When Audi Ruined Le Mans 

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Kristensen winning with the R8 on all 5 attempts AND winning with the Bentley the one time that the R8 was defeated - such a power move honestly

I swear the R8 LMP winning 5 Le Mans in 6 years really gets forgotten when discussing the greatest cars in motorsport history

Back in 1997 after I’d bought an Audi A4, I was asked to participate in a market research panel. We talked about advertising, etc. I mentioned to the group that if Audi wants to get the attention of the performance market… race some cars. I specifically said IMSA and LeMans😂 So yes, I take credit!😂😂

I work with someone who helped design the R8C at RTN. Audi came to them because they thought, wrongly, that the rules allowed them to use the R8R chassis fitted with a roof in the GTP class, and needed RTN to design a car from the ground up for them. They went from a blank canvas to racing in well under a year and had a fraction of the budget of the Joest car. The R8R was always going to be the chosen direction...

the R-10 is a mind blowing piece of kit.

this was THE face of endurance racing when i was a kid, and then the diesel battle that came after was part of legend too. endurance racing is exceptionnal

I have had the absolute honour of getting to work for Brad Kettler, one of Audi's former engineers and pretty much the only guy keeping these cars running, and have been fortunate enough to get to rebuild a few transmissions and really get to know these cars from a technical standpoint. Absolutely incredible machines, I'll never forget the first time I got to see one started up in the shop, that sound gave me goosebumps

11:26 That was the verbal equivalent of a flashbang, good God that caught me offguard

That R8C is a thing of beauty!

The Speed Channel was a glorious channel here in the States. Pity it was replaced. I remember watching the R8 in the ALMS when they showed races including the telecast of the 24hrs of Le Mans. SurfShark Plug: "Stop missing out on the content you like...mine."

I got to meet Dr. Ullrich the last time Audi ran WEC at COTA, years back. You'd never know the guy was an engineering and racing genius, how nice and polite he was, shaking hands and taking pictures with everyone who recognized him, which were more than a few. Was a pretty awesome 5-7 seconds I'll never forget especially seeing these old Audi LM racing videos!

Great video... Unless I missed it... You forgot to mention ex F1 Driver Michele Alboreto - died testing these in 2001. 😢

I remember watching videos from 2000 and the R8 looked like a spaceship in relation to the cars at the time. Even the BMW V12 LMR that had won LM24 just the year before looked old hat next the Audi.

*Its 2008 again* Youre playing Race Driver Grid on Xbox360 Youre in battle with R18s and other Prototypes with 2 min left in a 24 min race The 24hr of LeMans theme from that game is playing as the darkness fades as you just start to see the sun coming up Anxiety intensifies as you see those headlights in the darkness get closer to you ... *Game On*

Funny how the first prototype of the Audi R8 LMP car’s headlights almost look like the ones that the Audi TT (at the time) has! Other than that it’s nice to hear about the backstory of this fine race car. 👍

I remember seeing the R8 for the first time at Sebring 2000. I could immediately tell it was something special.

I remember going to Mosport in 07 or 08, saw the R10 in person, such a surreal car, standing at turn 8 other cars would scream by, then the R10 would come by and you could hear the air flowing over the car, the suspension move and the transmission howl but no exhaust note, was surreal

The R8 LMP is still my fave LMP ever. It just looks fast. Even stood still.

You can hear the sheer passion put into these videos. Can't wait for another!

I was lucky enough to see them twice at the Petit LeMan in '01 and' 02. They were on rails. And so very reliable. German engineering excellence. But the real crowd favorites were the home team Panoz. Man you could feel your fillings coming loose when those LMP Roadsters thundered by with their Nascar powerplants.. Great video. Thanks so much sharing!

I saw the R8 LMP racing in a privateer race at COTA back in November it was awesome to see.

I do think the 2000 and 2003 Le Mans part should have talked about the 4 and 5 minute rear end and gearbox changes that took place and in 2004 a new rule was made that the gearbox couldn't be replaced during the race.

My dad worked on that car, many many years ago. So i have a really special connection with it. The R8 was s really really amazing car.

