Taurus’s Diesel
Some of you saw the hint on dsc yesterday – that Audi, assuming the company goes ahead, may not be the first with a diesel-engined prototype.

We were asked to keep quiet, and we’ve done so – but are happy now to correct one error in the news item that has appeared elsewhere, and provide a little more background to this ambitious, British effort.

Ian Dawson’s Taurus Sports has entered a diesel-powered Lola at Le Mans, but the chassis is a B2K / 10 (the tub the team ran throughout 2003). The engine is a twin turbo V10 (Ian Dawson has asked that the engine’s origins remain a private matter for now), and it is being developed by Mountune, with input from Caterpillar, the world’s largest manufacturer of diesels.

“We’ve already run the engine in the car,” says Ian Dawson (right), and he’s planning a quick shakedown on a UK circuit this week.

“The ACO has been very helpful throughout,” explains Dawson. “They’ve been aware of the engine’s existence for some time, and they’re pleased to see that someone has gone ahead and created a diesel engine.

“This is a great collaboration between several partners – not just Mountune and Caterpillar, but also X-trac, Pi Research and Dunlop.

“Phil Andrews is the only driver assigned to this project at the moment.”

Clearly the next four weeks are going to be very interesting times at Taurus’s Norfolk base, ahead of the Le Mans Test Day on April 25. The ACO must be jumping at the prospect of a diesel… but there should be the opportunity for Taurus to run a Judd-powered Lola too, with Didier Andre and Benjamin Leuenberger signed up already for this car. Leuenberger has also signed to drive in the four LMES races.

“We're also going to be running a car in the ALMS, probably starting at Sears Point,” says Dawson. “We haven’t yet decided which one though…. but Larry Oberto will drive, and we’ll be putting together a test programme before we go racing in the USA. We've got three chassis now (Taurus purchased both Intersport B2K / 10s, and ran one at Sebring last week), so we've got some interesting decisions to make.”

Busy times indeed. Ian Dawson helpfully pointed out that he was at the forefront of the last ‘new regs’ prototype era, when Multimatic raced the Lola B2K / 40 at Le Mans in 2001. “We hurriedly built up a car and won the new 675 class then. There was also the Lola T600 I ran in 1981, for Guy Edwards and Emilio Villota: that was a successful project too.”

He’s clearly thrilled at the opportunities that look to be unfolding for this ambitious team: we’ll be following the progress of the diesel project - and the others - with great interest. The prototype era is far from over, despite what you may have read elsewhere.