It was a reasonable success when in 1999 the first Audi R8 drove directly onto the stage in Le Mans. One year later it was the overall victory with a triumphant triple place. Up until 2016 the race cars with four rings got 12 more victories, making competitors tremble at the world’s hardest motor race. On occasion of the 100th anniversary of the legendary 24 hour race the text-and-picture book Audi in Le Mans undertakes an exciting journey into the past. Impressive pictures and loads of background knowledge from the company’s archives tell us about a piece of Audi history – with fresh eyes and full of suspense. All highlights, all successes: Audi Sport‘s spectacular success story at Le Mans Backgrounds, facts and stories on Audi models, drivers and races Audi race car in the flashlight: numerous photos from the company’s archives Thrilling car book with high-quality design: ideal gift for Audi fans and race enthusiasts Starting a new race car series is a challenge for car makers. The 24 hours of Le Mans are especially known as a severe endurance test for man and material. And Audi knew how to use the famous long-distance race as a stage for new technologies, all the while living up to their slogan “Vorsprung durch Technik” (“leading by technology”): the fast and reliable Audi models left their competitors in the dust. Also, the first victory of a car with diesel-and-hybrid technology went to the German car brand. In more than 300 pages, this illustrated book depicts the impressive history of the brand from 1999 until the WEC exit in 2016.
Bentley Speed 8 – Limited Edition
Motorsport Book of the Year Award 2023 (Royal Automobile Club)
Limited to 550 numbered copies
Exactly 20 years ago, Bentley won the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the sixth time. Just three years earlier, the project was born from within the brand. The later Bentley Motorsport Director Brian Gush secured the internal support of the corporate siblings VW and Audi and rolled out the Speed 8 project. There, where Bentley had established its motorsport heritage between 1924 and 1930, the aim was to revive the brand and make a clear statement. Already in the first year 2001 a small sensation was achieved with a podium finish, in 2003 the legendary double victory followed after intensive development and test work.
In this comprehensive book, former team members, engineers and drivers have their say and quite a few of them contributed their photos. Starting with wind tunnel tests, the construction of the eleven chassis, test drives and races, author Andrew Cotton covers the entire development and racing history of Bentley’s Le Mans winner of the modern era. In the course of his research he had access to all e-mails, documents and drawings of the team and he interviewed all important contemporary witnesses who were involved in the project. This standard work on perhaps one of the most beautifully designed sports cars of the modern era is rounded off with the chassis history of every Bentley Speed 8 built.
Hardcover in slipcase
Text in English
In 1969, two of the most famous sports car manufacturers in the world, one German and one Italian, built what even today are considered the epitome of what a race car should be. The ensuing fight between the Porsche 917 and the Ferrari 512 S, driven to the limit by some of the sport’s greatest stars, has forever been regarded as a special two years in sports car racing, captivating a global audience and providing the storyline for Le Mans, an epic Hollywood film. The legendary Porsche vs. Ferrari duel started at the Daytona International Speedway in January 1970, and although the battle lasted less than two years, ending at Watkins Glen in the summer of 1971, it left a trail of memories in its smoky wake. EIGHTY FOUR HOURS OF ENDURANCE captures many of those memories in a richly illustrated book that bundles together the six American rounds of the FIA World Championship for Makes in 1970 and 1971. Daytona, Sebring and Watkins Glen. 24, 12 and 6 hours in length. Times two. Featuring 520 photographs, 230 black & white and 290 color, and supplemented by detailed race reports, results and maps, you’re taken onto the high banks at Daytona, down the concrete runways of Sebring and around the short, fast Watkins Glen circuit in upstate New York. The drivers included on the 244 pages of the book are a veritable who’s who of 1970s motor racing—Andretti, Ickx, Redman, Siffert, Rodriguez, Elford, Gurney, Larrousse, Cevert, Oliver, Posey, Beltoise, to name a few. EIGHTY FOUR HOURS OF ENDURANCE takes you back to the grid, onto the track, into the pits, around the paddock and behind the scenes for a memorable ride through time.
