On this episode of Ignition presented by Tire Rack
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MotorTranscript
00:00 With this R18 e-tron, Audi took first and second place at the 2014 running of Le Mans,
00:09 and this particular R18 is the one that crossed the finish line first.
00:14 Not only a hybrid, but an all-wheel drive one at that.
00:17 But before Randy can get behind the wheel of this Le Mans-winning R18 e-tron, he has
00:22 to warm up in an R8 racing car.
00:48 Well on the day as a whole, I can't help but feel honored and grateful and gosh, I even
00:55 want to say blessed.
00:58 Because what an opportunity.
01:00 The R8 Ultra, which is a cool GT-type race car, I've never driven one before, and I can
01:04 compare it so closely to a lot of the GT cars I've raced over my career.
01:16 I slipped in behind the wheel, and it felt reasonably familiar.
01:22 Fired the car up, it's a big V10, it has its own unique exhaust note, and a good one, kind
01:28 of a smooth, sharp sound.
01:31 And it's a paddle shifter, which is very common on today's race cars.
01:36 It kind of has gone quickly from H-pattern shifters to sequential shifters to electronic
01:41 paddles right on the wheel.
01:43 Right side up, left side down.
01:57 Turning in for the corner, it has that mid-engine feel.
02:00 Low polar moment.
02:03 Real easy to bring the nose down in, real easy to bring the nose down into the corner.
02:08 Corner's tight enough that the nose comes in, and in the middle, we get some understeer.
02:13 Now I was told by Marcus Winklehawk, who won at the 24 Hours of Nurburgring in this very
02:20 car, still carrying the same dirt from that race, which I think is cool.
02:25 He said, "Just brake longer into the corner and leave weight on the nose."
02:29 And I'm like, "Wait a minute, that sounds like me talking."
02:31 That's good advice.
02:33 The R8 inspired confidence right away.
02:38 It's really stable and strong, which just took a lot of pedal pressure.
02:43 It's an ABS car, and I don't think I ever even inspired the ABS.
02:47 I wasn't pushing hard enough.
02:49 But on the other hand, it's a short run, and I want to take good care of these fine machines.
02:53 This one's actually going in the museum next to the R18.
03:06 This R18 is destined for the Audi Museum after Randy drives it, making it all the more special,
03:18 but stressful, as it's valued at $30 million.
03:34 I feel grateful, frankly.
03:37 I feel amazed.
03:38 The R18 is an extremely complex and high-technology race car, just won the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
03:46 And one of my great concerns was just being able to push all the buttons and do the right
03:50 things to simply drive the car.
04:12 [00:01:00] [silence]
04:33 Just the act of driving the car takes a lot of knowledge of how all the controls work.
04:44 And for the most part, I got that right.
04:47 I'm proud about that.
04:49 Most impressive about the drive was the torque.
04:52 The amount of power that the R18 puts down through all four wheels between its regenerative
05:00 electrical power coming from a super-fast spinning flywheel and the incredibly powerful
05:09 diesel V6 built for efficiency and speed.
05:14 The handling got better and better the faster we went.
05:18 I enjoyed experiencing the feeling of downforce in the faster corners here on the Mizuno Circuit.
05:27 Just a better car with the downforce, and that's not unusual because the springs have
05:32 to be so stiff.
05:37 Audi switched back to a closed cockpit design with the R18, its first since 1999.
05:44 The open cockpit helps speed up driver changes during pit stops, but new regulations limiting
05:49 the number of mechanics that can work on the car during a stop has negated that benefit.
05:54 More importantly, tightened powertrain regulations make aerodynamic efficiency all the more important,
06:00 and closed cockpit designs have a strong aerodynamic advantage over open cockpits.
06:06 The driver sits in a one-piece carbon fiber monocoque as if leaning back in a recliner.
06:12 The steering wheel hosts 23 buttons on its face and a digital screen with lap times,
06:17 tire pressures, and so on.
06:19 Unfortunately, air conditioning is required.
06:46 Well I came here in awe of the Audi R18.
06:51 The latest in a long line, going back 15 years of Audi racing prototypes, and so I expected
06:59 heavenly perfection.
07:02 And what I got was reality.
07:03 It was a real car that does some things incredibly well, does other things in kind of a frustrating
07:11 fashion, and mostly I came away with just a feeling of gratitude that I'm just such
07:19 a fortunate person to be one of the very, very few people to ever get behind the wheel
07:25 of an R18 or of any Audi factory prototype car and take it around a racetrack as fast
07:31 as I dare it go.
07:59 [00:01:33] [Silence]
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