Audi R8 GRAND-AM

Audi R8 GRAND-AM Returns At Watkins Glen Race

Audi R8 GRAND-AM made a return yesterday at the 6 Hours at Watkins Glen race as part of the endurance championship. Two Audi motor-sport cars took part in the contest: the GRAND-AM and the new Fall-Line Motorsport.

The winning Audi R8 GRAND-AM that won the Daytona 24 Hours earlier this year was driven by Felipe Albuquerque (Portugal) – the same driver took the checkered flag at Daytona; Eduardo Mortara (France/Italy) and Dion von Moltke (South Afraica) piloted the number 24 car. The official results of the race, hasn’t been released yet, but we are impatiently looking forward to hearing some good news for the Audi team.

In fact, Fall-Line Motorsports number 46 R8 GRAND-AM in the B+ (Be Positive) livery made its debut at the event. The successful team brought great enthusiasm to the event. The piloting-trio Al Carter, Charles Espenlaub, and Charlie Putman has worked together for several years and has won many races including Fall-Line’s team and drivers’ 2010 Continental Tires Sports Car Challenge Series championship with Espenlaub and Putman.

Audi R8 GRAND-AM differentiates approximately by 50 percent of the R8 production car in terms of parts and equipment. For instance, the 5.2 Liter V10 naturally aspirated engine is fitted to the race-car, and was previously tested for maximum durability on the track.

In addition, the new Audi R8 production car has been also enhanced and now is offered as V10 Plus model which is capable of delivering 550 horsepower (405 kW). The model has an acceleration time from 0 to 100 km/h in just 3.3 seconds. The engine is matched with a new in-house developed seven-speed double clutch S tronic transmission that is exclusively utilized in the R8.

However, the six-speed manual gated shifting transmission is still available on all models as well as the new full-LED lighting design. New cross-stitched leather seats and door inserts finish the improvements on the interior of the 2014 R8 production car.

Source: Audi

July 1, 2013

Audi R8 Grand-AM debut at Daytona 24h

Double the excitement as Audi will be making a debut of the R8 GRAND-AM customer sport race car on the 50th running of the Daytona 24 Hours. Two teams, APR Motorsport and Oryx Racing will have the privilege to race their own LMP Audis in the GT class of the endurance race which kicks off on the 26th of January.

“We are proud to be part of the action for the first time at the event’s special anniversary,” said Werner Frowein, Managing Director of Quattro GmbH, which has developed the Audi R8 GRAND-AM. After the debut, the R8 is set to take part in the other 12 challenges of the GRAND-AM series. Let us remind ourselves that back in 2008, Audi was represented in the United States for a whole season with a factory commitment featuring the Audi R10 TDI LMP1 sports car and proceeded to win the title in the American Le Mans Series (ALMS). Now the APR Motorsport and Oryx Racing customer teams are going to take part of their own commitment.

APR has a reputation of playing with Audis as it is known as one of the most active tuners of the car make. They are based in Opelika, Alabama and headed by Jeff Mishtawy. Hopes fall on a lineup of 5 drivers: The Americans Ian Baas and Dr. Jim Norman, Nelson Canache from Venezuela, Dion von Moltke plus the legendary (former now) Audi factory driver Emanuele Pirro from Italy. The other team, Oryx Racing, is headed by Humaid Al Masaood (UAE) as he also plays the role of a driver. Hist two other team mates are Saeed Al Mehairi and Steven Kane (UK)

“We’re entering a new car in a series that’s new to us. It was important to us to be involved in the project right from the beginning and help continue to develop this fascinating customer racing car from Audi to become as competitive as possible.” comments an enthusiastic Al Masaood. Despite the fact that the team is from UAE, they also have a base in the US, West College Corner near Indianapolis.

The “Rolex 24 at Daytona” ranks as one of the finest international motorsport events. Attenders are in for a treat as a champions party with numerous racing legends, an exhibition of historic overall-winning cars, a carnival complete with a Ferris Wheel, a 5-kilometre run on the track for all sports enthusiasts on Saturday before the race, autograph sessions and pit walks are just some of the attractions featured on the last weekend of January. The GRAND-AM Audi will be competing against approximately 30 more contenders which fall into the category of GT LMP1 vehicles. After a qualifying session on Thursday the race will start on Saturday (January 28) and end on Sunday (January 29) at 15:30, local time (21:30 Central European time).

Source: Audi

January 26, 2012

Audi Sport has announced the new R8 GRAND-AM, which is based on R8 LMS that has scored more than 110 victories and 13 titles. Essentially, from the GT3 race car quattro GmbH has developed a vehicle for the Grand Touring class of the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series in the USA and subjected it to final testing at Daytona.

There were two test days, when Frank Stippler completed around 1000 km with Audi R8 GRAND-AM. The famous Daytona International Speedway in the U.S. state of Florida with its banked turns served to prepare for the Daytona 24 Hours at which private racing customers will compete with the R8 GRAND AM on January 28^th and 29^th, next year.

Still ,the newly developed car is a lot different than the GT3 model. The downforce is a lot lower due to the GRAND-AM regulations, which prescribe modified body components. For example, the new front splitter may only protrude from the front contours by 38 mm. Besides that, the front underbody must have a flat design and the rear diffusor corresponds to the production car component, while the standardised rear wing is only 152 cm wide and thus 260 mm slimmer than the rear wing of the R8 LMS.

“The lower aerodynamic forces also require modified damper characteristics and softer spring rates,” said Armin Plietsch, Head of Engineering Customer Sport at quattro GmbH.

In addition, the regulations prescribe a ride height of 65 mm – which is about 10 mm more than the minimum in the FIA series.

The tires should be from the series’ exclusive supplier, Continental and the ABS and traction control, which are standard equipment on the Audi R8 LMS, had to be deactivated for the R8 GRAND-AM.

The optimised radiator package that Audi developed for the R8 LMS ultra is also used in the R8 GRAND-AM.

“We successfully tested all the modifications at Daytona,” commented Romolo Liebchen, Head of Customer Sport at quattro GmbH.

“With Frank Stippler we developed a sound and solid set-up for our customers and also gathered valuable findings in the endurance tests. The durability of wearing parts and runs at high outside temperatures meet challenging demands. We can now provide our racing customers with concrete advice and reference values for fielding the car.”, he finished.

Source: Audi

December 12, 2011

Tag: Audi R8 GRAND-AM

Audi R8 GRAND-AM Returns At Watkins Glen Race

Audi R8 Grand-AM debut at Daytona 24h

Audi R8 GRAND-AM