Audi reveals R18 Le Mans colours

[Bodhii]

Audi reveals R18 Le Mans colours

WOW! Fantastique'!!!

Audi has revealed the colour schemes that its three new R18 TDIs will race in at Le Mans this year ahead of this weekend's pre-event test day.

The three cars will again feature the marque's traditional black, red or yellow markings to differentiate them from a distance. The black-trimmed scheme, which took victory last year, will run a different livery to the other two R18s.

Audi has gone back to a more traditional silver paint scheme for this year, while it has left several parts of its cars in bare carbon fibre to promote lightweight technology.

Team Joest technical director Ralf Juttner said that he was delighted to see the return of the Le Mans test day ahead of the 24 hours after it was dropped for two years.

"It helps to save the teams some unpleasant surprises otherwise encountered during the race in June," said Juttner. "We will be able to get through a lot of work there.

"The track is unique and the circuit cannot be used permanently. Every kilometre is worth its weight in gold."

Juttner added that having the test in April rather than its previous June date increased the importance of the event.

"The new test day has another meaning," he said. "This event was held for years only two weeks before the actual race. In this period it wasn't possible to change much * now there is more time to react."

All three of Audi's factory R18s will be in action at Le Mans on Sunday.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/90909

[OEMplus.com]

Beautiful as always, but I think I prefer the "come to the dark side, we have cookies" black they originally used...

[KfabR8]

Not sure about that new colo(u)r scheme - It makes me think of the Mclaren livery, of which I'm not much of a fan. Go Renault!!!

[Bodhii]

Go Renault!!!

Maybe I am wrong, but did you mean Peugeot? They are the true rivals of the Audi R18 at LeMans.

[KfabR8]

Nope, I meant Renault. The new Audi colors immediately made me think of the McLaren F1 team. I guess I switched gears (race classes) on you. Sorry about that.

[Bodhii]

Just the Facts:

* Audi's new R18 coupe upstaged Peugeot in the Sunday test session at Le Mans.
* Eight-time winner Tom Kristensen's entry topped the speed charts.
* Peugeot barely grabbed 3rd place from the third Audi entry.


LE MANS, France — The new Audi R18 TDI racecar, paced by the No. 3 entry piloted by Tom Kristensen, Rinaldo Capello and Allan McNish, dominated Le Mans Prototype 1 speeds in Sunday's test session for entries in the 79th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The race is scheduled for June 11-12.

Kristensen, an eight-time winner of the endurance classic, ran a best lap of 3 minutes, 27.687 seconds in the new turbodiesel-powered coupe. The No. 1 R18, assigned to reigning champions Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas and Mike Rockenfeller, was 2nd at 3:27.815 and a third Audi, the No. 2 of Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer and Benoît Tréluyer, was 4th fastest.

Interrupting an Audi sweep was the Peugeot 908 of Stéphane Sarrazin, Franck Montagny and Nicolas Minassian. The No. 8 car was clocked at 3:27.876, just two one-thousandths of a second ahead of the third-fastest Audi.

Audi has spearheaded a diesel-powered revolution at Le Mans, winning four of the last five races to go with a streak of five wins in six years from 2000-'05 with gasoline engines. Peugeot entered its diesel-fueled 908, a closed-****pit machine, against the open-air Audis for the first time in 2007 and won the 24 Hours in 2009.

Although that is its only recent Le Mans victory, Peugeot has enjoyed a measure of success against Audi in other events. Both factory teams stumbled in the 12 Hours of Sebring in March, with a privateer Peugeot taking overall honors.

Audi entered the R15 at Sebring. The new R18 will make its racing debut in the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup event May 8 at Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium.

Kristensen got his first overall Le Mans victory in 1997 driving a Joest Racing Porsche. He won six consecutive titles from 2000 through 2005, the first three for Audi Sport Team Joest. After a year with the Bentley team that claimed honors in 2006, Kristensen returned to Audi for his next two victories, one with Japan Team Goh and the other with ADT Champion Racing.

http://www.insideline.com/audi/new-a...-test-day.html

[REV-X]

Anywords on HP numbers?

[dailydriver]

Just the Facts:

* Audi's new R18 coupe upstaged Peugeot in the Sunday test session at Le Mans.
* Eight-time winner Tom Kristensen's entry topped the speed charts.
* Peugeot barely grabbed 3rd place from the third Audi entry.

Those are very encouraging results indeed. It should be another great battle with Peugeot.

Someone in my office did a little photoshop a while ago on the R15 and R18 and put my company logo on the cars. I think it looks better than the Shell V-Power logo but I don't thing we can swing the sponsorship deal.