Audi supports Goodwood’s Festival of Speed

Audi is once again supporting the annual Goodwood Festival of Speed (7-9 July) by displaying its rich heritage of motorsport through the ages. The German prestige car manufacturer, which has supported Lord March’s annual motorsport extravaganza since 1998, will display and demonstrate a host of vehicles.

Audi "factory" driver Allan McNish will drive a 1936 Auto Union C-Type owned by the Audi Tradition Museum. