Audi Sport will evoke the brand’s rich racing heritage when it lines up at this year’s Nürburgring 24 Hours with four cars all wearing a reinterpretation of a racing livery from the past. Looking to claim its seventh outright victory in the race in 11 years, the R8 LMS GT3s each wear a livery modelled on a famous livery from the likes of the famed IMSA series, World Rally Championship and even DTM – all unique designs in their own right, but unmistakable to motorsport enthusiasts.

“The Audi design department team has taken historical motifs as a model to develop four new designs for the R8 LMS. They are completely unique, but immediately call to mind images of earlier Audi race cars,” says Chris Reinke, Head of Audi Sport customer racing.

Audi is the most successful manufacturer in the GT3 era of the Nürburgring 24 Hours with race wins in 2012, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2022.

“With our experienced partners at our side, we are in a strong position for the race again this year,” says Reinke. “After taking our sixth overall victory last year, we are striving to add another chapter to our success story at the Green Hell and continue to prove the capabilities of the Audi R8 LMS.”

Driving a car with the distinctive racing design from Audi’s super touring cars in the mid-1990s are three former Audi DTM champions. Audi Sport greats Mike Rockenfeller, Timo Scheider and Martin Tomczyk will drive the #40 R8 which marks the 40th anniversary of Audi Sport  – bringing with them a wealth of motorsport experience and success that should stand them in good stead in this year’s race around the most demanding endurance course in the world.

Each driver has won the DTM championship in the past – Rockenfeller in 2013, Scheider in 2008 and 2009 and Tomczyk in 2011. In addition, Scheider also won the Nürburgring 24 Hours exactly 20 years ago and was one of the winners of the Spa 24 Hours for Audi 12 years ago. Rockenfeller triumphed in the Eifel in 2006, set a new distance record at the Le Mans 24 Hours with Audi in the brand’s famous 2010 win and clinched the Daytona 24 Hours in the same year.

Their car, with its distinctive silver and red conjure images not only of the A4 quattros which dominated the DTM in the 1990s, but also the livery of the Audi R8 and R10 TDI models from the beginning of the brand’s dominance at Le Mans in the LMP era.

The Audi Sport Team Scherer PHX car #1 of Frédéric Vervisch, Mattia Drudi and Ricardo Feller as well as Dennis Lind wears a livery with its origins in American motorist in the late 1980s. The white background with the flowing historic Audi Sport colours is reminiscent of the Audi 200 quattro which won the Trans-Am racing series in the USA in 1988 and the Audi 90 quattro from the IMSA GTO of the same period.

The #22 car draws on the brand’s success at Le Mans with hybrid drive, when the the R18 e-tron quattro hybrid wrote a new chapter in the motorsport. The base colour, the silver-grey surfaces pick up on the circuit board design that has characterised Le Mans sports cars since 2012, while the matte black surfaces above the wheels of the R8 LMS symbolise the open fender surfaces that were mandatory in LMP1 racing at the time. This car will be driven by four up-and-coming Audi Sport junior drivers Luca Engstler, Max Hofer, Gilles Magnus and Dennis Marschall.

Finally, car #39 draws on the rally years, when Audi revolutionised the sport and dominated the World Rally Championship between 1984 and 1987. With Christopher Haase, Christopher Mies and Patric Niederhauser at the wheel, this car wears the distinctive mahogany brown, grey and red on a white background that became synonymous with victory in the World Rally Championship and legendary races like the Monte Carlo Rally, the San Remo Rally and the Safari Rally, with some of the greatest names in motorsport at the helm.

This year’s Nürburgring 24 Hours will get underway next week and run from May 18th to 21st, with Audi Sport hoping to add another chapter to the brand’s illustrious motorsport history.