Audi R8 Grand Am Gets Ready to Race

[AutoGuide.com]

Derived from the highly successful GT3 class Le Mans sports racer that has won some 110 races and 15 championship titles across the pond, Audi's new R8 Grand Am has successfully completed its testing program and is now virtually ready to compete in the Grand Am Rolex Sports Car series for 2012, with the first cars slated to be made available to customers in January.

Given the different regulations between LMS and the Grand Am series, in order to compete in the latter, the R8 racer underwent some significant modifications, notably revised aerodynamic aids, including a smaller front splitter, slimmer rear wing and the adoption of a flat front undertray section. The reduced downforce also required changes to the suspension settings with re-valved shocks and softer springs, along with a slight increase ride height. In addition, as per Grand Am regulations, the European car's traction control and ABS systems must also be deactivated.

Audi wrapped up testing of the R8 Grand Am car this past week at Daytona International Speedway in prepration for the Rolex 24 hours series opener at the circuit on January 28/29th.

So far, one official team has been confirmed as an R8 Grand Am customer for 2012, APR Motorsport based in Opelika, Alabama, which will run cars at Daytona and other races with its own team of drivers. Audi has a goal of providing cars to a maximum of four teams next year and says that with the APR deal confirmed, negotiations with three others are currently in the final stages.

More: Audi R8 Grand Am Gets Ready to Race on Autoguide.com

[desperado]

Niggly detail: Did anyone else notice the headlights? Even though the R8 LMS car is nominally based on the R8 V10, these appear to be the original V8 bi-xenon headlights. Noticable because of the spacing between the LEDs in the daytime running lights.

[donistook]

I was at the R8 LMS race shop in Neckarsulm while this particular car was being readied to ship to Daytona, and then I was at Daytona and gave a hand with some final prep of a few details before the test days on the 7th and 8th of December. I also watched the street R8's being hand built at the plant in Neckarsulm. Extreme attention to detail.

Interesting fact...at the LMS shop, I asked Juergen Zuern how long the engines go between rebuilds. His answer..."we don't know, we have never had a problem. That one (he pointed to an R8 in the corner of the shop) has about 35,000K on the engine, and we have never had it out."

The V10 is a wonderful engine, actually detuned for Grand-Am and other race series.

My team, All audi Racing Program, will be campaigning a TT RS in SCCA's World Challenge series.



R8 LMS.jpg

[Dr-J]

Im a new member. I'm one of the drivers of this car. If appropriate, I can give updates to the forum on how the APR team is doing, how the car is behaving on track, and how we stand up to the competition. All of us at APR are very excited for this year in Grand-Am and expect to have a very productive, winning season. Our first time in the car is the Roar Before the 24 January 6-8. We are looking forward to kicking some Porsche and Ferrari ass!

[Monkey boy UK]

Hi Dr J, You must be very exited, yes, i for one would like updates on your progress please, Donistook comments the car has been downtuned, by how much? Good luck APR and well done for taking the plunge.

[dailydriver]

Hi Dr J, You must be very exited, yes, i for one would like updates on your progress please, Donistook comments the car has been downtuned, by how much? Good luck APR and well done for taking the plunge.

I agreee with Colin and would love to get the updates and feedback!

[LAT]

Good to have an inside scoop, welcome.


Sent from my Autoguide iPad app

[mngolfer]

Welcome. We really look forward to your comments on the car and its performance. What changes have been made to the suspension? Specifically how much will the amount of camber change? Is this change available for the typical V8 or V10 car that is driven on the track? Were the springs changed out? If so to what springs?

[Dr-J]

The car that is pictured here (that tested 2 weeks ago at Daytona) is a test mule. Audi gathered LOTS of data on that car and then went back and produced 4 cars (by report). Two cars were flown over last week (many photos of the pure white cars have been posted by APR and Grand-Am). One car is for APR, the other for another team that has not picked up the car yet (can't say much about this). Dion and I get fitted into the car Thursday and Friday of this week. In the meantime, the great guys at APR are finalizing the livery, sponsorship placement, and doing all the other things for the car that haven't been done (radios, cool suit boxes, windo nets, etc, etc).

Grand-Am limits private testing, so the first time we spin a wheel will be Jan 6-8 at the "Roar Before the 24" which is Grand-Am's official test at Daytona. The team will announce it's final driver lineup for the 24 in the next few days, but represented in the linup will be multiple wins at the 24 Hours of LeMans, the Daytona 24, and the 24 of Nurburgring, as well as many wins in many different classes of cars.

APR is taking this year very seriously. The Grand-Am spec R8 is a little different from the very successful R8-LMS that has raced world-wide, but we don't expect issues from the extremely reliable engine or gearbox.

Although the R8-Grand-Am (which is what Grand Am want's it to be called) shares a lot of compenents with the street version, it is a purpose-built race car. It did NOT start off as a street car that was then converted to a race car. Only the roof of the car is the same. No other panel is the same as the street car--the race car has no metal panels--all are carbon. There is no rear window (regulations dictate solid wall between cocpit and engine compartment). All glass is replaced with Lexan.

By rule (for all GT class cars in Grand-AM), the engine has to come off of the assembly line. Audi does nothing to these engines (mechanically) before racing them. They have the same bearings, connecting rods, valves, pistons, block, etc, as we have in our street R8 V10 (yes, all R8 LMS versions are V10s). The engine is "de-tuned" by Grand-Am to make less HP than a stock R8 V10 motor, so that we can play nicely with the Ferrari 458's, Porsche GT-3 Cup's, Vettes, Camaro's, etc.

The Grand-Am version is actually somewhat de-tuned from the R8-LMS racing in the rest of the world in other ways, to keep things competitive (the GT races of Grand-Am this year will be fantastic races with all the different cars). The ride hight has been increased 2 cm from the LMS version (but still nearly 3 INCHES lower than a street R8). Our splitter has been decreased in size by half, and the rear wing shortened by nearly 30 cm. These three changes decrease down force some 70-80%, which is a bummer for us drivers. Frankly, the shortened rear wing doesn't look as good as the European LMS versions... I like the bigger wing (but heck, any wing is a cool wing!).

In Grand-Am, suspension pick-up points and suspension geometry must be factory settings for almost all cars, including the R8. Brake rotor diameter is increased substantially from the street R8, but fixed (not unlimited), front and back. Springs and shocks are un-regulated, except the shocks can have only one reservour per shock. Thus shocks are adjustable for bounce and rebound and will be tuned/changed many times during testing and practice to find the best handling situation for each track. Camber is free up to a point (don't recall exactly the regulation, so wont give a number). Of course, all these cars run negative camber (more front than rear), but Daytona set-ups have the least amount of negative camber than all other North American tracks because of the extra loads the banking puts on the rear wheels. The right rear tire is the weak link at Daytona, and is the one that typically blows. (I had a well publicized blowout of the right rear tire at Daytona last month at 181.5 MPH in a Porsche GT3-Cup car while leading a race showing how this can happen without any warning whatsoever: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxR7VaukwIU

If the members of this Forum would like, I'd be happy to give updates every few days or weeks as appropriate. I just purchased a street R8 V10 (waiting for delivery) so I can also give feedback as to the difference from track to street. I will not be tracking my street car, so I can't give any advice about that--I'm sure there are guys here who are much more expert at that. Let me know... and... Go Audi!

[LAT]

Nice save on the blow out, wow.

On the subject of de-tuning, do the 458's and Vettes etc., not put out more than a stock V10? Are they de-tuned as well