DTM Touring Car Industry Information

DTM Touring Car Industry Information by Priya Singh

The stock A4 is a good-looking car – the new one even more so. It does the job it’s designed for, and stylishly too. The shortened front body overhang makes it look purposeful, while the longer bonnet and wheelbase lend the impression of being a large saloon. With a Cd value of 0.27, it’s aerodynamically efficient too, and can easily take a volume of 480 liters of luggage to boot. The new A4 is offered in India with a choice of two engines, 3.2FSI petrol and a 2.0TDi diesel. Both engines are direct-injection types.

Depending on engine spec, you can choose from a range of 16, 17 or 18-inch alloy wheels. Optional xenon plus headlights make for improved visibility at night. The Audi A4 DTM on the other hand is a very different beast all together. If the standard car can be termed a cat, the DTM version would probably be a saber-toothed tiger, and that’s why it’s so menacingly successful on the track. It’s about performance, power and handling. It’s the fourth-generation Audi A4 DTM, and is known as the “R14” internally at Audi Sport. The DTM version is built around a steel DTM Touring Car space frame made of aerospace industry grade steel, with the driver’s safety cell being made out of very strong carbon fiber composite, as used in F1. As accidents tend to happen at a much higher speed on the racetrack, for the driver’s safety, the front and rear crash structures are also made of the same material. It’s 4800 mm long, 1850mm wide and 1200mm short. The standard A4 is, in comparison, 4586mm long, 1772mm wide and 1427mm tall.

The engine of the DTM A4 is not available in the road car that you drive in India – it’s a normally aspirated (no turbo or supercharging) 4000cc V8 engine with a 90deg angle between the cylinder banks. It breathes through four valves per cylinder, and despite the mandatory intake air restrictors, still develops approximately 460bhp of power and over 370 lb/ft of torque. It’s a rear-wheel-drive car and power to the rear wheels is transmitted via a 3-plate carbon-fiber clutch and a sequential 6-speed sport gearbox. To keep the power delivery honest, the A4 DTM has an adjustable limited-slip plate differential and constant velocity sliding type tripod universal joint shafts.

Aerodynamics plays a huge part in car racing and it’s also the case in DTM. As in F1, when a part falls off (and parts can fall off in DTM as the cars go body-to-body into a corner trying to muscle each other off) the car’s performance is compromised. But like an iceberg, there is more aerodynamic trickery under the car than can be seen – along the underbody of the car, air passages, slots and steps abound so that air pressure under the car can be harnessed to make the A4 DTM stick to the road like a leach clings to skin. The cockpit of a DTM car is very different too. While the standard car’s cockpit is given to creature comforts, a DTM driver’s cockpit, or workplace if you like, is a stark contrast due to its multitude of gear shift lights, rev counter, indication of engaged gear, lap timer, speedometer, etc. Switches, buttons, digital displays, as well as traditional levers and pedals characterize an A4 DTM cockpit. Did I mention the buttons?

You have buttons for the radio (for pit to car communication, not AIR FM Rainbow) and for activating the speed limiter in the pit lane. More buttons for selecting headlight high beam and activating the drinks supply. The left paddle behind the steering wheel actuates brake valves for the parking brake. The right hand side paddle actuates brake caliper cooling! The sequential gearbox is actually manually operated. There is no AC, so adjustable inlets for fresh air into the cockpit have been provided for the driver. Then there are even more buttons, for adjusting brake balance, the display brightness, and, handy after a crash, the fire extinguisher. You have the main electric switch, with ignition and starter buttons on the right and a hazard warning light system for when the car stalls on the grid.

Once the buttons have been memorized, there is the rest of the A4 DTM. It has a servo-assisted rack and pinion steering, front and rear independent double-wishbone suspension, a pushrod system with spring/damper units, adjustable gas pressurized dampers and a hydraulic dual-circuit brake system that actuates light alloy brake calipers on ventilated carbon brake discs at both front and rear. The driver can adjust the brake balance to his or her liking. The A4 DTM runs on Dunlop SP Sport Maxx tyres, 265/660 R18s mounted on 10x18inch aluminum forged rims at the front, and 280/660 R18s mounted on 11x18in rims at the rear. With the driver included, the total weight of the car is 1,050kgs.



Priya Singh wrote this article on behalf of Car Buying Tips For more information on car Listings of New and Used Cars car market tips for visiting car magazine you can visit at autox.in


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Obviously, such a purpose-built racer will never see Indian roads, except perhaps during a blue moon. The whole exercise is a demonstration of Audi being ‘Vorsprung durch Technique’ or ‘ahead thanks to the use of technology,’ which describes Audi’s effort in DTM perfectly – they’re leading the series.

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BMW shows 7 Series mild hybrid

BMW shows 7 Series mild hybrid by M Karmali

BMW’S redesigned 7 Series was revealed for the first time in early July ahead of its official world debut at the Paris motor show on October 2 – and now we’ve been given a sneak preview of the first ever hybrid version of BMW’s flagship model.

The 7 Series ActiveHybrid will be revealed as part of BMW’s all-new limousine range, including the 750i sedan upon which it is based, at the same show Mercedes-Benz will unveil its first S-class mild hybrid - the S400 BlueHybrid, which was developed under a joint-venture program with BMW and goes on sale in Europe in mid-2009.

BMW is expected to produce a second-generation version of the hydrogen-powered Hydrogen 7, but the 7 Series mild hybrid is expected to enter production for the US before it in late 2009 – though it may not be offered in right-hand drive guise for markets like Australia.

It differs from the Concept X6 ActiveHybrid revealed last year in that the X6 hybrid concept is a full parallel or dual-mode hybrid that, unlike the 7 Series ActiveHybrid, can be driven in electric-only mode and is the product of a joint-venture hybrid program between Daimler and General Motors. Both the BMW and Mercedes-Benz mild hybrid limousines employ a boot-mounted lithium-ion battery pack (in what Benz claims is the first series-production application of such technology), as well as regenerative braking and idle-stop technology.

But the 7 Series ActiveHybrid differs from the 3.5-litre V6-powered petrol-electric S400 via its use of the new twin-turbocharged direct-injection 4.4-litre V8, which BMW says delivers the same 300kW and 600Nm of torque as offered by the X6 50i.

Combined with the 15kW and 210Nm of peak torque produced by an electric motor integrated into the transmission housing, replacing the alternator and starter, the 7 Series hybrid produces a total of 315kW and 810Nm.

But while the S400 is claimed to deliver combined performance outputs of 220kW and 385Nm with an average fuel consumption of 7.9L/100km, BMW says only that the 7 Series hybrid reduces fuel consumption by 15 per cent compared to the 750i.

“In typical BMW style, this new concept car combines a significant reduction in fuel consumption and emissions with a standard of driving dynamics never seen before even in this class of hybrid cars,” said the managing director of BMW Australia Guenther Seemann.

It differs from the Concept X6 ActiveHybrid revealed last year in that the X6 hybrid concept is a full parallel or dual-mode hybrid that, unlike the 7 Series ActiveHybrid, can be driven in electric-only mode and is the product of a joint-venture hybrid program between Daimler and General Motors. Both the BMW and Mercedes-Benz mild hybrid limousines employ a boot-mounted lithium-ion battery pack (in what Benz claims is the first series-production application of such technology), as well as regenerative braking and idle-stop technology.



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Article Source: http://www.upublish.info
BMW’S redesigned 7 Series was revealed for the first time in early July ahead of its official world debut at the Paris motor show on October 2 – and now we’ve been given a sneak preview of the first ever hybrid version of BMW’s flagship model.


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