Audi R8R

About this model

Despite Audi’s success in rallying, GT and touring car racing, they were unproven in the field of endurance racing. In 1999, this changed, with the debut of two different prototypes, a seemingly-unlimited budget and one objective in mind - to win at Le Mans.

Since the rules allowed for ‘GT-like’ prototypes to compete against LMPs for top-class honours, Audi built a model for each class, assessing which would be best. The R8R (R for Roadster) was built by Dallara, fighting in the LMP class using a bespoke 3.6-litre twin-turbocharged V8 engine.

Tony Southgate was hired as a design consultant for the project, working on both the R8C and its open-top stablemate. In his own words, Southgate recalled how Dallara first approached him to test the water on working for Audi: They had built a prototype which was not very good and they needed some help. [...] It looked a bit like an Audi TT convertible with wings. It did not work, so it was an easy car to improve on. Audi should have started again but, if I had suggested that, I would have been out of a job.

Southgate suggested to shelf the coupé and explained how the regulations favoured LMPs: 'I thought the regulations favoured this. You could run two-inch wider tyres at the rear and that's a huge chunk of rubber , he stated.

The writing was already on the wall. The Joest-run R8Rs finished 3rd and 5th at the 1999 12 Hours of Sebring and proved their strength and reliability despite being around two seconds behind the contemporary BMW V12 LMR. Still, it showed that it was a better approach than the R8C.

At Le Mans, the R8R driven by Frank Biela, Didier Theys and Emanuele Pirro took 3rd overall, with the sister car of Rinaldo Capello, Michele Alboretto and Laurent Aiello finishing 4th, great results for a rookie in endurance racing.

Still, Audi management wanted the overall win. The following Audi R8 would implement some aspects learnt from the R8C and R8R, like the quick-change rear-end section and the Megaline-developed automatic gearshift system that proved more reliable. Besides this, it was back to the drawing board for the R8’s design.

(In collaboration with @carhistorian)