The Audi R8 was the first in a line of world-beating sports-prototype cars from the Ingolstadt marque which would dominate Le Mans, and would see Audi remain at the forefront of international sports-car racing for over 15 years.
If such an award could go to a machine, Audi ‘R8-405’ – the car featuring in this book – was surely the ‘Man of the Match’ for the 2000 Le Mans 24 Hours. In the end it would finish second, behind one of its team mates which had a far less-troubled run, but it was not for want of trying by Allan McNish, his co-drivers Stéphane Ortelli and Laurent Aïello and their mechanics.
The Audi R8s would go on to dominate endurance racing for a further five years. The cars had already shown what they were capable of by finishing first and second on their debut, in the 12 Hours of Sebring in March 2000.
At Le Mans, apart from a brief aberration when a Panoz led under a full course yellow, ‘R8-405’ led the race for six hours. Trouble then intervened, but the car’s drivers never gave up, McNish setting fastest lap of the race in the morning still chasing his team mates Frank Biela, Tom Kristensen and Emanuele Pirro in the eventual winning sister car. That car would soon be on its way to Audi’s museum, but ‘R8-405’ would race on in the American Le Mans Series (ALMS), driven later that year by Biela and Pirro and winning at Texas Motor Speedway and Las Vegas.
By the end of the season, ‘405’ and the other 4-series 2000-season R8s would be rendered almost obsolete by Audi’s introduction of a direct-injection engine for its new 5-series R8. That did not stop ‘405’ from competing for a further year in the ALMS, albeit in private – Champion Racing – hands, with regular drivers including Andy Wallace and Johnny Herbert. Despite its tender years, it would later go on to qualify as an historic car, and a host of new opportunities opened up as it became one of the most raced of all the R8s.
In 2020 the car was acquired by enthusiast Martin Halusa with every intention of taking it back to Le Mans in the future for the biannual Classic races.
The enthralling story of ‘R8-405’ is told in fascinating detail in this book, supported by a stunning array of photographs showing the car in action in its two years of ‘period’ competition, together with a gallery of fine studio images showing this ‘Great Car’ as it is today.
The 90th edition of the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans was distinguished above all by the fact that, after a two-year break, spectators were finally able to take part in the spectacle again in large numbers. The appreciative audience witnessed the duel between the Toyota GR010 Hybrid. After number 7 in 2021, number 8 was given the honour of giving the Japanese manufacturer its fifth victory at the Sarthe. Ryo Hirakawa won on his first appearance, while it was the third success of Brendon Hartley and, most importantly, the fourth of Sébastien Buemi, who has now matched the great Henri Pescarolo, Olivier Gendebien and Yannick Dalmas.
Jim Glickenhaus is to thank for another achievement this year. The American, who was fourth in his first appearance last year, has claimed the podium he always dreamed of. In the LMP2 class, it was Jota who put two cars on the podium in a very competitive class. The official Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Frédéric Makowiecki, Richard Lietz and Gianmaria Bruni will go down in history as the last winner of the GTE-Pro class so loved by the fans, but it was the last appearance at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The Aston Martin TF Sport had to beat Porsche to triumph in the GTE-Am class. In this yearbook, you will find hundreds of carefully selected photos and everything you need to know about the participants, rules and background of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2022.
