AUDI SPORT GMBH CELEBRATES IT'S 40TH ANNIVERSARY - 40 YEARS OF FAST!
In the spirit of this year’s innumerable motoring-related anniversaries, we bring you yet another one from Germany - Audi in particular. Fast Audi cars started 40 years ago, and in that time Quattro and RS models have dominated the sales and race charts like few others can claim. It’s sort of what you expect by a brand that was moulded using the legendary Nürburgring-Nordschleife racetrack as its proving ground. Audi Sport GmbH has been an official partner of the 24-hour race since 2002, and since 2009, the Audi R8 LMS has competed in the Eifel marathon, an annual highlight of the Audi Sport customer racing program. The automaker has had six overall victories and three additional GT3 class wins to date making Audi the most successful manufacturer in the GT3 era of the endurance classic. So it makes sense that Audi Sport GmbH is launching its anniversary celebrations at the Nürburgring: At this year’s 24-hour race, all four Audi R8 LMS cars of the Audi Sport Teams will wear a special retro-inspired 40th anniversary-themed livery, and former DTM champions Mike Rockenfeller, Timo Scheider and Martin Tomczyk will race with number 40 as their start number. Audi is planning cool activities for the endurance race weekend starting with a star-studded Champion’s Talk Q&A with Mike Rockenfeller, Timo Scheider and Martin Tomczyk, as well as Audi Sport Managing Directors Sebastian Grams and Rolf Michlr. Over the weekend fans will see various past models on display including the 1st-gen Audi R8 and RS 4 Avant, the current R8 GT and the RS 4 Avant. A main highlight will be the Audi S1 Hoonitron from Ken Block and Electrikhana fame. Ahead of the start of the race, there will be a lap of the race circuit by a host of past and present Audi Sport models and racecars.
Celebrations will also be on at Audi Sport GmbH H.O. in Neckarsulm for the “40 years of Audi Sport GmbH – Fascination Meets Performance” exhibition from 14 June. This will include the first car of the former Quattro GmbH as well as various models old and new, street and race. The “150 Years of NSU: Innovation, Daring, Transformation” exhibition will be running at the same time, bonus. Then in October celebrations continue with visitors invited to a special guided tour through the special exhibition, that will include other cars otherwise kept hidden. “Audi Sport GmbH has written a real success story over the past four decades. With passion and team spirit, many exciting high-performance projects have been developed to production readiness, emotional customer experiences have been created and great successes in motorsport have been achieved,” says Oliver Hoffmann, Member of the Board of Management for Technical Development at AUDI AG and Chairman of the Advisory Board of Audi Sport GmbH. “We have a clear goal: to successfully carry the sporting DNA of the four rings into the electric future.” Managing Director Sebastian Grams adds: “The company has remained true to itself over all these years, has always been courageous and dared to do new things. This spirit of innovation still characterizes us today. We want to shape the future of mobility in the high-performance segment in a sustainable and progressive way.” Rolf Michl continues: “Audi Sport GmbH can look back on 40 exciting and very successful years. This was and is only possible thanks to a strong team effort. For us, one thing is certain: taking new, unusual paths and continuously developing further – this will continue to characterize Audi Sport GmbH.
Take a look at the YouTube highlight video that shows flashes of the amazing things that have happened in the last 40 years since the sports and motorsports divisions of Audi became a standalone branch of Audi a good 40 years back. The flashes in the video show a long and successful career in motorsports and the associated lifestyle: 40 Years of Audi Sport GmbH | CWMedia
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