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Le Mans going diesel?

Candace Lombardi
In a software-driven world, it's easy to forget about the nuts and bolts. Whether it's cars, robots, personal gadgetry or industrial machines, Candace Lombardi examines the moving parts that keep our world rotating. A journalist who divides her time between the United States and the United Kingdom, Lombardi has written about technology for the sites of The New York Times, CNET, USA Today, MSN, ZDNet, Silicon.com, and GameSpot. She is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not a current employee of CNET.
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Candace Lombardi

The two best endurance high-performance cars in the world are now powered by diesel. It's almost official.

The diesel-powered Peugeot 908 set track records during its official Le Mans Series public testing at the Paul Ricard High Tech Test Track near Marseilles on Monday, according to reports.

Planet Le Mans lists Peugeot as running the fastest lap time at 1:43.705.

This means that the race will ultimately come down to two diesel-powered cars: the Peugeot 908 and last year's LMP1 winner, the Audi R10.

This year's LMP1 (Le Mans Prototype 1) class in the Le Mans Series, known for the 24 Hours of Le Mans race, will be one for the record books.

Some thought the diesel-powered Audi win in 2006 was a fluke, but the addition of another high-performance diesel at the forefront of LMP1, the pinnacle for endurance racing, signals an evolution.

The change also ushers in a new breed of Le Mans racing, since skill and theory change dramatically for pit stops and refueling.