Pioneering Prowess

At the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Car India caught up with Joe King, Head of Audi India, to get a better picture of how Audi’s racing programme benefits their road car operations and what’s been creating waves for them this year in India.

- Jim Gorde

Car India (CI): How much has Audi’s presence at Le Mans and in endurance racing strengthened the brand?

Joe King (JK): Sportiness, advanced technology and emotional design are the major elements of the Audi brand’s success. The genes for it have their origins in motor sport, now spanning a period of 36 years.

Every Le Mans winning model represents ‘Vorsprung durch Technik’ in its true from. And every year, Le Mans for Audi is full of learning and gathering experience, which reflects consequently in our products and performance.

In its 1999 début at Le Mans, the world’s toughest endurance race, Audi, on clinching third place, instantly managed the leap on to the winners’ podium. The winning streak continued in the following years; the Audi prototype was in a class of its own. From 2000 to 2002, Audi achieved a historical hat-trick, thanks to the début of the TFSI technology that subsequently made its way into production technology.

On clinching the first victory of a hybrid race car in the Le Mans 24 Hours in 2012, Audi achieved another pioneering feat in the world’s most important endurance race. Three times in succession (2012, 2013, and 2014), the Audi R18 e-tron quattro remained unbeaten at Le Mans. Numerous other innovations such as Audi laser light complement the brand’s pioneering prowess in technology. In addition, Audi won the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) with the hybrid sports car two consecutive times, in 2012 and 2013.