LE MANS miniatures Audi R10 TDI n°3 24 Heures du Mans 2008

Audi R10 TDI
4th 24 Heures du Mans 2008
N°3: Lucas Luhr - Mike Rockenfeller - Alexandre Premat

Specifications :

• Scale : 1 / 32
• Manufacturer name : Audi
• Manufacturer model : R10 TDI
• Competition : yes
• Race : 24 Heures du Mans
• Year : 2008
• Driver : Lucas Luhr - Mike Rockenfeller - Alexandre Premat
• Body & chassis : Polyurethan resin
• Engine : In-line
• Weight : 122 g

What a race ! What a battle! Some would say it is again an Audi victory. But we can only bow down to the victory of an ageing car
(the Audi R10 TDI is 3 years old and it is ages for a racing car). The victory has been got without fail by Audi facing to one of the best car never built for the 24 hours race, I want to talk about the Peugeot 908 2008 version.

From pre-tests Peugeot impressed and led this training period. The best Audi was 4'' behind. But first slip for Peugeot; when the car number 9 hardly hit the wall in Porsche curve and must be completely rebuilt.

From practices to the first half of the race, Peugeot led the race. They took the pole position with 3'18'' (3'' second less than the faster Audi car). Audi team must not fail.

Among the three Audi cars, only car number 2 was able to follow the leading Peugeot. At mid-race the Peugeot only had a three minutes advance on the Audi. And what are three minutes in Le Mans, when the car that followed was driven by one of the fastest team never seen in LeMans, Capello-Kristensen-McNish.

The race swung at 4.15 pm when the rain started to fall and conditions became difficult for night driving. Peugeot was become outsider alternated the bad and the worst. The Peugeot cars could not follow the Audi fitted with wet tires, the pit stops were chaotic, the cars overheated, to sum up, the chance took another road.

As it is often the case in LeMans, the victory has probably been built in the pit. Whereas the winning Audi only spent 31 minutes, the Peugeot stood 41 and only finished 4'31'' behind the Audi!