Countdown to the Nürburgring 24H: Focus - Audi R8 LMS ultra

When the starting flag is lowered for the 40th running of the Nürburgring 24H next weekend, seven Audi R8 LMS ultra’s run by five teams will start their campaign to win Germany’s toughest endurance race.

Audi Sport Team Phoenix will exclusively represent the factory with two cars, whilst four other teams with support from Audi Sport customer racing will line up on the grid including Mamerow Racing, Raeder Motorsport, Speedhunters Team WRT and two cars from the Audi race experience.

The R8 LMS has competed on three previous occasions at the Nürburgring 24 Hours, since its debut in 2009, and whilst it has always been a strong contender in the GT3 class, more powerful GT2 cars have always denied them a chance of overall victory. In 2012, with 30 GT3 cars from eight major car makers in the field, the time has come for Audi to aim for the top step of the podium.

Dieter Gass, Head of Racing at Audi Sport said, “In recent years, we celebrated major successes with the Audi R8 LMS at the Nürburgring in the GT3 class. This year, the big aim is to shoot for overall victory. We’ve got a very strong line-up of teams and drivers plus an updated vehicle.”

The R8 LMS ultra drivers competing in this year’s race include:

Audi Sport Team Phoenix
#2 Marcel Fässler, Christopher Mies, René Rast and Frank Stippler.
#3 Marc Basseng, Christopher Haase, Frank Stippler and Markus Winkelhock.

Speedhunters Team WRT
#4 Oliver Jarvis, Andrea Piccini, Edward Sandström and Allan Simonsen.

Raeder Motorsport
#9 Frank Biela, Christian Hohenadel, Luca Ludwig and Thomas Mutsch.

Audi race experience
#24 Luca Cappellari, Florian Gruber, Warren Luff and Alex Yoong.
#25 Christian Bollrath, Pierre Ehret, Peter Venn and Marco Werner.

Mamerow Racing
#26 Christian Abt, Michael Ammermüller, Armin Hahne and Christian Mamerow.

The race starts at 16:00(CET) on Saturday May 19th and you should be able to watch it via the live streaming service on www.audi.tv and on the TV channel Sport1, which will provide more than 23 hours of on-air coverage from May 17th to 20th.

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The R8 LMS ultra in focus

The R8 LMS ultra boasts numerous technical and structural modifications in comparison to its predecessor (hence the ‘ultra’ tag), with more torque (now over 500Nm), better aerodynamics, 40 kg less weight, wider front wheels, better brake cooling and a new carbon fibre Audi Sport PS-1 racing seat.

The powerful V10 engine is based on the mass-produced engine and can clock up 20,000 kilometres or more of racing before needing its first overhaul.

Technical specifications

Audi R8 LMS ultra.
Length:	4,610 mm
Width:	1,994 mm
Height:	1,195 mm
Weight:	1,250 kg
Tank capacity:	120 litres
Engine type:	90° V10
Capacity:	5,200 cc
Max. output:	563 bhp (8,200 rpm)
Price:	329,900 euros (plus VAT)