Audi R10 Diesel Le mans Racecar

Just thought I'd post another link I found about the Audi R10 Le Mans racecar. I just can't wait to see the trickle down effect from this old technology that could be revolutionized and brought into the mainstream if Audi does well. Exciting stuff!!

Audi R10 Le Mans Racecar

DIESEL!!!

Compression ignition engines - the best overlooked invention in the mass automobile industry.

In early 1892, Rudolph Diesel filed for a patent with the patent office in Germany for an idea that he had. It was an engine that would compress the air in the combustion chamber to such a degree that it would become hot enough to ignite fuel. The fuel of choice and the basis for his vision was peanut oil. He chose peanut oil because farmer's would be able to grow it themselves and be more self-sufficient. Unfortunately, in the 1900's, the internal combustion engine came into the mix. Running on petroleum based gasoline, it had the backing of the "oil tycoons." They pushed it and over the course of a few years and many political issues, gasoline became the fuel of choice in the USA. Dirty, inefficient, expensive, fossil-fuel gasoline is what everybody wanted because the oil companies pushed it. Europe continued to research and push combustion ignition engines, and in the oil crisis of the 70's, the USA finally started looking towards more efficient types of engines. Combustion ignition engine sales skyrocketed and even the American car manufacturers started offering these efficient engines in their passenger cars. Unfortunately, the oil crisis was short lived and America once again forgot how dependent it is on foreign oil. Thus, the efficient engines like diesel engines were not wanted any more. Nobody felt the need to be conservative and hence, the fuel conserving diesels all but went away in the USA. Only Mercedes Benz and Volkswagen still imported diesel engine passenger cars to the US.

Now with people finally starting to realize the need for a cleaner, more efficient engine, we are turning towards fuel saving vehicles once again. Many have come on the market, e.g. hybrids, electrics, smaller engined cars, turbocharged cars, and hydrogen fuel is becoming a possibility, etc. These have all helped to offer more choices to efficiency-minded consumers, however most of them require a change in the infrastructure that already exists for fueling our cars. Hydrogen needs aa completely different storage and dispensing system, hybrids have batteries that must be replaced every few years at rediculous costs, electrics are the same way, and many electrically driven cars (hybrid or full electric) pose problems for rescue crews who are not yet trained to handle high voltages in car accidents. All of these problems can be solved, but the solution will cost millions if not billions of dollars to our economy.

Diesel engines on the other hand would not require any changes to the infrastructure that we are used to. One would still be able to pull up to the pump and pump their fuel from the same tanks and pumps. One step better than using petroleum based diesel fuel would be a move back to what Rudolph Diesel himself had envisioned - crop based fuel. Today, biodiesel fuel is beginning to be mass produced; it is usually derived from soy bean oil here in the US and comes in different mixtures. B100 is 100% biodiesel (soy-based), B20 is a little more common (20% soy-based, 80% petroleum based), and it goes all the way down to B2.

Biodiesel is cleaner burning, doesn't produce polluting exhaust and is generally cheaper than regular petroleum diesel fuel. It also doesn't rely on anything foreign to produce it, it just helps to keep the US farmers in business!! In my opinion it is a complete joke that more car manufacturers don't start pushing this type of technology just to see how the government will react. On the other hand, the government needs to push it more because it would ultimately help to boost the agricultural economy.

Anyway, back to the actual diesel technology.... Audi, the german car manufacturer, has been winning Le Mans races with it's R8 racecar. They have won 5 out of 6 Le Mans series that they have been in. The Le Mans governing body continues to put restrictions on the cars so that Audi will stop winning, but Audi continues to lead and stay in front of the pack. This upcoming year Audi plans to race their new R10 racecar which will be fueled by a diesel engine. It is the first race car of it's type to run on diesel fuel ever!! It produces plenty of horsepower and torque so it can easily compete in speed and quickness. And, because it utilizes compression ignition technology, it gets better fuel economy than the competition. In Le Mans style racing, the fuel economy is almost as important as the car itself because it is such a long race that generally needs lots of time-consuming pit stops. With Audi needing even fewer pit stops, it will once again give them an edge over the competition. GO AUDI!!! I'll be watching next year for sure!!

Here's some eye candy of some amazing compression ignition engines that are on the high tech edge.

Here's the Audi R10 engine:


Here's the R10 itself:


And lastly, here's the International motors 3.0L powerstroke engine. It was designed completely in Brazil and features a high performance turbo-charger and it was one of the earlier engines to utilize common rail technology:

Sebastião Salgado - Exodus

First of all, this guy is my idol. I heard about him a few years back before I went to Brazil on my LDS mission and since then, he has earned my respect as one of the best and most talented photographers anywhere. His work is absolutely riveting, to say the least, and it will open anyone's eyes to what people go through in the world.

He has an exhibit going at the Salt Lake City Library at "The Leonardo" and it goes through December 17, 2005. It's called "Exodus."

IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY GONE TO IT, GO ASAP!!!

Humanity is on the move, urgently, chaotically…Today, almost everything that happens on earth is somehow connected.
-Sebastião Salgado

Here's one of Salgado's photos of a Rwandan refugee camp in Benako, Tanzania. 1995


The Kamaz camp for displaced Afghans. Mazar-e äarif, Afghanistan. 1996

Some more FOUR wheel stuff

When Gina and I lived in the basement of my dad's house, we lived across the street from Hal Wing's brother-in-law. Hal Wing is the inventor of Little Giant Ladder Systems. Anyway, he's got quite the car collection and every once in a while he'll go visit my dad's neighbor and be driving one of his AMAZING cars. This is the one he drove one time when he came over. It's a Porsche Carrera GT supercar and one BEAUTIFUL machine!!!

