Audi's diesel R10 shows at FoS

Plus Auto Union motorsport heritage on display

By PH Staff / Monday, 3 July 2006 / Loading comments

Audi R10 at Le Mans

A pair of Auto Unions

Audi's revealed its line-up for the Goodwood Festival of Speed next weekend, and is featuring its rich heritage of motorsport through the ages.

The German car maker , which has supported Lord March’s annual motorsport extravaganza since 1998, will display and demonstrate a host of vehicles. Audi "factory" driver Allan McNish will drive a 1936 Auto Union C-Type owned by the Audi Tradition Museum.

McNish will also demonstrate the race winning Audi R10 TDI from this year's 24 Heures du Mans -- it was the first diesel-powered car to win the prestigious French race. The R10 TDI in the hands of Frank Biela, Emanuele Pirro and Marco Werner won the race while McNish, partnered by Dindo Capello and Tom Kristensen, finished third. The oil-burner started from pole, led every lap, set the fastest race lap and also set a new race distance record on its Le Mans début -- having won its first and only other race in March. They also competed in the fourth round of the American Le Mans Series at Lime Rock on 1 July. Meanwhile McNish will also have "challenged" a RAF Harrier "Jump Jet" down a one-mile runway at RAF Wittering on 6 July.

Auto Union

The Auto Union C-Type which McNish drives is the famous 16-cylinder, six-litre "Silver Arrow", a car weighing over 16cwt (824kg) and capable of 211mph, similar to which Bernd Rosemeyer won the European Championship 70 years ago. In this era, cars carrying the Four Rings emblem, were victorious on 33 occasions in 59 races.

After World War II, all of the Auto Unions from Zwickau were taken to the Soviet Union and the whereabouts of many thereafter is unknown. To commemorate its achievements in vehicle technology, Audi commissioned Crosthwaite & Gardiner to build a replica of the C-type race car with its single-seater body. It was finished in 1998 and is now part of Audi's collection.

"Recreated" D-type debuts

Meanwhile a 1939 Auto Union D-Type "recreated" by Roach Manufacturing plus Crosthwaite & Gardiner, which can be seen on static display, is the only type of its kind in the world and is making its world début at Goodwood. The D-Type’s first race with the unusual double-supercharger engine configuration was the 1939 Belgium Grand Prix while H.P. Müller won the car’s very next race (French GP).

Additionally an "original" V12 mid-engined 1938 Auto Union D-Type is also coming over from Audi's Ingolstadt museum. The D-Type was driven by the top Auto Union drivers Tazio Nuvolari, Hans Stuck, H.P. Müller, Georg Meier and Rudolf Hasse.

This chassis is one of the few to survive the exodus to the Soviet Union in 1945.

The "original" Audi quattro rallycar will be joined by a 1983 GpB Audi quattro A2 rally machine on Goodwood’s rally stage. Both ex-factory cars have been lovingly and superbly restored by Manchester-based quattro enthusiast John Hanlon.

"Flying Finn" Hannu Mikkola, who at the invitation of Lord March, has given advice on revisions to the extended rally stage since last year’s inaugural event, was reunited with the original 1980 quattro at last year’s Goodwood event and will once again drive the "original" Audi rallycar.

Hanlon’s latest acquisition, Michele Mouton’s 1985 Pikes Peak record breaking Audi quattro S1, will be driven up the hillclimb while Audi Tradition’s 1988 Trans Am championship-winning Audi 200 quattro machine also makes a rare visit to the UK and will be driven by former Audi Sport chief Dieter Basche.