The Increasing Popularity Of Audi R8 V8 Limited Edition
Audi has unveiled a new R8 V8 to mark Audi's tenth victory in the 24 Hour Le Mans race, which was first won in 2000 by the Audi R8 sports prototype. The new Audi R8 V8 Limited Edition comes with the option of titanium-effect bodywork as well as upgraded standard specification. It has been available to order since last month and costs 93,935, a used Audi R8 still holds its value very well so this 93,935 will not depreciate too quickly. On the exterior there are not many distinguishable features, in-fact the 19 inch '5-arm double-spoke Y design' alloy wheels in Titanium finish and red brake callipers are the only exterior features for the Audi R8 Limited Edition. A special Titanium Metallic paint effect exclusive to the model will be available at no extra cost alongside the normal metallic and pearl-effect paint options. Also included in the Audi R8 V8 Limited Edition is satellite navigation, Audi Music Interface, interior light package and a Bang and Olufsen sound system with mobile phone preparation. Prospective buyers will be glad to hear that Audi's magnetic ride adaptive suspension will be included as standard for the Audi R8 Limited Edition. The system uses sensors to monitor road conditions, adjusting the damping effect by varying a magnetic charge. The Limited Edition R8 V8 comes with a 4.2 litre 430PS V8 FSI engine; it can do 0-62mph in 4.6 seconds, almost challenging its older brother the Lamborghini Gallardo. The Audi R8 Limited Edition also includes a bespoke R8 Driving Experience at Silverstone to allow the new owner to fully acquaint themselves with the car's capabilities.
The spark gap with clips to hold the metal being examined spectroscopically is also shown. Somewhat remarkably, this was an inadvertent Tesla coil complete with spark gap, tank cap and air-cored coil AND it worked unintentionally. Above shows a reconstruction which took about an hour to make in May 2005. It uses the same size cardboard former as the old one 45x100 mm which had to be reinforced with PVC. 130 turns with multiple taps between 10 and 20 turns. 1600 pF (prev 550 pF) and power supply was my SIDAC driven twin ignition coil setup. Spark gap was about 2mm as anything higher gave racing arcs! Spark length was only 1 cm but corona was visible with dark adapted vision. I later developed this idea with an old transformer (above) from a dump which in retrospect was an old unpotted NST (neon sign transformer). Years after I made it I heard that Tesla had beaten me to that discovery by quite a few years! This photo is a mock up with most of the original parts.
This is my neat 2001 dual NST supply (above), now has half of one of the NST's defunct having overstressed it on my ARSG (asynchronous rotary spark gap). 40 from a local neon place and rated at 12 kV 30 mA each. It uses two power factor correction capacitors of 15 uF each. I used a remote power switch driving a relay. This is how NOT to make 20 nF 30 kV capacitors. 0.01 uF) 3 kV ceramics. Even wired as 10 nF 60 kV, I would blow a capacitor every 30 seconds or so. They appeared to be substantially less well rated than the long lasting ceramics in my first TC. There were no equalizing resistors in either setup. It was later sawn in half for a voltage multiplier shown later. The sparks grew bigger with successive improvements up to about 20 inches. Having gained a lot of experience and having read widely on the internet increased my desire for more performance.
Time to move up: 'bigger is better'. Head off to see the later 4 inch, 6 inch and 18 inch coils from the menu at the top of the page. This still uncompleted unusual Tesla project is a spark gap driven air cored resonant transformer, i.e. Tesla coil. This is a 500 meter roll of 2.5mm multicore electrical wire. It is probably about 1000 turns, i.e. similar to my current 4 inch coil. It has been placed on top of my primary and is resonant at 38 kHz with the 90 nF MMC tank cap. No real attempt to tune or to optimize coupling. Shown here with 3 inch sparks and a lot of inter turn corona and breakdown. My plan is to optimize this to get the highest possible spark length to coil length ratio. I plan to do this by using the same wire as above but in a multi helical coil arrangement.
With everything under oil I hope to be able to prevent racing arcs and allow reasonably high coupling. There will be high quenching with the 1400 bps ARSG and reasonable power of up to 5 kVA from the 4 MOT supply. I would aim for a height of one foot for the coil with 3 inch internal diameter and ? 10 inch external. I would hope for 600 turns plus. Coil DC resistance is 3.5 ohms. It will be mounted in an acrylic container filled with oil and will probably need large insulating rings to prevent surface tracking and a large insulated base to avoid primary to secondary strikes. I now have the 60 square spacers and the square housing to contain these under oil, fixed to a large square base. The wire is ready and a toroid is available. Now just have to undertake the complicated task of winding the multiple pancake coils. It is now 6 years later (2011) and I still have the roll of wire and plastic base and toroid.