Audi Is Selling Its Fastest Race Cars

There are “rare opportunities” and there are genuinely rare opportunities. This is the latter. Audi announced that it’s selling examples of its fastest, most technologically advanced race cars ever: The Le Mans-winning R18 LMP1 and the RS5 DTM. If you can buy it, you should.

Audi Sport calls this the “racing legends project,” and the aim is to sell these incredible race cars to a select few customers, as well as provide technical support for their operation. This news came to us via Sportscar365. Both were from an era in racing where constructors pushed technology to its limits, with little regard for cost. The LMP1 Hybrid formula or DTM’s Class 1 were totally unsustainable. Today’s top-flight sports prototypes are much more tightly regulated and cost-controlled, and while Class 1 lives on as GT500 in Japanese Super GT, DTM has switched to using readily available and relatively affordable GT3 cars. 

Even though both cars are over a decade old, technologically, only current Formula 1 cars surpass them.

The R18 E-Tron was the last of Audi’s dominating LMP1 cars, an all-wheel drive diesel hybrid that won Le Mans in 2012, 2013, and 2014. If you didn’t have Audi factory support, you probably wouldn’t be able to run the car, so advanced is its engine and hybrid technology. And you’ll want to know what you’re doing behind the wheel because an R18 E-Tron is faster than today’s Le Mans Hypercars. 

Audi is first presenting R18 Chassis #207, which won the 2012 Spa 6 Hours, came 5th at Le Mans, and podiumed at every subsequent World Endurance Championship round that year. Presumably, Audi will sell more R18 examples, but it hasn’t announced which, or if it’ll part with any Le Mans winners.

The RS5 DTM is not a hybrid, but don’t be fooled by its looks—this is no typical sports car, it’s more like a prototype wearing RS5 bodywork. As with all later Class 1 DTM cars, it has a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder making around 600 horsepower, and all kinds of crazy aero bits. On a track, a GT3 car wouldn’t see where this thing went. This is chassis 107, which won the 2015 DTM finale at Hockenheim. 

Audi Sport says the first customer delivery is set for the summer. In a statement, the company said:

“[The handover marks the start of comprehensive support: regular technical inspections, the offer of repairs, but also a spare parts service and expert advice from former developers complete the attractive range of services provided by Audi Sport racing legends. Audi Sport provides support during the events. With this sale of a limited number of drivable prototypes from LMP1 racing and the Class 1 era of the DTM, Audi Sport racing legends offers an exclusive clientele high-caliber one-offs from an unforgettable motorsport era.”

Audi isn’t the first automaker to offer something like this. Ferrari has its Corse Clienti program for old F1 cars and FXX track-day machines, and McLaren offers similar services if you know who to talk to. But as far as we’re aware, this is the first time members of the public are getting a chance to own and use a top-flight LMP1 Hybrid. They are incredibly complicated and expensive to own, run, and maintain, but as I said earlier, if you can, you should.