2011 Audi R18 TDI Ultra LMP1

Truth in 24

Do you remember Truth in 24, the behind-the-scenes documentary about Audi Sport and its victorious Le Mans campaign back in 2008? If you ever wanted a raw and uncut glimpse of a well-oiled top-flight factory motorsport outfit operating at the very peak of its powers, we’d heartily recommend you watch it. It’s automotive storytelling at its very best, crowned with tension-building narration by none other than Hollywood hard-man Jason Statham.

The hotly anticipated second installment of Truth in 24 chronicled the French endurance classic in 2011, the year Audi clinched its 10th Le Mans victory in just 12 years – a truly extraordinary achievement, telling of the marque’s stranglehold on La Sarthe.

Adding a certain amount of jeopardy was one of the biggest prototype rule shake ups for several years. You see, the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO) was rather keen to level the playing field at the front of the grid, so banned large-capacity V10 and V12 engines in favour of smaller units with tighter limits on intake restrictors and turbo size.

“It’s perhaps of little surprise that despite the ACO’s bid to slow Audi down in 2011, the R18 picked up where the R15 left off: winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans.”

Capitalising on the blue-sky opportunities presented by the new regulations, Audi went the whole nine yards with its 2011 Le Mans challenger, developing a slipperier closed-coupé successor to the outgoing open R15 TDI Plus. It was the first time Audi had built a closed prototype since the ill-fated R8C of 1999.

Christened the R18 TDI Ultra, the car marked a pivotal fork-in-the-road moment for the Ingolstadt marque. While highly efficient (turbo)diesel power remained, the drivetrain of the R18 was designed with the future in mind – an electrified future. Sure enough, the following year, the 3.7-litre turbocharged V6 driving the rear wheels was coupled with an electric motor on the front axle. That makes this, the R18 TDI Ultra, the final non-hybrid top-flight Audi prototype.

Other forward-thinking innovations were, as you’d expect from the Teutonic titan that is Audi, plentiful. The Garrett turbocharger is positioned between the engine’s cylinder banks, creating a ‘hot vee’. The radical new closed-coupé body, with its regulation-prescribed stabilising ‘shark fin’, raised the bar substantially over the car’s open predecessor in terms of aerodynamic efficiency. The gearbox was electronically actuated rather than pneumatic. And for the first time the headlights were made solely from LEDs, reducing weight and increasing night-time visibility.

An obsessive quest to save weight meant that, out the box, the R18 was considerably lighter than the 900kg minimum weight stipulated by the ACO. But then again, ballast wasn’t necessarily such a bad thing if it was positioned in a favourable part of the car…

It’s perhaps of little surprise that despite the ACO’s bid to slow Audi down in 2011, the R18 picked up where the R15 left off: winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Twenty-eleven saw one of the great showdowns at the Circuit de la Sarthe – all-out war waged between the Audi and Peugeot. In the wake of two shocking accidents suffered by Audi’s Allan McNish and Mike Rockenfeller, the remaining R18 TDI Ultra of Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer and Benoît Tréluyer crossed the finish line 14 seconds ahead of the second-placed Peugeot.

Chassis number 107

Audi Sport built only eight R18 TDI Ultras in 2011, of which the example we’re privileged to be offering is the very last, chassis number 107. Internally, as the small sign on the left-hand side of the tiny cockpit shows, this R18 was nicknamed Varna, ‘little sister’ of Sonja, which was the moniker given to the Le Mans-winning chassis 106.

The car was drafted into active service after Le Mans, where two chassis had been lost in the aforementioned accidents. The 6 Hours of Imola in July, round four of the 2011 Intercontinental Le Mans Cup, marked this Audi’s competitive debut.

Audi Sport Team Joest fielded two box-fresh R18s at Imola, both equipped with an enhanced aerodynamic package. Chassis number 107 was assigned the number two, given yellow identifying accents and earmarked for veteran pilots Allan McNish and Tom Kristensen, two men with a staggering 12 Le Mans victories between them. Remarkably for a driver of such experience, this was the first occasion Kristensen had ever raced at Imola.

A combination of extremely high track temperatures, traffic from slower cars and an abundance of dirt and rubber pickup stymied both Audi’s progress, with the number two car settling for fourth position after six hours of racing on the historic Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari. “If you know Allan and me,” commented Kristensen after the race, “then you know that we want to be strong at Silverstone.”

The Intercontinental Le Mans Cup circus moved to Silverstone for the six-hour race in September of 2011, the last European leg of the 2011 championship. Chassis number 107 was once again driven by Kristensen and McNish. And the duo quickly found their groove with the R18 on the high-speed British circuit, qualifying second overall. After a spectacular to-and-fro dice with the pole-position Peugeot at the opening of the race, it took McNish a mere eight laps to assume the lead.

Alas, a wayward Ferrari GT car put paid to progress at quarter distance, necessitating a suspension change and six agonising laps stationary in the pits. This car crossed the finish line after six hours in seventh position.

