A year ago, the Audi R8 LMS won the 24 Hours Nürburgring—a 24-hour annual touring car and GT endurance racing event—on its debut. The GT3 car’s victory marked the start of a successful year of motor racing for Audi Sport. The brand now celebrates the R8 LMS with the ‘selection 24h’ special edition, writes Ammar Alvi.
The ‘selection 24h’, being built in a limited production run of 24, is based on the Audi R8 Coupé V10 plus. Its 5.2-litre V10 mid-engine develops 610 hp and accelerates the top model of the R8 car line from 0 to 100 km/h in a mere 3.2 seconds, before advancing to a top speed of 330 km/h.
That makes the R8 Coupé V10 plus both the fastest and most powerful production. A newly developed quattro drive distributes its power variably between both sets of wheels. The suspension, the aerodynamics configured to handle high down-forces and the operating concept, featuring the Audi virtual cockpit, are all motorsport-inspired. That is because the company developed the second generation of the R8 in parallel with the GT3 racing model R8 LMS.
Close cooperation between race car engineers, motorsport specialists and developers has brought both models a significant boost in performance. The dry weight of the R8 Coupé V10 plus is 1,454 kilograms; its body built using the multi-material construction principle weighs a mere 200 kilograms. The combination of aluminium and carbon fibre-reinforced polymers (CFRP) in the Audi Space Frame opens up new dimensions with regard to weight, rigidity and crash behaviour.
The technical package in the 'selection 24h' special edition comprises dynamic steering, the adaptive damper control system Audi magnetic ride and laser lighting. The tri-colour paint finish consisting of Suzuka gray as the basic colour, with mythos black and Misano red highlights, evoke the successful Audi R8 LMS.
The front spoiler, the exterior mirror housings, the engine compartment cover, the rear wing and the diffuser are made from gloss-finish carbon fibre. The same applies to the side-blades with matt-finish “R8 24h” logo.
The tailpipes of the sport exhaust system feature black trims and the 20-inch forged aluminium wheels in 10-spoke Y design are painted gloss anthracite black. Inside, the limited-edition model offers full-leather upholstery and trim in the colour rotor gray, with Alcantara headlining. The air vents and the extended inlays for the surround of the Audi virtual cockpit are made of gloss-finish CFRP. The latter also bear the matt-finish ‘R8 24h’ logo. The illuminated door sill trims are also made of gloss-finish carbon. They display the serial numbers 1 to 24 on each of the limited-edition cars.
As an exclusive feature of the limited edition, the entry lights on the doors project the Audi R8 logo onto the road surface. In future, every R8 customer will be able to personalise their car with a near-unlimited range of lettering and logos from the Audi exclusive offering.
This is company’s way of paying homage to Audi’s remarkable achievements in endurance racing. In the Le Mans 24 Hours alone, the brand with the four rings has celebrated 13 overall wins in the past 15 years. The first five of these were clinched by the R8 sports prototype, which gave its name to the production sports model.
The people will be able to see the new car for the first time at the Audi AG presentation area in the paddock at the 24 Hours Nürburgring. It costs EUR 229,000 in Germany, and is expected to be priced at around `3.5 crore (ex-showroom) in Indian market.