to impress girls.

Remarking on the new engine’s substantial torque, Audi Motorsport has stated they will pay all costs incurred in extracting Sebring International Raceway from the muddy waters of Lake Okeechobee. No word yet on whether they plan on doing the same when the track at Le Mans inevitably ends up in the Atlantic Ocean.

The car is a lovely study in weird wavelets and winglets of carbon fiber and it has one hell of a legacy to live up to. Audi has won every single race at Le Mans since 2000, six of them with the gasoline-powered R8 (at one point run as a Bentley). For the past three years, they have run their first diesel-powered racer, the R10, which retired with a perfect record from Le Mans after three seasons.

Looking at the car from certain angles, one is drawn to paraphrasing Slate commenter Robert Michael “auros” Harman’s timeless words: “The Audi R15 appears to kick so much ass that they’ve had to import extra ass into Ingolstadt solely for its kicking purposes.”