QuaTTrochick

The Audi gods were shining on us again this week,

Yesterday we were treated to some awesome views of the Audi R8's and Team
Joest in action. They were in town testing at PIR on their way up to
Mosport (Canada). BMW was also there testing out their Lemans cars, the
Audis are still quicker than the BMW's, apparently the BMW folks are not
too happy at the moment. :-(

The track was deserted, and there were less than 20 spectators milling
around, we were able to walk right up to the cars in the hot pits,
literally stand next to them as they waited for the driver to get in. Frank
Biela, Pirro, Christensen and one other driver ?? were there with the Red
and Yellow R8's. In the morning we walked down to the Chicane area and took
some photos through the fence openings, saw one of the BMW's spin out as he
entered the chicane, one of the Audis was fast approaching from behind and
we saw some brief tire smoke as he came to a stop a little quicker than
expected. The Audis were much smoother/quicker making their way through
the Chicane as compared to the BMW's.

Preliminary timing indicated the Audis were running around PIR with a time
of 1 min 5 seconds. Didn't hear what the BMW's were doing, but they were
unable to keep up with the Audis. After lunch, Gary E. and I connected and
hung around under the Audi Sport canopy and watched the mechanics change a
rear end in the red car. I don't know if they were fixing a problem or just
changing the ratios. While the mechanics were dis-assembling the gear
box/rear suspension and swapping some parts from another gear box. We were
able to walk up next to the car being worked on, and look at the engine up
close. Hopefully some of the photos I took will turn out well and won't
give the BMW folks any ideas. :-)

We watched them install the gear box/rear suspension, it was easy to see
how they did this at Le Mans in just over 6 mins. Only 6 nuts/studs hold
the trans/rear suspension to the engine/chassis. There were a few fasteners
needing installation from underneath on the carbon fibre undertray and
several quick disconnect electrical and hydraulic lines for the brakes. The
two exhaust pipes just slide into the headers, and then some clips keep
them from sliding back. Two of the mechanics bled the rear brakes, calling
out "AUF" when opening the bleeder, and "ZU" as they would close it.
Another mechanic was up front applying fluid under pressure, and
manipulating the brake pedal. The two mechanics took great care to keep any
fluid from getting on the caliper, they even cleaned out the fluid that
remained in the bleeder nipple after they finished bleeding the brakes. One
mechanic did a final look see, before the rear tail/body section was
installed. The rear tail/body section just slips over, down, and then is
pushed forward slightly to lock it in place, it is also held by several
snap latches.

Two other technicians hooked up some laptops to check out the
engine/transmission settings or alignment, not sure what was happening
here. They ran the engine for a few minutes with the transmission in gear
with the rear tires removed from the axles, and the car up on stands to
make sure everything was sehr gute!. Then Frank Biela hopped in the car,
they pushed it back, and he started it up and pulled onto the track. Very
well organized group to say the least!

This kind of close access to the cars and drivers is normally impossible
during the race. It was amazing to be able to walk anywhere you wanted. It
will be nice when they come back here the week of September 10th.<p>MY2000 180QC
Lake Silver/Aviator Gray

TT4K9S

Wow, fantastic report - love the detail on the gearbox work. Thanks for posting it.