Thousands of pieces of curious information on drivers, constructors, layout, statistics, categories, milestones, nationalities, regulations, are provided in this fun book, set in chronological order from the initial race, in 1923, until the present time. The book is illustrated with photographs of some of the most representative cars that raced in the event. It is written in easy to read English, so it can be understood even by people who are not fluent English speakers. All the players, and many obscure drivers and constructors are featured: Ferrari, Jaguar, Bentley, Toyota, Audi, Matra-Simca, Porsche, Ford, Aston Martin, Peugeot, Alfa Romeo, Bugatti, Chenard et Walcker, Lorraine Dietrich, Mazda, Mercedes Benz, BMW, Rondeau, Gordini, Jacky Ickx, Tom Kristensen, Phil Hill, Woolf Barnato, Derek Bell, Bob Wollek, Yannick Dalmas, Frank Biela, Sebastien Buemi, Brice McLaren, Chris Amon, A.J. Foyt, Dan Gurney, Olivier Gendebien, Emanuele Pirro, Luigi Chinetti, Raymond Sommer, Tazio Nuvolari, Jean-Pierre Wimile, Hans Stuck, Hurley Haywood, Andre Lotterer, Gerard Larrousse, Graham Hill, Maurice Trintignant, Mike Hawthorn, Stirling Moss, etc.
72nd YEAR OF PUBLICATION
Another record-breaking 22 Grand Prix season saw Red Bull Racing and Ferrari go head-to-head with some spectacular races and epic drives from all four drivers, each one winning one or more races. Mercedes with Lewis Hamilton and new recruit George Russell struggled for most of the season with aero and relentless porpoising until mid-way through the season when their performances improved and some notable qualifying and race results appeared, but far too late to challenge for the top spot.
There were some flashes of brilliance from the midpack consisting of Alpine, McLaren, Alpha Tauri, and Alfa Romeo, but Aston Martin, Haas, and Williams continued their struggle for consistency.
Authors Tony Dodgins and Maurice Hamilton, combining 80 years of F1 expertise, examine each round in depth. Full race reports are backed by detailed results, including lap charts and tire strategies.
The nuances of F1’s designs and development are analyzed team by team by the much-respected Mark Hughes, enhanced by Adrian Dean’s handsome F1 car illustrations.
Motor racing’s other major categories are also fully covered: Toyota’s WEC and Le Mans sports car successes; the closely fought Formula 2 and Formula 3 championships, featuring emerging young talent from around all continents of the world; and the tightly fought Formula E series for electric powered single seaters.
AUTOCOURSE includes all the hectic action from the top Touring Car series – the World Touring Car Cup and the British Touring Car Championships as well as the DTM Series running GT cars from Audi, Mercedes, BMW and Ferrari.
From America, Gordon Kirby recounts a thrilling Indycar series, featuring a mix of youthful talent such as Alex Palou and Pato O’Ward, both of whom vying to overturn the established veterans who have dominated proceedings over the past decade. The ever-popular NASCAR stock car series ran from February to November with barely a weekend’s break, to feature more than forty races before the final championship play-off round at Phoenix, Arizona.
In a single essential volume, AUTOCOURSE provides the most comprehensive record of world motor sport, complete with full results not found anywhere in a single volume.
It is required reading for all motor sport fans worldwide.
71st YEAR – First published in 1951 – The longest running motor racing yearbook. Independent and authoritative editorial combined with the sport’s finest photography Despite the pandemic, AUTOCOURSE celebrated its 70th year of publication in 2020, a year turned on its head by Covid-19. Thanks to the FIA and racing’s management, F1 was rescued, with a compelling 17-race championship spanning Europe and the Middle East. For 2021 a record 22-race schedule was planned, and despite changes to venues, the F1 championship was very much up and running by March 2021. Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton – now the winningest driver in history – broke more records. The Briton smashed through the 100 pole-position barrier, and moved inexorably toward a century of Grand Prix wins in the face of a real championship challenge from Max Verstappen. Red Bull Racing and Honda seemed to have all but matched Mercedes to provide the fans with a thrilling wheel-to-wheel battle, which would end up with some controversial collisions as the season reached boiling point. Authors Tony Dodgins and Maurice Hamilton, combining almost 80 years of F1 expertise, examine each round in depth. Full race reports are backed by detailed results, including lap charts and tyre strategies. The nuances of F1’s designs and development are analysed team by team by the much-respected Mark Hughes, enhanced by Adrian Dean’s handsome F1 car illustrations. Motor racing’s other major categories are also fully covered: Toyota’s WEC and Le Mans sports car successes; the closely-fought F2 and Formula 3 championships, featuring emerging young talent from around all continents the world; and Nick de Vries emerging victorious in the tight fought Formula E series for electric powered single seaters. AUTOCOURSE includes all the hectic action from the top Touring Car series – the World Touring Car Cup and the British Touring Car Championships as well as the reconfigured DTM Series now running GT cars from Audi, Mercedes, BMW and Ferrari. From America, Gordon Kirby recounts a thrilling Indycar series, featuring a mix of youthful talent such as Alex Palou and Pato O’Ward, both of who were vying to overturn the established veterans who have dominated proceedings over the past decade. In an emotional return, Helio Castroneves took record equalling fourth Indy 500 victory, whilst an appreciation is made to paid to the legendary three-time Indy 500 winner the late Bobby Unser. The ever-popular NASCAR stock car series ran from February to November with barely a weekend’s break, to feature more than forty races before the final championship play-off round at Phoenix, Arizona. In a single essential volume, AUTOCOURSE provides the most comprehensive record of world motor sport, complete with full results not found anywhere in a single volume. It is required reading for all motor sport fans worldwide
Audi: A History of Progress chronicles the fascinating history of Audi AG, from its beginnings in Germany in 1909 to its unique place in the market today. This detailed walk through Audi’s accomplishments covers all of the company’s changes through the years. The entire Audi “family tree” is examined in detail – Wanderer, DKW, Horch, Audi A697, Auto Union, NSU – their participation in motor sports, and biographies of the people who made the company what it is today.
Building from the original edition, this new edition covers Audi AGs history from its beginnings in Germany in 1909 to Le Mans 2000. It includes expanded coverage and dust jacket.
Audi: A History of Progress contains hundreds of rare factory photos and illustrations, presenting Audi’s past and present in a beautiful hardcover, high quality book. Whether you are an Audi owner, enthusiast or automotive historian, Audi: A History of Progress belongs on your bookshelf.
Between 1997 and 2014, Tom Kristensen won the world’s toughest motor race, the Le Mans 24 Hours, a record nine times and finished on the podium on five more occasions. Every time his car made it to the finish, in fact, he was in the top three. It is no wonder that this great sports car driver is known as ‘Mr Le Mans’ to motorsport fans around the world.
Now retired from racing, Kristensen shares in this book his deepest personal reflections and insights from inside and outside the cockpit. He looks back on more than 30 years spent striving for perfection in racing and tells of the battles and setbacks that sometimes seemed impossible to overcome, including a terrible accident in 2007.
- Climbing the racing ladder, from karting into Formula 3 single-seaters, including championship titles in Germany (1991) and Japan (1993), then Formula 3000 and a Formula 1 testing role with Tyrrell.
- Winning as an underdog on his first visit to Le Mans, in 1997 driving an elderly Joest-run privateer Porsche in which he impressed all onlookers with a night-time charge to vanquish Porsche’s factory-entered favourite.
- His second Le Mans victory came in 2000 on his maiden drive for Audi in the R8, a car that was to become all-conquering.
- Kristensen won the next five editions of Le Mans, four times with Audi and once with Bentley (in 2003), his last victory in this sequence taking him past Jacky Ickx’s previous record at the Circuit de la Sarthe.
- His eighth win came in one of the all-time classic contests at Le Mans, in 2008, a rollercoaster of a race in which his ageing diesel-powered Audi was never expected to beat the fancied works Peugeots.
- One more victory with Audi in 2013 sealed his reputation as a true legend of Le Mans.
- His story includes exploits at other racetracks all over the world, none more prolific than Sebring, home of America’s long-established classic endurance race that Kristensen won six times.
- Personal reflections together with contributions from notable observers — including English journalists Gary Watkins and Charles Bradley — complete a truly rounded portrait of the man and his achievements.
Voted ‘Sports Book of the Year’ when originally published in Kristensen’s native Denmark, this thoughtful memoir is now available in English.
