VAG Division – Volkswagen Group Car Club

Allan McNish gave himself a good warm-up to next month’s Le Mans 24 Hours when the Scotsman’s diesel-engined Audi finished third in an abnormal 1,000km sportscar endurance race at Spa-Francorchamps today (SUN).

Dumfries-born McNish, 40, started his Audi R15 TDI from sixth place on the 49-car grid and along with co-drivers Dindo Capello (Italy) and Tom Kristensen (Denmark) led convincingly before first a power cut and then rain returned to thwart Audi’s bid for victory in a bizarre Le Mans Series race.

“Rain fell just before the start and being on dry weather ‘slicks’, made it extremely difficult on the slippery surface,” reflected McNish. “The Audi team then made a good strategy call to pit me under a safety car period and I led at the end of my stint.

“But then a power cut brought the race to a temporary stop, something I’ve never previously experienced in my career, and then a further rain shower late in the race prompted us to bring Tom [Kristensen] in to change onto intermediate [part-treaded] tyres with 30mins remaining.

“Unfortunately it stopped raining soon afterwards, the track dried and we lost second place with just four minutes to run. But in terms of the performance, Audi can be pleased looking ahead to Le Mans which is why we ran our cars in Le Mans specification unlike Peugeot who chose to run in a higher downforce set-up more beneficial for Spa.”

The McNish/Capello/Kristensen Audi ultimately finished 86.215secs behind the winning Peugeot of Sébastien Bourdais/Simon Pagenaud/Pedro Lamy which had started from pole-position.

The Audi R15 TDI sportscar of Timo Bernhard (D)/Romain Dumas (F)/Mike Rockenfeller (D) started from the front row and finished fifth. The third “factory” Audi of Marcel Fässler (CH)/André Lotterer (D)/Benoît Treluyer (F) had been due to begin the race from fifth position but lost eight laps having repairs made in the pits after Lotterer spun off on the warm-up lap after drizzle made the track surface treacherously slippery. They recovered to finish 12th.

An ultra-rare car bearing the name of Audi’s “founding father” August Horch has won the top award in the prestigious Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, very appropriately crowning the prestige car company’s 100 year Centenary celebrations.

This year sees a host of anniversaries for Audi, which is synonymous with the famous four rings emblem that also takes pride of place on this exquisite Horch. Sixty years ago this month, the brand began producing cars at its Ingolstadt plant in Germany. At the Frankfurt Motor Show 30 years ago next month (September), Audi presented its first turbocharged petrol engine. Ten years later at the same show in Germany, the 100 became the first Audi model to wear the now ubiquitous TDI badge denoting turbocharged diesel power.

The 1937 Horch 853 Voll & Ruhrbeck Sport Cabriolet, owned by an American private collector, was named “Best of Show” at the 59th Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance along the 18th fairway of Pebble Beach Golf Links® on August 16th.

Competitors from almost 20 countries brought their lovingly restored cars to California’s Monterey Peninsula for judging in 28 classes. A 1938 Horch 853A Erdmann & Rossi Sport Cabriolet had won the “Best in Show” award in 2004.

The Horch company, which was founded in 1899 and began manufacturing cars in 1901, was unified with three other car manufacturers – Audi, DKW and Wanderer – to form Auto Union, or what is today known as Audi. In fact, Audi is the Latin translation of Horch.

In 1935, the Horch Company introduced the Horch 850 with a five-litre, straight-eight engine. The shorter wheelbase 853 model, which won this year’s “Best of Show” and featured coachwork by the Berlin coachbuilder, Voll & Ruhrbeck, was very popular among Germany’s rich and famous, offering luxury at a very competitive price. The last Horch roadcar was built in 1958.

Owner Robert M. Lee, from Nevada, spent five years restoring the Pebble Beach winning vehicle to a show-worthy condition requiring specialised parts and information to be sourced from Germany.

“I had never seen anything like it when I first saw it,” reflected Mr. Lee. “I drove it almost 100 miles a day before the competition and it ran beautifully. It’s a wonderful car and I wanted to share it with others.”