Words by Adrian Paton
Photos courtesy of Audi

Winners are grinners and this Audi has held the Le Mans world to ransom for the past 5 years. Employing all the tricks at its disposal, no one can hang with this cat’s game.

Every once in a while a race car is built which is a cut above the rest. It starts off with a unique idea, develops into a vehicle, and then decimates the competition. This month we are looking at the Audi R8, a vehicle which has evolved many times, changing to its environment as needs be.

The Audi R8 was designed to be a Le Man 24 hour Endurance Racer. When it was first developed it was sporting a 3.6 litre V8 which was turbocharged by Garrett to produce 625 horse power. As time went on and the Audi rear wheel drive vehicle collected more scalps, it was forced to alter its performance and power. The final R8 which won the 2005 Le Mans 24 Hour Endurance race was limited to 520hp through restriction and was forced to carry ballast to further dull the performance.

As with all race cars it is the engine which has powered the Audi to five 24 Hour Le Mans titles, 6 American Le Mans Series titles and 61 wins in 77 starts. The twin turbocharged V8 was good enough to win the engine designer, Ulrich Baretzky the ‘Race Engine Designer of the Year Award’. Combining direct injection and turbocharging was unheard of previously in a race car.

But it was not just the power that has reaped success for Audi. There were times when the Audi was putting out up to 100 hp less than its competitors. The handicaps placed on the Audi R8 may have hurt the power output, but its reliability was beyond comparison. Since its debut in 2000, there has not been a single engine failure in a race. This reliability is second to none and is perfect form for an endurance race.

The FSI which stands for Fuel Stratified Injection is a form of direct injection. It allows the cylinders to receive the exact amount of fuel that they need at any given time. The engine increases power out put and burns less fuel, meaning it is more efficient.

The R8’s most impressive capability though is its chassis design. Some people liken it to a Lego car. Every single part is able to be changed and this can be done in record time. As an example the rear transaxle of the R8 was changed in four and a half minutes, something which would take another team up to three hours to change. The whole structure and body has been built from carbon fibre to reduce weight yet retain strength.

Like any sporting great the Audi R8’s time at the top is drawing to a close. In the 2005 Le Mans race the fastest Audi qualified 3rd, and even though it won the race in the end, the rest of the pack is catching up in speed and reliability. Rather than letting the R8 fail and stumble into obscurity and become uncompetitive, it has been retired for a new model, the Audi R10. The R10 will take the reigns from 2006 and onwards into the future, providing a ground breaking diesel race vehicle to shake up the race world.

Crocodile R8
A one off R8 was developed to compete at the Race of a Thousand Years which was held on the Adelaide street circuit which was the former F1 track. New Years Eve 2000 was the setting for this final race of the American Le Mans Series championship.

The car was covered in crocodile camouflage due to the German’s love of Crocodile Dundee and the association the international community has with Australia and those scaly creatures who inhabit many of our waterways.

The crocodile livery stacked up to expectations and chomped its way through the field. Rinaldo Capello and Alan McNish managed to close out the night after 5 hours and 45 minutes, winning with a margin of 21 laps. The many 90 degree turns make the track hard work and the race drivers actually played a computer game to become familiar with the race track.

2001-2005 Audi R8 Specifications

Audi R10

Audi have stunned the racing world by revealing the successor to the R8 race car. The R10 is so spectacular because it has an all aluminium 5.5 litre V12 diesel engine as its source of power. Boost is restricted to 2.94 bar maximum and the air intake is also restricted to 2 x 39.9 mm throttle bodies, but the V12 is still good for 650 horses and a King Kong style 1,100nm of torque.

The power band of the diesel is 3,000rpm-5,000rpm which may possibly signal the end of high revving small loud power plants. The diesel engine is so quiet that the driver can not hear it when the car is up to speed. The engine has a 90 degree bank, 4 valves per cylinder and twin overhead camshafts.

A special gearbox has been developed to handle the torque, while the chassis and aerodynamics are totally reworked for the new car. The new engine is bigger and heavier than the R8 power plant and so the body work includes the Formula 1-like integration of the carbon fibre monocoque with the body to greatly reduce the weight of the vehicle. This partially makes up for the extra weight of the engine.

There is no doubt the R10 is a state-of-the-art race car and it will be quite interesting to see how the diesel power plant stacks up to the petrol powered race cars it will be competing against.