Audi has publicly revealed its latest Le Mans challenger, the R18 e-tron quattro on February 29, with Audi motorsports chief Dr. Wolfgang Ulrich driving the new diesel/electric hybrid silently onto the stage of the Audi Training Center at Munich airport.
“Audi has always consciously selected championships and categories in racing that have a close relationship to production and therefore have technical relevance for the Audi customers,” said Head of Audi Motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich, in a press release. “A similar tendency is apparent with the e-tron quattro: we test a completely new technology on the race track before it’s introduced to the Audi production line.”
Audi will campaign its new car in the World Endurance Championship and will bring two to Le Mans, along with two standard R18 TDIs.
The “Quattro” label was first used for Audi’s groundbreaking—and very successful—AWD rally cars which debuted in 1980 and won the World Rally Championship in 1982 and 1984, finishing second in 1983 and 1985. Audi then attached the “quattro” name to all of its AWD offerings.
