Raeder Motorsport: PH Meets
From race prepped Lambos to track spec Merc SLCs, if you want to go fast round the 'ring these are your guys
N24 chassis'd Scirocco looks the biz
Sugar daddy
That was followed by a shock merger with local legends Manthey Racing and, in the latest revelation, Porsche AG acquiring a 51 per cent stake of the whole thing.
Dale is lining up to have a go with this beastie
Even though their first overall VLN wins were back in 2001 with a Porsche GT3 RS, it's perhaps the fast Audi TTs Raeder is best known for. Indeed, the factory-supported TT RS made history at the Nurburgring by becoming the first ever front-wheel drive car to score an overall victory in the prestigious series.
Having built its own race cars, then race cars for other people (over 50 BMW Mini Cup cars), Raeder is turning its attention more to 'regular' customers. Thought the cars can hardly be described as 'regular'....
Off to the classifieds to browse old SLCs?
"The customer loved the old SLC, but he wanted it to be a real track car," smiles Christophe Breuer, now manager of Raeder and one of the first two full-time employees.
"We started with a standard body, but we chopped the roof down and then set to work on the suspension. Truth be told, it uses all the geometry and parts from our Lamborghini project. The engine and transmission came straight out of a V8 Star race car."
That means a power output of at least 500hp, though it's not a race car.
"We built it for track days and practice sessions. It's a car to be enjoyed, not raced."
Raeder built TTs proven VLN race winners
Now THIS is a car to be raced. "We developed the very first prototype of the Audi TT race car back in 2008," explains Christophe. "Now they're one of the most developed cars on the VLN grid."
If you pick up the phone to Audi Customer Racing, you can order one yourself - still based on the car built first by Raeder. "But Audi uses the bigger 2.5-litre five-cylinder turbo with a sequential gearbox," says Christophe. "We've moved down to the 2.0-litre TFSI motor and use the original DSG 'box. It's reliable, it can run a whole season of endurance racing without any dramas."
The car is relatively conventional, though the internally-routed rear anti-roll bar is interesting. What's not conventional are the laptimes achieved by these machines around the combined Nurburgring Nordschleife and GP track. Lapping consistently in the mid-eights bracket, this compares impressively with the low eights for the GT3 machines and low nines for the best production cars, the latter including 911s and M3s.
"They reach maximum speed at only 240km/h [150mph]," laughs Christophe, who co-drives the official Raeder car himself in VLN. "This means the V-class cars (production cars) can overtake you on the long straight. But never in the corners!"
Finished in plain white, free of sponsor or team stickers, it's easy to see the quality of the build. Every fastener, every cable and every wire is perfectly placed. No zip ties here, and certainly no Gaffa tape.
Quattro project shows off quality of work
So take that meticulous standard of finishing on the race car and apply it to an original Audi Quattro street car. This car has already been stripped down to a bare shell, acid-dipped and repainted. It's being built up now, piece by piece.
"Every part is either original, or better than original," grins Christophe. "The KW suspension is not finished in the normal purple or yellow, but in black. All the fasteners and brackets are either new or reconditioned. The Recaro seats have been rebuilt and re-trimmed to as-new condition."
Even now with the project more than half-way complete and rebuilt 20-valve motor installed it's not ready to drive yet. But we should probably come back when it is...
Customer cars prepped and stored on site
The number of cars that pass through the Raeder gates is staggering. Many of the customers don't really want their cars discussed at length. But in the private storage garages we're invited to see a beautiful 996-era GT3 RS with a handbuilt 475hp motor, a gorgeous blue Mini (drawing on the Mini Cup influence) and an incredible Scirocco, actually built on a Scirocco N24 chassis.
"We aren't tied to any one brand or manufacturer," Christophe explains. "One of the latest cars we built for a dealer was actually a SEAT."
He's modest -a it's a new-shape Seat Leon Cupra that does 7min 25sec bridge-to-gantry! ).
"Like any tuner, we have preferred partners. We work with KW and Dunlop, but if a customer wants Ohlins and Michelin, then that's what he gets." This scatter-gun approach to tuning, cross-brand, cross-platform, might look strange at first glance. But there's one thing binding it altogether. "We prepare cars for the 'ring."
And that's why there's a new sticker seemingly almost as popular as the ubiquitous Nordschleife outline...
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Here are the originals that inspired the SLC and the 'Rocco
Maserati's had their own V8 and neither model were offered in a 'wide bodied' GTS form like the above DT Longchamps.
So, if you want 'that' look you got to find yourself a Longchamp GTS or GTSE.
FYI wheels are Campanolo magnesium 10 x 15R and 8 x 15F with on my car 295/50/15 & 245/50/15 respectively.
Phil
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