To add, I believe there is one last race in 2006 with the R8. if I remember correctly, they raced it one last time at Lime Rock where it unsurprisingly won again! The most dominant chassis in sports car racing!

The R8C is underratedly good looking, the R8R ain't too bad either

Interesting and well put together episode as all ways. There are a lot of abbreviations and different groups in racing, could be a good episode to explain all these, group a,b,c etc... Thanks for the vids dude 🤘

I remember when I was a kid , I had total calendar, and this car was in there I was staring at it for hours if not days admiring it

11:24 There's deadpan and then there's *DEADpan* - I nearly spiled my quinoa and duck's liver timbale!

Criminally underexposed channel. Don’t ever stop making these videos, they are fantastic. The hard work is appreciated 👍

1:09 unfortunately Michele Alboreto lost his life in 2001 at the wheel of an Audi R8 he was testing

The most nuts thing about this car was the 5 minute gearbox/rear end change they did to both cars in 2000. Seriously, it’s fucking genius… so genius the ACO banned it straight afterwards.

I saw these car race in period at Road America, they were so quiet and fast, the Mugen Panoz LMP was ear splitting and the Audi was a whisper

Impressive, very nice Let’s see what “competition” audi had to face and how slow their opponents were compared to them

Dude thank you so much for all this backstory. I grew up with Tom Kristensen winning Le Mans with Audi. But never did really bother with learning anything i guess. Good stuff.

Sure wish they'd race in WEC now. That Bentley is a beautiful car!

Finally you review Audi R8 lmp, thanks bro

I know people rag on toyota le mans wins. Audi had no competition for a good chunk of their race wins though until Peugeot came along? It’s was Audi vs Audi…Panoz & Co never truly got to their levels.

favourite youtuber made a video about my favourite car really appreciate it

Love these videos, just makes me wanna get out the ps2 and play some GT4

Thank you for this video. I love the R8 and hope there are more videos about Audis LMP1s to come😄

The R8 even raced in 2006 in the ALMS until Lime Rock in July before it finally got replaced by the R10. Managed to win its final race with all 23 racetracks written on it where it scored victories.

Never knew about the R8C so definitely learnt something new

While the R10 made its debut in March 2006 at Sebring (which it won), it was still in the development process for the first half of the year. For the second, third & fourth rounds of American Le Mans, a single R8 LMP was run by Allan McNish & Dindo Capello. It won overall in Houston, but only managed the LMP1 win at Mid-Ohio, with Porsche's RS Spyder of LMP2 taking overall. But in the R8's final start at Lime Rock Park, McNish & Capello edged out Porsche for the overall win. Being my home track, I was there that day, absolutely magic! (That race also had Aston Martin beat Corvette in a photo finish for GT1)

One of the most beautiful cars ever made. Hero car through and through, absolute jaw dropper when it debuted in Gran Turismo 4, while it was still securing wins during development!

0:40 that’s a McLaren

the GT1 cars of 1997 and 1998 are prototypes, they just added roofs, "luggage space" and built 200 of each car to make the GT series. for awhile in the 90s everyone thought that was it for prototypes and GT cars were the way which is why everyone went to the GT1 car. i mean you cant tell me that looking at the Toyota TS-020 (GT-One) and tell me that is a GT car.

The R15 is my favourite of the Audi LMP cars, but I've always loved all of the cars that Audi made for Le Mans, so this was an exciting watch for me lol. ^-^

I was at le mans in 2001 and 2002. There's a clip in the video where you can see me standing on the grassy knoll.

The Porsche LMP2000 got literally cancelled by executive order of Ferdinand Piëch who was CEO of the Volkswagen Group at the time and in his earlier career he was at Porsche and contributed the 917 and later came to Audi and paved their way to make them a premium brand especially with technical innovations the famous "Vorsprung durch Technik" (which came from the NSU Ro 80 with Wankel engine). And of course he still had familiar connections (and was also a large shareholder) to Porsche, so he could avoid that competition at least until 2014 (or 2005/2006 but the RS Spyder was LMP2 and mostly in ALMS/ELMS). It seems the open LMPs were prefered by the rules in the 2000s so Audi continued the R8R line, they then returned to a coupé with the R18 in 2011 (mostly they could change drivers faster without a roof but the pit stops got a minimum time so it wasn't a disadvantage for a coupé anymore).