The story of Kar-Kraft began, as did many others in the automotive industry, with an axe to grind. In 1963, Ford was seriously interested in purchasing Ferrari. Ferrari was a legendary brand with considerable success in racing, and Ford saw the acquisition as a great way to be instantly successful in the racing arena. When Enzo Ferrari realized that Ford would not give him complete control of the racing program, he backed out of the deal late in the process. Ford had spent millions in vetting and audits, which then set in motion a vengeful response against Ferrari. The result was the unthinkable: Ford beat Ferrari at Le Mans.
Ford wanted to become competitive quickly, but it did not have the race history or resources in house. To remedy the situation, Ford searched the U.K. for an independent company to help accelerate its race car development. It first settled on Lola Cars and set up Ford Advanced Vehicles. Later, Ford brought its LeMans effort to the U.S. and the Kar-Kraft relationship was established. Although Kar-Kraft was technically an independent company, it really only had one customer: Ford Special Vehicles. Kar-Kraft’s story doesn’t begin and end with the GT 40 that took the win away from Ferrari at Le Mans. Ford expanded upon the program and organized an all-out assault on racing in general. Cars were prepared for Trans-Am, NASCAR, NHRA, and Can-Am competition. Street versions of the Boss 429 were assembled under its roof. And fabled prototypes including the LID Mustang, Boss 302 Maverick, and Mach 2C were all assembled in Ford’s contracted race shop. And then, out of the blue, its doors closed for good on a cold day in 1970.
History tells us that Ford won Le Mans, the Daytona 500, and the Trans-Am championship. But it doesn’t tell us how this was accomplished. Author Charlie Henry (a former Kar-Kraft employee) has enlisted the help of many of his former co-workers to bring you the very first book ever published on Ford’s all-encompassing special projects facility, Kar-Kraft.
“In collaboration with the ACO E.T.A.I enables you to relive the 2014 Le Mans-24 Hours in the 264 pages of this not-to-be-missed yearbook written by Jean-Marc Teissedre and Christian Moity illustrated by more than 600 photos.
The official Le Mans 24 Hours yearbook has been published every year since 1978, and it gives readers the opportunity to immerse themselves once again in the greatest endurance race in the world.
2014 will always be remembered as Year 1 of the major challenge launched by the Automobile Club de l’Ouest to the car manufacturers: use 30-per-cent less fuel while going as quickly as in 2013 without reducing the intensity of the battle. In addition to Audi and Toyota, this challenge was taken up by Porsche as the German manufacturer returned to the blue riband category in the 82nd Le Mans 24 Hours.
In the early stages of the race the two Toyotas dominated the Audis, the reigning winners, an unexpected turn of events given the number of victories racked up by the Ingolstadt make in previous years.
After a series of incidents and accidents the no. 8 Toyota dropped down the time sheets and then fought its way back up to third place. In the meantime the no. 7 TS040 dominated the race in front of the no. 2 Audi and the no. 20 Porsche. The Japanese car retired around 05h00 on Sunday morning after leading for almost 14 hours.
After a suspense-packed 24 hours victory went to the no. 2 Audi driven by Benoît Tréluyer, André Lotterer and Marcel Fässler. It was the German manufacturer’s fifth win on the bounce and the third by the trio.
Into second place came the no. 1 Audi of Tom Kristensen, Lucas Di Grassi and Marc Gené in front of the no. 8 Toyota in the hands of Nicolas Lapierre, Sébastien Buemi and Anthony Davidson. It was another historic double for the make with the four rings emblem. Victory went to Ferrari in the hotly-disputed LM GTE Pro category and in LM P2 the Jota Racing Zytek-Nissan emerged on top, while Aston Martin triumphed in LM GTE Am.
The official yearbook of the Le Mans 24 Hours 2014 tells the story in detail of all the stages of the race. It presents each car and its drivers and describes the unfolding of an event that’s unique in the world starting with scrutineering followed by official practice and the Drivers’ parade. It underlines the main incidents in each hour of the race before the explosion of joy of the drivers taking the chequered flag.
