New breed

Its record is impressive: Twenty-six GT3 championship wins between 2009 and 2014, 23 titles in other classifications and seven overall victories in 24-hour races. The first generation of the Audi R8 LMS, of which more than 130 vehicles were delivered to customer teams, has run up a total of 269 victories in over 1,000 starts around the globe since making its debut. 

So the bar is set high for its replacement, intended to con-tinue the success story officially from this year. Audi started intensive testing of the new Audi R8 LMS early, with the car completing initial test laps back in 2014 and then taking part in its first races in 2015 with what can only be described as a dream start.

The new R8 LMS first took top honours in a four-hour race at the famed Nürburgring last April, and then won the 24 Hours at Nürburgring a month later on debut. At the end of last year, the car dominated racing in Malaysia to win the Sepang 12 Hour endurance race and then started 2016 with a win in Dubai.

Obviously the efforts of the engineers, developers and everyone else involved in the project have paid off: The new Audi R8 LMS is lighter, more powerful and more streamlined than its predecessor. In terms of safety, it already significantly exceeds the requirements of the 2016 new GT3 race regulations. For example, its modified body structure at the front and rear even meets the crash test requirements applying to the very much lighter Le Mans prototypes like the Audi R18 e-tron quattro. 

But the extra safety doesn’t come at the cost of extra weight. That is thanks to the Audi brand’s lightweight design expertise, now applied even more rigorously to the new Audi R8 LMS. The intelligent material mix of aluminium in the Audi Space Frame, a CFRP structural element and the steel roll cage makes the chassis alone around 30 kilograms lighter – yet at the same time 39 percent stiffer than its predecessor. 

Despite the complex technical requirements applying to a GT3 race car, Audi has managed to integrate the production of road and race car even more closely than ever before. quattro GmbH produces both versions in tandem at the new ‘Böllinger Höfe’ facility. True, the race version has a steel roll cage, for example, but the racing chassis of the Audi R8 LMS is integrated into the basic production process of the road car up to and including roof assembly. 

Over 50 percent of the parts in the Audi R8 LMS are taken from its road-going counterpart, the Audi R8 V10 plus Coupé. 

That goes for the heart of the car, too – the 5.2-litre V10 high-revving engine that comes off the same line as the production unit. Its slightly lower power output of up to 430 kilowatts in the Audi R8 LMS compared to the Audi R8 V10 plus Coupé is a result of the FIA rules. The designers use modified or completely new parts only where they are required by racing regulations or by the much higher stresses encountered in competition. 

For instance, the suspension uses racing wishbones for the first time. Similarly a completely new development, the six-speed transmission with paddle shifters is used instead of the seven-speed S tronic in the production model. It is significantly lighter than on the predecessor and sends the engine’s maximum 550 newton- metres of torque to the rear axle only, as specified by the official rulebook, unlike the quattro drive system in the production car. 

The new aerodynamic concept of the Audi R8 LMS for the first time includes a fully lined underfloor and an integrated rear diffusor, allowing for a smaller rear wing and improved down force without a corresponding increase in drag. To help improve airflow, the front wheel wells have larger slits to the rear. The front-mounted radiator’s cooling area has been increased by 10 percent to deal with very high outside temperatures. Fresh air circulation in the cockpit has also been improved to enable race drivers to concentrate better on the task at hand. 

Despite all the add-ons, the kinship between production and race car is clearly visible in the design, too. The Singleframe grille has the same honeycomb pattern as the road car, the design of the headlights is identical, and the signature sideblades are now also split. 

Australian race fans will get to see the new R8 LMS in action next month (February 5–7) when it takes on Mount Panorama and aims to win another Bathurst 12 Hour race for Audi.