A 2015 Audi R18 E-Tron Quattro from the automaker’s penultimate year in the top class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans is up for sale at London dealership Joe Macari. No price is listed, so if you have to ask, well, you know the rest.
Audi used the R18 name for a series of race cars from the 2011 to 2016 seasons, after which the automaker ended its Le Mans campaign. The R18 TDI Ultra came first, appearing in 2011 as the successor to the Audi R15 TDI. The hybrid R18 E-Tron Quattro raced alongside the TDI Ultra in 2012, and then replaced it as Le Mans regulations shifted from LMP1 to LMP1-H (for hybrid) as the top class.
The car currently up for sale is the much-evolved 2015 version of the R18 E-Tron Quattro. It features significant aerodynamic changes, including bigger dive planes and large air inlets on the front wheel arches that required the crash structure to be re-tested, according to the listing. Other changes included new side pods with reworked radiator openings to improve cooling, and different rear-end bodywork designed to reduce drag.
2015 Audi R18 E-Tron Quattro (photo via Joe Macari)
A turbodiesel 4.0-liter V-6 sends 550 hp to the rear wheels, and an electric motor sends 268 hp to the front wheels. That gave the R18 E-Tron Quattro all-wheel drive, but only intermittently, as the electric power wasn’t always available.
The car up for sale is chassis 416, which was driven by Lucas di Grassi, Loïc Duval, and Oliver Jarvis. We know the trio finished fourth overall at the 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans, which saw Porsche take victory for the first time since 1998. But the listing only mentions chassis 416 being entered in that year’s 6 Hours of Fuji, 6 Hours of Shanghai, and 6 Hours of Bahrain, which were also part of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) that year. The car finished fourth at Fuji and Shanghai, and sixth at the Bahrain race.
Audi won every 24 Hours of Le Mans between 2011 and 2014, and most going back to the turn of the century, but hasn’t won since. The automaker will return to Le Mans with an entry for the new LMDh class in 2023.
Keyword: 2015 Audi R18 E-Tron TDI Le Mans race car for sale