Hi everyone.
I've written a lot about the Audi R10 lately, but what came before it? One of the few Audi Le Mans cars that was more successful than it was. So successful in fact that Audi named their flagship supercar after it. The Audi R8.
From 2000-2006, it won 80% of the races it entered, and influenced several features on the R10 and other cars that came in the R8's wake. We kind of owe modern Prototype road racing to it in many ways.
It incorporated several F1 like technologies, including a roll over bar that withstood 3x what was required of it. It also spawned a successful customer racing program that took over when the factory team left to concentrate on the Audi Sport supported Bentley Le Mans Program for 2003 (which also used the R8's engine and electronics) and what ultimately became the R10. And it also spawned modular design, something that was taken further by the R10 and others that followed. This included a whole rear end assembly that could be changed in less than 5 minutes.
Also of note for road cars, the R8 introduced to racing direct fuel injection for gasoline engines, inspired by then modern diesel technology. Now DFI is very widely used on road cars by many manufacturers, as it boosts both fuel economy and performance.
As the car raced in multiple year and some are even still encountered in vintage/historic racing, I decided that for the sake of brevity that I'd post the page to links on info and specs on all versions of the R8:
A couple of technical pages:
From a teaser post I made recently:
Onboard from Laguna Seca as driven by Mr. Le Mans himself:
Technical video hosted by a man who has worked on the R8 and other Audi prototypes for many years and helps keep those in historical racing running:
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