Lady Luck cast her cruel spell once again at the following round, Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta in Georgia. Kristensen and McNish were joined by another multiple Le Mans winner, the Italian Rinaldo Capello, for this longer 1,000-mile affair. But a number of contretemps with slower cars early on in the race ultimately led to Audi withdrawing chassis 107. Onwards for the number-two side of the Team Joest garage.

This R18 TDI Ultra’s penultimate outing came in the 6 Hours of Zhuhai in China, the seventh and final round of the 2011 Intercontinental Le Mans Cup. The weekend played a familiar tune for Kristensen and McNish – a strong start followed by disappointment that was through no fault of their own.

Twenty-twelve saw the formation of the inaugural FIA World Endurance Championship, consolidating a number of existing sport-racing series including the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup. The first event on the calendar was the 12 Hours of Sebring in March. Behind the scenes Audi was still beavering away on its first hybrid prototype for the new season, the R18 e-tron quattro. As a result, three of the older R18 TDI Ultras were drafted in for Sebring, chassis 107 included.

This time around, however, this car was given the number one and assigned to Audi’s younger trio of hot-shoe drivers (and reigning Le Mans winners), André Lotterer, Benoît Tréluyer and Marcel Fässler. On this particular edition of the American endurance classic, the World Endurance Championship combined with the American Le Mans Series – something that’s never been repeated. A record field of 64 cars was separated into no fewer than nine categories.

It might have been a year old, but the R18 TDI Ultra showed no signs of slowing in the afternoon qualifying session. Lotterer was the nominated pace setter for the number-one car. And his barnstorming lap of 1min45.8sec with chassis number 107 at the death was plenty quick enough to secure Audi’s 10th 12 Hours of Sebring pole position. In fact, Lotterer had almost four tenths in hand over second position Tom Kristensen in the sister car. And seven tenths on the previous year’s pole time.

As Audi introduced the new R18 e-tron quattro for the next round at Spa-Francorchamps, so chassis number 107 was honourably retired from active service along with its handful of non-hybrid counterparts and returned to Ingolstadt. It was at this point the R18 was refinished by Audi Sport in the livery of the car that won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2011, for exhibition at various shows around the world. Its Works duties finally complete, chassis number 107 was subsequently awarded to factory Audi Sport driver and the man who put it on pole position at Sebring back in 2011, Andre Lotterer.

“A fully-operational top-flight Le Mans prototype designed and built by one of the world’s largest and most successful manufacturers on the cutting edge of technological sophistication, this Audi R18 TDI Ultra is one of the most pivotal modern-era endurance racing cars.”

Most recently, in the custody of its current private owner, chassis number 107 made an appearance at the 2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed, where it was driven Benoît Tréluyer, part of the Le Mans-winning trio back in 2011. “Having grown up 50km from the Circuit de la Sarthe, I’d always thought the 24 Hours of Le Mans was a race for superheroes,” Tréluyer recalled with a tinge of emotion during the event. “When I finally stood on the top step of the podium there for the first time back in 2011, it was a huge relief and the very best present I could have given everybody who’d trusted in me. I’ve now created my own motorsport team because I want to relive that and experience that feeling again.

“The 2011 R18 TDI Ultra holds such a special place in my heart,” the Frenchman continues, “so it’s honestly been such a great experience to climb back in and drive this car again. I remember it perfectly – the driving position, the field of view, the way the monocoque makes you feel so safe and actually how simple it is to drive. The only real disadvantage compared to the preceding open car was the reduced visibility, but I have to say we were not overtaken very often so this didn’t matter so much!”

Running as part of the ‘Joest Racing: Masters of the Mulsanne’ class, celebrating the legacy of the 15-time Le Mans-winning German team, it really felt like a family reunion in the assembly area before each run, with so many faces so synonymous with Audi’s modern-era endurance success. We did have to pinch ourselves when ‘Mr. Le Mans’ himself Tom Kristensen enjoyed a cup of tea while perched on the side of our R18, clearly relishing the chance to catch up with Tréluyer. Once a teammate, always a teammate.

A fully-operational top-flight Le Mans prototype designed and built by one of the world’s largest and most successful manufacturers on the cutting edge of technological sophistication, this Audi R18 TDI Ultra is one of the most pivotal modern-era endurance racing cars. Not only was it the first closed-coupé Audi prototype, greatly enhancing aerodynamic and fuel efficiency. But it was also the final non-hybrid car, which, today, makes the R18 TDI Ultra a more approachable proposition from a ‘getting-out-and-using-it’ point of view.

Chassis number 107 played an integral role in Audi Sport’s 2011 Intercontinental Le Mans Cup season, during which it was raced by Tom Kristensen, the record nine-times 24 Hours of Le Mans winner. Its stunning pole position in the 12 Hours of Sebring in 2012 was a fitting swansong for a stellar Works career at an exciting transition point in the sport. Needless to say, this privately owned Audi would be welcomed with open arms to a plethora of the world’s greatest static and dynamic automotive events, from the Goodwood Festival of Speed to the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este.