Audi Is Selling a Diesel R18 LMP1 Car You Can Actually Drive
In the 2000s and 2010s, Audi owned sports car racing. The brand won the 24 Hours of Le Mans 13 times in 15 years, enough to make the brand the second-winningest marque in the history of the race. The company's most advanced Le Mans winner was the R18 E-Tron Quattro, a diesel hybrid LMP1 car that sent power to the front wheels with the help of a flywheel energy storage system. Now, a decade later, Audi is actually selling a running example directly to one lucky customer.
A 2012 R18 E-Tron Quattro, the first year for the hybrid variant of Audi's four-time Le Mans-winning coupe, will be sold by a new "Audi Sport Racing Legends" group. The same department is also launching a 2015 DTM silhouette racer in the shape of an Audi RS 5. Both cars are being offered as complete, running models meant to be used on track as if they were new.
Race cars are complicated, and the 2010s LMP1 hybrid set were arguably the most complex racing machines ever built. An original R18 is unique even by those standards, complete with a flywheel hybrid system and diesel V-6 engine that made even the V-4 in the Porsche 919 Hybrid look normal. This is what makes buying a car directly from Audi such a distinct advantage: the automaker says the new Audi Sport racing legends program also includes "regular technical inspections, the offer of repairs, but also a spare parts service and expert advice from former developers."
That access is not completely unique; Ferrari, notably, has offered similar services for retired F1 car buyers through its Corse Clienti program for decades. What makes the Audi program so interesting is that this level of comprehensive service is being provided to such a unique (and challenging) car, opening a whole new avenue for collectors looking to drive ultra-advanced LMP1 machinery the way the cars were intended to be driven.
Oh, and a note to whomever the future owner is: can we drive it?
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