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Audi, McLaren to bring winning cars back to Le Mans

Now gearing up for its 83rd running, the 24 Hours of Le Mans is as much about history as it is about racing forward. So this year, two key outfits in the event's history are celebrating by bringing back the cars with which they dominated in years past. Audi has been a force to be reckoned with and the team to beat at Le Mans in the modern era. It still may not have topped its sister brand and chief rival Porsche's record 16 wins, but Audi's 13 have all come in the past fifteen years since the turn of the millennium. That's one heck of a winning streak, which the German outfit will highlight by bringing every single one of its winning prototypes back to La Sarthe this year. From the R8 that kicked it all off in 2000 through the diesel R10 TDI to the R18 E-Tron Quattro that won last year. Ingolstadt won't be alone in racing down memory lane. McLaren announced it will be bringing back all five F1 GTRs that dominated the race in 1995. The quintet that finished first, third, fourth and thirteenth overall will lead a parade lap around the French circuit, joined by the new P1 GTR that will be making its dynamic debut as well as the customer examples of the special edition 650S Le Mans. What's more, winning drivers from '95 – Yannick Dalmas, Masanori Sekiya and JJ Lehto – will be on hand to participate in the parade lap as well, further highlighting the occasion. Related Video: UNITED FOR THE FIRST TIME: AUDI'S 13 LE MANS WINNERS - Efficiency technologies since 2001 in the Audi R8 - Pioneering achievements with the TDI diesel engine - R18 e-tron quattro with hybrid technology unbeaten at Le Mans Ingolstadt, May 15, 2015 – 29 days to go until the Le Mans 24 Hours: Audi is intensively preparing to battle for its 14th victory in the world's toughest endurance race. Since 2000, the brand has won the race 13 times. This year, Audi has assembled all of its Le Mans winning models for a group photo for the first time. Every single one of them represents 'Vorsprung durch Technik.' The string of victories began with the Audi R8 in 2000. "Following a year of learning and gathering experience at Le Mans, we started the 2000 season with a completely new design," says Head of Audi Motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich.

Audi reveals driver lineup and livery for Rolex 24 at Daytona

Audi has announced driver lineups for its customer teams running the R8 LMS GTD in this year's Rolex 24 at Daytona. The Rolex 24 is the first event for the inaugural season of the new United SportsCar Championship series, which merges the old Grand-Am Series with the American Le Mans Series. The new series kicks off January 25.
Flying Lizard Motorsports, which has traditionally been known for repping the Porsche 911, will campaign a pair of R8 coupes, while GMG Racing, Paul Miller Racing and Fall-Line Motorsports will run one car each. A number of drivers on each team are Audi Sport factory drivers, hot shoes like Oliver Jarvis for Fall-Line and Filipe Albuquerque and Dion von Moltke for Flying Lizard, while there are also a few Audi Sport customer drivers.
"We have a fantastic group of racing partners and drivers this season and look forward to defending last year's Daytona win," said president of Audi of America, Scott Keogh. "The successes of the R8 in endurance racing are a testament to the engineering found in every Audi on the road today."

2014 Audi R8 GT zooming toward Le Mans reveal

According to a report from Autocar in the UK, the Audi R8 is set to get something of a swan song for its own going-away party in the form of an updated GT model for the 2014 model year. If Autocar is right, this even higher-performance Audi R8 will debut at the upcoming 24 Hours of Le Mans race in France.
The 2014 Audi R8 GT Plus will reportedly get a tuned version of the much-loved 5.2-liter V10 engine that Audi has used to good effect in past R8 models. A six-speed manual or seven-speed dual-clutch automatic would send power to the rear wheels, enabling a 3.4-second 0-62 mile per hour run and a top speed of 199 mph.
Judging from spy shots that we've already seen (reprised above), the new GT Plus will be fitted with an aggressive body kit that includes a massive rear wing, a more prominent front splitter and enlarged side blade ducts. A Spyder version of the GT Plus may be on tap for 2015. Pricing, obviously, is unknown, as is any potential launch date. In other words... stay tuned.