Here's one of Hal himself and his car.


And here are a few that I took of the car.

Gerbera Daisy Close-up

Well, since the weather has been bad outside, we bought some flowers and took some pictures inside. Here's one of a Gerbera Daisy taken with my basic 50mm f/1.8 at 1/13 sec., f/11, then I cropped in tight on the center of the flower.

Tribute to Fausto Coppi

A few pics of one of the greatest cyclists of all time!

Fausto Coppi, ti amo sempre!

(not my pics, I'm too young)

Mt. Timpanogos

OK, I haven't blogged in a couple of days, so I thought I would throw this picture up here. It's a picture taken from the backside of Mt. Timpanogos towards the Sundance Ski Resort. I love Timpanogos, I grew up at the base of it and will always call it home. It's claim to fame is that it's the longest continuous mountain in the Wasatch Range.



And this picture is of Gina and Me at Emerald Lake which is a glacial lake on Timp. Taken by my brother Russell (Thanks Russ!)

Utah Storm

With the recent storms that we've had lately, the skies have been really cool. And, on top of that, we got snow in the mountains!!! We definately need more of it too, it better come quick becuase the ski season is fast approaching! Anyway, here's a view of a storm taken from our balcony.

Utah Fall Foliage

Gina and I were up in Park City a few weeks ago when the leaves were changing colors. Here's some of the pics that we took. The leaves were so beautiful this year and I couldn't believe how some of the quakies turned soon and others waited quite a while. It made it nice to see the colors for a while instead of them all turning at once and then falling.

View from Big Mountain up Emigration Canyon


COLOR!!!


Gina and Me


Parley's Canyon

Land Rover Defender Rebuild Project

(See pics below)
So, one of my hobbies is cars, especially Audi's and Land Rovers. One of my many projects is rebuilding a 1994 Land Rover Defender 90 that was wrecked. I am building it much better than it was before. I am putting a 3.5" lift on it with a lot of other suspension goodies, custom made differential protection, 35" tires, custom headers and exhaust, along with a bunch of other stuff. Here are some pictures of the project so far, stay tuned for more updates as they come along.

The way the rebuild started...


The new (to us) frame shipped from Maine...


Taking the body off the old chassis...


Custom cut and welded 1/2" thick differential cover and POR-15 coated axle housing (I did the same with the rear axle too)...


The state the new frame is in right now. We had the frame sandblasted and hot-dip galvanized to make a rust-free truck!!

My Dog Sunny

I have to show off my dog a little bit. Her name is Sunny and she is a purebred Golden Retriever who will be 11 years old in January She is starting to get kinda old, and it's sad to see her get sore easier than she used to after a long walk. Anyway, she is a beautiful dog and has been the best dog ever since she was a puppy. When she passes on, I definately want another Golden. Here's some pics!

SUNNY!!!


Sunny guarding the tent at Forest Lake


Sunny guarding the camp at Forest Lake

Arches National Park

Here's just one of the pictures that we took at Arches. Gina had never been there before, so a few weekends ago I took her down there to do a little camping/hiking. We had a great time and the weather was perfect! Good ole Utah

Europe Trip Pics

As I was going through some old pics that were on the computer, I came accross the some of the photos that I took on our trip to Europe in the Spring of this year. Some of the pictures I really liked, so I thought I'd post them here. If anybody would like to purchase any photo of mine that is posted here, most of them are for sale.
Colosseum - Rome

San Pedro Square - Vatican City

Moldau River - Prague

Eiffel Tower

Konigsee - Germany

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints' Temple

OK, enough with the car fling for the moment, here's the picture that I thought would be good to post as today's photo. It's a picture of the LDS (otherwise known as "Mormons") temple here in Salt Lake City. I thought this would be a good picture to post because on the TV show "Today" they had a short segment about the LDS faith this morning. It was a very good segment and in addition to that, Newsweek recently had a front page article on the LDS faith which can be found HERE. The photo was taken at about 10:00pm with a shutter speed of about 1/2 sec. and aperture of about f/11 if memory serves me correctly.

Enjoy!

DBR9!!!

After a day and a few posts, it will only take this to break the Bike/Photo trend. I give you the DBR9 from Aston Martin. And I only WISH this were my photo.

Aston Martin DBR9 Video

Halloween Ride

These were taken on my way to/from school today. We live up on the hill a little bit, so I get a good 600 vertical feet of climbing coming home from school. It sure did get cold today though!

On the Road


Halloween Sunset

Oh yeah, HAPPY HALLOWEEN too!!!!!

What is this Blog?

OK, I have way too many hobbies, and I didn't want to create a blog to showcase each one, so I created this blog and combined two of my passions, Cycling and Photography!! I want to try to post a pic once a day, even if I don't write anything, but we'll see if that actually happens. There is no doubt in my mind that other hobbies/interests of mine will make their way onto here too, some of the others that might creep on here are my Wife, cars (specifically the Land Rover Defender 90 that I'm rebuilding/restoring), skiing, dogs, and my plans for medical school in the near future. Basically, I just want this to be a place where I can show the world what's happening in my life! They will mostly be just random thoughts, but the situation could occur that something actually comes of one of the posts. All photography on the blog are copyrighted to Bradlee Duncan for J. Ann Images and may not be reproduced without permission unless stated otherwise. So here's the first pic!

Taken at Library Station in Salt Lake City, Utah.