All I can say is Gran Turismo 5. Been playing this game for a while now and and on the used cars lists, this popped up for 4.1 million. Luckily I have enough to buy it and rebuild it and all I can say is well worth it.

Always get's my thumbs up this channel, another great show thanks to our master automobolistic ;)

Seeing your face in relation to your voice always psyches me out, but you 110% need to be doing historic documentary commentary, my good man.

What caste a pall was the tragic loss of Michele Alboreto .

aka. "Let build our own Meta Game with our R8"

Well, the Touareg/Cayenne project was the main cause that stopped the Porsche LMP. VW didn't want any disturbance to their Le Mans efforts with Audi/Bentley in exchange for collaboration with that SUV project.

Didn't Michele Alboreto die testing one of these? Or was the R10? I remember reading a feature in an F1 mag when I was little but I had no idea about endurance racing or Michele. Must have been around 2001

I’d argue the greatest is the 956/962, those were unstoppable machines and you can’t forget the famous “Nobody’s Perfect” poster. 9 out of the top 10 finishers in 1983 were all driving the Porsche. Followed by 8 out of the top 10 in ‘84 and ‘85, and 7 of the top 10 in ‘86.

Whenever the R8 comes up as a video topic I will always stop to watch. That car is so special to me as a kid who grew up around the R8's dominant period, especially because I had a grandstand seat for the Race of a Thousand Years in Adelaide, which Audi's famous crocodile-liveried car won by an unfathomable margin in a race shortened due to time constraints.

Congratulations on the cool channel. I'd love to see something on the Ford Escort Cosworth and on the Lancia Delta Integrale

The reason why Porsche canned their LMP900 project was part of the terms VAG set to bail them out; ditch the LMP900 and build a marketable SUV; the Cayenne.

Every time i see that car, i see Alboreto's death...

YESSSS I LOVE THIS CAR !!!!!! we need more open top lmp video 🙂

Love these R8s.

the only car that can compete with the 956/962 for success in le mans

7:39 can we talk about the picture of Jackie Stewart in an unknown Porsche prototype?

Seeing that thumbnail reminded me of gran turismo 4, and how the ai somehow lost in that car to my toyota 7

Automobilistic nails it again! Love it!

Made it in the first 20 minutes of this being posted 💪

Thank you for this video. Wonderful footage! 🙂

Basically, they won a lot of times when there was almost no competition.

Hey auto just a throught but could you do a video on the ferrari 288 gto evoluzione i think it would be quite an interesting groub b era story

Meh, Porsche 917 was way more dominant In fact, it was such stupidly fast, it haven't been gapped for another 2 decades Well, than there was the 956/962 hitting the scene, and that is considered the most successful racecar of all times

Not quite schitt actually. The Bentley EXP speed 8 achieved 3rd place twice at Le Mans.

i love your videos!!!! where did you get those posters?

The TDI cars were all-time kings

I mean look I've only ever driven it in Project Cars 2, but like yeah. It's just the business. 😁

Groundwork for diesel dominance

Wait a second, is that a GT One model from tamiya ?

Oh, what a story.

It's Kristensen not Christiansen

this thing destroyed me in older gran turismo games lol

Audi didn’t have the R8 in the second round they used the Audi R8R instead.

What is the channel to watch WEC in Austria?

Le Mans disesls next video please

I miss all the GT music.

They defo ruined Le Mans for me, being a Panoz fan....

Cool video but the click sound when displaying every photo is highly annoying and completely unnecessary

Audi Dominant the races fare and squad is all on top of all issues and rivils wasn't dominant because there behined audi planning.

One correction, it's Champion racing, or ADT Champion racing, not ADT Champion-ship racing. Great video otherwise!

Audi never ruined Le Mans. Le Mans have always been at its greatest whenever a German manufacturer won.

Why so much regulation

Audi r8 Le mans prototype 1

I’ve liked the video I’ll watch it later on my big tv

Diesel audi please

Paying to watch WEC is why nobody watches WEC.... Be more like F1.. without all the red flags...

give diesel deets

yay

When Audi Ruled the World*

Sweet