Honeywell Turbos Boost Audi to Record Victory at Le Mans

LE MANS, France, June 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Honeywell (NYSE: HON) announced today that its variable geometry turbo (VGT) technology was featured on the Audi R15 TDI at this weekend's 24 Hours of Le Mans, helping Audi claim a clean sweep of the podium stand (first, second and third place), while breaking the distance record for the race.

The victorious Audi team of Timo Bernhard (Germany), Romain Dumas (France) and Mike Rockenfeller (Germany), completed a total of 397 laps in the 24 hours, covering a record-breaking distance of 5,410 kilometers.  

"Congratulations to Audi on such an historic achievement. Their success proves the increasing value of advanced turbo technologies in contributing to performance and engine efficiency," said Alex Ismail, President and CEO of Honeywell Transportation Systems. "Our variable geometry turbo technology is already under the hood of millions of passenger cars worldwide and will play an increasing role in the future as automakers develop high performing smaller engines that consume less fuel and emit lower levels of harmful emissions."

Honeywell has partnered with Audi Motorsport for the past three years to integrate its variable geometry turbo technology into all of Audi's R15 TDI V10 Le Mans car engines in order to increase engine efficiency. This year, they were able to increase efficiency 20 percent over Audi's previous (and larger) Le Mans engine model (Audi R10 V12 TDI). Variable geometry turbochargers are standard in all Audi TDI engines in production vehicles.

VGT turbos help optimize power-efficiency by using moveable vanes around the turbine inlet to match turbo boost precisely to the needs of the engine. At lower engine speeds, the variable nozzle turbine vanes close to restrict the exhaust air flow through the turbine, thereby increasing turbine power and boost pressure. At higher engine speeds, the moveable vanes open to maximize the exhaust gas flow, thereby avoiding turbo over-speed and maintaining the required boost pressure.

"At Le Mans we're dealing with temperatures above 1,000 degrees centigrade, which have not been encountered with production engines so far," explains Ulrich Baretzky, Head of Engine Development at Audi Sport. "As a result of downsizing, production development will enter into similar temperature ranges. This makes VTG another good example of how the technology transfer between motorsport and the production side of the house works at Audi."

Honeywell Turbo Technologies is the leading automotive turbocharger developer in the world, and is a business unit of Honeywell Transportation Systems, which also consists of Consumer Products Group and Friction Materials. As a leading automotive supplier, Honeywell Transportation Systems enhances vehicle performance, efficiency and appearance through state-of-the-art technologies, world-class brands, and global solutions tailored for its automotive customers around the world.

Honeywell International (www.honeywell.com) is a Fortune 100 diversified technology and manufacturing leader, serving customers worldwide with aerospace products and services; control technologies for buildings, homes and industry; automotive products; turbochargers; and specialty materials. Based in Morris Township, N.J., Honeywell's shares are traded on the New York, London, and Chicago Stock Exchanges. For more news and information on Honeywell, please visit www.honeywellnow.com.

This release contains forward-looking statements as defined in Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including statements about future business operations, financial performance and market conditions.  Such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties inherent in business forecasts as further described in our filings under the Securities Exchange Act.

SOURCE Honeywell Turbo Technologies