2015 Audi R18 E-Tron TDI Le Mans race car for sale

The 2015 Audi R18 E-Tron Quattro, Audi's last year in the top class of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, is for sale at London dealer Joe Macari. No price is listed, so if you have any inquiries, well, you know the rest.

Audi used the R18 name for a series of racing cars from 2011 to the 2016 season, but then ended its Le Mans campaign. The first was the R18 TDI Ultra, introduced in 2011 as the successor to the Audi R15 TDI; in 2012, the hybrid R18 E-Tron Quattro ran alongside the TDI Ultra, and when Le Mans regulations changed from LMP1 to LMP1-H (meaning hybrid) When the top class was changed, it replaced the TDI Ultra.

The car currently for sale is the R18 E-Tron Quattro, which underwent a major evolution in 2015. According to the listing, it features significant aerodynamic changes, including a larger dive plane and larger air inlets in the front wheel arches, which required retesting of the crash structure. Other changes included new side pods with reworked radiator openings for improved cooling and changes to the rear end bodywork designed to reduce drag.

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. This gave the R18 E-Tron Quattro all-wheel drive, but only intermittently, as electric power was not always available.

For sale is chassis 416, driven by Lucas di Grassi, Loic Duval, and Oliver Jarvis. We know that this trio finished fourth overall in the 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans, the first time Porsche had won the race since 1998. However, we only know that Chassis 416 was entered in the Fuji 6 Hours, Shanghai 6 Hours, and Bahrain 6 Hours, which were also part of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) that year. In Fuji and Shanghai, the car finished fourth, and in Bahrain, it finished sixth.

Audi won the 24 Hours of Le Mans from 2011 to 2014 and has won most races since the turn of the century. Audi plans to return to Le Mans in 2023 with an entry in the new LMDh class.