Friday, January 4, 2013

More detail on the Evolution of the Audi R8 LMS ultra


By Johan Laubscher

A few weeks ago Audi Sport announced a 2013 evolution update for the Audi R8 LMS ultra. Along with the announcement they released a single CAD design drawing which highlighted the changes. The major changes are confined to the rear where the car now receives a new larger swan-neck rear wing, centralized exhaust outlet and a much more aggressive rear diffuser.

Today the Portuguese Audi customer team, Team Nova Driver, posted a new photo on their Facebook page. We have included that photo below. It looks to be another image from the same CAD program showing the side profile of the new 2013 Audi R8 LMS ultra. Presumably this image is one of a number of CAD images which have been sent to the various Audi Sport customer teams who would possibly consider purchasing the upgrade.

At the very least this image gives us another view of the new updates. It remains to be seen how the car will look in reality and if all these new parts will make it through the homologation process. It has been the case in the past, that some of the initial Audi R16 GT3 designs have been disallowed during homologation. Most notably on the original 2009 Audi R8 LMS the multi-vane rear diffuser and the very wide rear wing were disallowed. And in 2012 the original Audi R8 LMS ultra had its rearward rear wing position and its front bonnet vents disallowed. Thus time will tell what the 2013 Audi R8 LMS ultra will ultimately look like, but for now we have these two CAD drawings providing us with a glimpse into the future.


Photos sourced from: Audi Sport and Team Nova Driver