The Lumpy Fifth Audi Prototype?

The story of Audi prototypes is astounding. Winning their second time out to Le Mans with the R8, they went on to win every year since that 2000 victory except 2003. Now, in 2006, they put a car 200 days old on the podium first and third. The R10 and R8 are both stunningly good cars. The R10 basically being opposite of what everybody else is doing right now - like the GT40 was in the late 60's.

In 1999 Audi raced two cars, a closed top R8C (above), and an open R8R (below).

In 2000 they introduced the R8 (below in its final livery). 2004 was the last R8 model, but an '04 won in 2005.


In 2006 they introduced the R10 (below). So far, two races, two wins - Sebring and Le Mans.


After such horrible 1999 results, Audi decided to stay closer to their inspiration - Lumpy (below). Tom's Toyota designed and tested an LMP1 for $500K. Tom Kristenson had a go and the car was fast - very fast - even with the 1988 Group C engine. Then Toyota told them not to race it and focused on Champ Car. However, stuck on the wall in the Audi development garages is Lumpy. In the R8, the styling similarities to Lumpy are obvious.