Teamspeed Tests Race-Winning Audi R8 LMS

“Don’t crash it!” Those are the helpful last words I hear as the door is slammed shut. All other instructions were either muffled by my helmet or drowned out by the fast-idling V10 at my back. “Don’t crash it”, however, rings out sharp and clear like a report from a rifle.

‘It’ is an Audi R8 LMS that’s just won the Bathurst 12 hour. Driven by Christer Jöns, Christopher Mies and Darryl O’Young, the Top Service R8 covered 270 laps (1677km or 1042 miles) to win by a scant one minute 13 seconds over a Mercedes-Benz SLS GT3, with a Ferrari 458 in third a further minute back. The trio battled heavy rain and fog, and a spin into the gravel trap for the win.

The race winning car is also due back to Europe – in one piece – where it will compete in the Nurburgring 24 hour in June. That’s the race Audi really wants to win. Sure it’ll take its back-to-back Bathurst wins, and its 2011 Spa 24 hour victory, but the Ingolstadt brand really wants to break Porsche’s stranglehold on the Nurburgring 24 hour.

Prior to donning my helmet and being shoved into the black #1 Top Service R8, the instructions were very clear. Firstly, this sneaky little drive officially wasn’t meant to happen and could be cancelled at any moment. Secondly, I would have an out lap, two flying laps and one in lap. Oh, and the clock would be running, and if my out lap and first flyer were too slow, I’d be flagged in immediately.

How slow was too slow, I asked trying to sound nonchalant? Just ten minutes had been allocated for this exercise so I could budget no more than 2:30 per lap, including out and in laps. For perspective, Bathurst’s Mount Panorama circuit is 6.2km (3.85 miles) long with 23 corners. It rises and falls 180 metres each lap and the downhill plunge from Skyline to the bottom of the Dipper is steeper and narrower than the Corkscrew at Laguna Seca. It’s a man’s race track. And I’ve never driven here before…

The #1 Audi qualified on pole position in 2:10.8 and went even faster in the race with a best lap of 2:08. The fastest lap of the race went to a Ferrari 458 GT3 at 2:06.33, while closer to my pace was a BMW 130i lapping in 2:47.

To get near those times and to ensure my four laps, I’ll need to lean hard on the big slicks and trust in the aero – not something I’m used to doing.

Thankfully about half of Mount Panorama is made up of long straights and even I can keep the boot in on a straight. Conrod Straight culminates in a scary-fast 270km/h kink to the right, before a plunging downhill braking zone into a 100km/h left/right complex. If you trail the brakes into the kink you’ll unbalance the aero load and spin at very high-speed – a situation made worse by the mid-mounted V10 acting as a pendulum. So your choice is to brake hard and early before the kink or to take a brave pill and attack the kink flat and wait until the car is dead straight before burying the brake pedal as the 90-degree left hander is rushing into the windshield.

The first way is slow and safe, the second, fast and potentially dangerous. As I exit the pit lane, I know I’ve got about 5km before I have to make that choice.

Immediately the LMS feels familiar and different. The view forward, the cabin and even the sound of the V10 is reminiscent of previous R8s I’ve driven – with restrictors in place for racing, the engine makes less power than the road car. But everything feels harder and hotter and more precise. The engine hammers through the first four gears on the run up the Mountain and I brush the brake pedal with my left foot to get a feel for the pressure and bite point. Firm and high are the answers.

Not only is the clock running on this very nervous novice, but the thankfully few observers back in the pits will be able to aurally trace the lap. Sound reverberates off each concrete wall or rock cutting and tumbles down the hill so each early brake application, hesitant throttle load and premature upshift will telegraph my lack of commitment and courage. No pressure then.

The rest of the out lap is tentative and, I fear, painfully slow. The steering gets sharper as heat builds into the slicks. I’m braking too early and not hard enough, but the traction is stunning so I’m confident to get on the gas as soon as the nose is planted into the corner.

I flash across the start finish line half expected the chequered flag already.

Thankfully it’s not there so I grit my teeth for a proper stab at the lap. Turn One is a 90-degree left hander taken at around 100km/h after braking from 200km/h. Then the climb begins up Mountain Straight and the R8 gobbles gears and is into fifth before I lift slightly for the hump.

Turn two is nearly 90-degrees to the right but the incline, which is getting steeper all the time, and a favourable camber means you can really attack the corner. You’re braking from around 230km/h (though the pros are about 15km/h quicker and deeper under brakes) but the R8 is well into third and hard on the throttle before I sight the exit. Next up is the Cutting, a double left-hander approached at an insane 170km/h where the second half climbs at a gradient of 1:6. Not even the R8’s 500hp V10 can disguise the climb but you can’t let the car drift too wide under power in second gear or you’ll smack the wall on exit.

From here the circuit climbs and plunges around a series of blind corners, the last of which is a near-200km/h kink to the left that spits you onto Skyline – it’s here for the first time that I feel the aero working as the nose and tail remained glued to the tarmac. From the cockpit, this short straight appears to end mid-air but just beyond the line of sight is the roller coaster Esses and Dipper. Braking hard, the R8 wiggles its bum to follow the camber of the track, thankfully pointing the nose at the corner and not the concrete barrier that hides a 180 metre drop to oblivion. Aside from this little moment, the R8 feels friendly to drive.

Right/left/right/left down the Mountain and despite only tentative prods at the throttle, gravity keeps speeds around 120km/h.

The circuit is still plunging downhill as I tumble onto the main straight at the top of second gear. I breathe for the first time in minutes as I grab third, fourth, fifth, then sixth. Then I see the fearsome flat-right kink. Do I wimp out and brake early or do I trust the aero? Back at Skyline the aero felt like the hand of God so I force my right foot from lifting and the downforce sucks the R8 through the corner. Bumps into the braking zone mean you’re fighting the steering and even fighting to keep your left foot on the pedal. The downshifts are fast but don’t upset the delicate balance as the anchors shed 180km/h for the left hander.

Corner 23 onto the start-finish straight is another 100km/h 90-degree left-hander after a 200km/h braking zone. Up hard through the gears, using an 8100rpm upshift point, I scan the pit wall for the chequered flag but am greeted with thumbs up. I get my full four lap allocation and Audi gets their brilliant race car back in one piece.

Now you’ve read about a slow lap around Mount Panorama, here’s how a pro does it.