Audi Back For More

[KC]

At the Essen Motor Show Audi has announced their sportscar plans for 2002. They will return with a slightly modified version of this year's LeMans champion and ALMS championship R8 LMP900. They are interested in amtching Porsche's 3 year in a row LeMans honorsd as well as join the long list of three time LeMans winning makes. Their driver lineup should be the same if rumors are true.

[The Beer Baron]

Welcome back Audi, hopefully someone whips your ass in 2002!

[Dr. Austin]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by The Beer Baron

Welcome back Audi, hopefully someone whips your ass in 2002!"


POW!!! Well done, Baron! hopefully it will be the shamrock team that does it.

Audi will have to go a long way to match Porsche. Here are their streaks

70, 71 (under Piech)

76, 77

81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87,

96, 97, 98

So, Porsche has THREE streaks of three in a row and one streak of SIX in a row. And solo wins in 79 and 94. And class wins? Got a calculator? Does anyone recall the last time Porsche didn't get at least a class win?

But with the present state of sportscar racing, it is not impossible to think they can't win the next four in a row if they compete. If the truth is to be told, I really think that the Audi is merely a Porsche consultancy project. It is 100% fact that this program came under the leadership of Ferdinand Piech, grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, sr. Perhaps he did not have the hands on approach that he used in the 906/907/908/917 era, but as head of the Audi group, he can add two more LeMans wins to his legacy that included the 70 and 71 events. He is truely the greatest automotive engineering genius ever.

So, as head of Audi, he was wise to use the best tools he had available, and Porsche is one of the world's top engineering consulting firms. Remember the Auto Unions? The VW bug? There are more, but I can't remember everything.

He was also wise to keep his family's company in the game and fresh with the latest technology. This is all theory, of course, but who knows more about turbocharging than Porsche? Who, more than anyone, knows how to dominate not only that race, but that entire genre of motorsports. Porsche, of course.

I have seen those cars REAL up close and watched them carefully as they ran. These damn Audis look and sound and go like Porsches. They give the illusion that they are chopped top 962's. It is all too eerie to see the rings on what is surely a porsche design.

Besides, Piech is wise enough to use all his best resourses. We will all miss him as he is scheduled to retire soon. How will Audi fare without his leadership? We will know in June.

Perhaps a thread about his antics in the '60's would be alot of fun. And a good lesson. He was the master.

[Aysedasi]

It is good to hear they will be back, even though I sincerely hope they will have some real competition from somewhere next year. But who's prepared to bet against Kristensen, Biela and Pirro doing it again? (Not me!).

[AllonFS]

For once Aysedasi, I am going to disagree with you. Yes the Audis are incredible cars and we all admire that. But without competition, would another easy Audi victory be a good thing? What everyone remembers from last year is the Bentleys, and the reception the 3rd place car got was far greater than the Audi one-two. It seemed a slightly pyrrhic victory to me, although the history books will record the Audis and that's what they're after.

Personally I would be delighted if the Audis didn't have a team effort, (customer cars are fine - they drop out!), and we had a really open Le Mans.

However I suspect I will be politely clapping another Audi victory at 4pm Sunday next year.

[iucrmh]

We've got to hope for some better, more prolonged competition and then we can find out how good the Audi really is. It hasn't been pushed at all in 2000 and 2001, which may be why even this years pole time would have only qualified 5th for the 1999 race behind 2 Toyotas, 1 BMW and 1 Mercedes-Benz. Maybe a case of only doing enough.

I think that Toyota may have regretted not hanging on for another year. Would love another race like 1999, all the big guns (save Porsche) and the result almost down to the wire.

[rdjones]

Well it is good to see Audi coming back in 2002, but lets hope that they get a little more competition next season, somehow I can not see it happening, I think Bentley will give them a good run for there money at Le Mans. But they will be the only real treat, now that Chrysler have pulled out. Cadillac will not be treat and nither will Panoz. But after the MG's performance at Sebring at the begining of the week, there could be a suprise there, bu somehow I think Le Mans 2002 will be another Audi walkover.

[Aysedasi]

Originally posted by AllonFS
For once Aysedasi, I am going to disagree with you.

I think in short, Allon, all who have posted on this thread are actually in agreement, to the effect that if Audi do come back (as seems very likely), the ACO badly need to find some really serious competition. The last thing I want to go to Le Mans to see is another Audi walk-over (although a walk-over in the sunshine I could probably live with!!).

We need Bentley back. We need some serious reliability from those running Judd engines. We need Courage to make a big effort this year. And yes, customer Audi's would be better for us, the spectators. The Johansson and Champion teams proved that just having an Audi doesn't guarantee anything.

[rdjones]

I am with Aysedasi, because I belive that there is no one out there which has chance of beating the Audi's. We need another big manufator to come in with the resourse's to beat, them and in my eyes there is only on that is Porsche, and if the rummors are ture then they will be back in 2003. But we will wait and see about that one.

[AllonFS]

Aysedasi, you are being far too reasonable and logical - I am forced into agreeing with you again! You are right that what we need is competition, much better to have lots of top teams (ie. 1999 - my first Le Mans) than to have a walkover for the Audis. However part of me feels that if there is not going to be serious competition against the Audis, then I would rather watch an exciting race without them.

It's a difficult one, the balance between having the best cars possible racing at Le Mans and having the best race possible.

Maybe the 50 car homologation rule could be brought back, it seemed to produce some rather good cars and racing in the 60s. It would also mean that even if one car was dominant, there would be a lot of them to actually race - a la the 917s in 69 and 70.

[Dr. Austin]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by AllonFS

Maybe the 50 car homologation rule could be brought back, it seemed to produce some rather good cars and racing in the 60s."

It started off as 50 cars so the GT40 and Lola T-70 wouldn't get shoved out, but they relaxed the rule to 25 beginning in 1969. That is when Porsche decided to build the 917 for.

But they did this only after Porsche had committed so much to the 908 program. Imagine Piech getting the family to go for all the expensive 908 upgrades and development, only for the FIA to change the rules. Then he has to go back and ask for more money to develop a new car to replace the expensive one that wasn't any good against the five year old GT-40! Not only that, but we have to build 25 of them even before they will let us race them. He must have been pretty slick that Piech.

But 25 cars would be good. Except some of the smaller makers would have a hard time meeting the numbers. And if three manufacturers committed to such a program, that would mean they would have to sell 75 cars. Maybe 10 is a better number.