This richly-detailed book also has a chapter of technical analysis with tables and detailed statistics aimed at the most enthusiastic fans.”
Tazio Magazine
Issue 4 – Summer 2022
Inside:
- Dodge Viper GTS-R versus Chevrolet Corvette C5-R. We look back on GT-racing’s greatest fight in the 2000 ALMS season… and we drive the cars.
- Walter Röhrl turned 75 in March. We asked our columnist Christian Geistdörfer to write up a very personal portrait.
- AC Cobra 260. This was the car students used at the Carroll Shelby School of High Performance Driving at Riverside. Now, the car accepts on more student on board; us.
- Colin Chapman’s was Lotus’ genius designer. Chapman’s career as a racing driver is less well-known. We set that right.
- A detailed look at the Ford Escort RS1700T, Ford’s first Group B project that was canned at the last minute. “It could have changed my career,” says M-Sport’s Malcolm Wilson, who was signed up to drive it in the WRC in 1983.
- Skoda had the 1100 OHC ready to go to Le Mans in 1958. And then the Iron Curtain came down hard in Eastern Europe. We discover a gem that could have made life difficult for Lotus and Tojeiro.
- Tazio and Achille, friends off track, bitter rivals behind the wheel. We take an in-depth look at racing’s greatest rivalry that started on two wheels and continued on four wheels. For fifteen years, Tazio Nuvolari and Achille Varzi crossed swords on the race tracks.
- Hurley Haywood on Walter Röhrl, Steve Soper on Bathurst, Christian Geistdörfer on the Bandama rally in 1982 and Mike ‘Rocky’ Rockenfeller looks back on the highs and lows in his career with Audi Sport.
- And so much more.
Endurance WEC is a unique work revealing to readers for the first time the aerodynamic evolution of the sports prototypes of the latest “Golden Age of Endurance Racing”, those with hybrid power plants. A painstaking exploration of the world of the enthralling sports prototypes, it explores the cars developed from the Group C period – in the first half of the Eighties – through to the protagonists of the current WEC and ELMS championships.
Hundreds of colour drawings document the technical evolution of the covered wheel racing cars of the past 40 years. Cars of extraordinary appeal such as the Porsche 956s, the XJ series Jaguars, the Series C Mercedes, the Peugeot 905, through to the more recent Audis, great dominators of Le Mans in the 2000s, the Toyotas and the Porsches. All this is presented in a technical overview introduced by historical-regulatory contextualisation, indispensable for an understanding of a world that, in recent years, has featured even greater technical evolution and sporting excitement than Formula 1.
The ‘Group B’ International Motorsports Category was conceived in the late seventies as a return to the good old days when amateur and factory teams alike could run the same production-based cars in either sports car racing or championship rally events. By the early eighties the class had become the ‘Godzilla’ of the rally scene and what resulted were the most awesome cars ever seen on the rally stages of the world – 600 horsepower, 4WD, turbocharged monsters that could cover forest, tarmac or gravel stages faster than anything ever seen before or since. In 1986 the door was slammed shut on the F1 cars of mountain and forest roads. Faster and faster cars combined with wilder and crazier crowds meant that within the confines of rally car competition the group B rocket ships were just “too fast to race.”
The legacy of Group B, however, is a whole range of spectacular cars that continue to thrill enthusiasts. Features the Ford RS200, Lancia 037 Rally, Lancia S4, MG Metro 6R4, Peugeot 205/T16, Audi Quattro, Renault 5 Turbo, Opel, Citroen also the amazing Ferrari 288GTO Evoluzione, Jaguar XJ220 supercar and Porsche 959 – the car that came closest of all to fulfilling the Group B ethos. It won both the Paris-Dakar and its class in the Le Mans 24 Hour Race!
Includes awesome action footage and stunning close ups.
