Audi’s Le Mans racer smokes out Porsche

Porsche holds the record of overall wins at Le Mans, having won outright 16 times since 1970. It’s astonishing. And yet their last win came way back in 1998.

You’ll know of course, that Porsche is coming back, and so fellow LMP1 front-runners Audi decided to drive to Porsche’s HQ in Zuffenhausen, Stuttgart, and leave them a little welcome back message. Only all the company A4 diesels were taken, so they took down their new R18 e-tron instead. And where there’s an R18 e-tron, there’s a Le Mans champion.

Yes folks, you need to stop what you’re doing and watch this cool little video from Audi. It shows three-time Le Mans champ ‘Dindo’ Capello climbing aboard the R18 (not ‘his’ R18 anymore, as he’s left LMP1), and taking it to the streets.

And it shows you all the modern pitfalls of taking a hybrid four-wheel-drive Le Mans challenger onto the road. There are tractors. There are kids with cameraphones. There are joggers. There’s even a barking dog.

Dindo of course, ever the gent, pulls up to Porsche’s HQ and decides to paint the tarmac black with a little message. It’s not a Top Gear kind of message (they’d probably get into trouble for that) but it is done in a Top Gear way.

Watch. And then start counting down the minutes, because the Battle Royale is almost upon us…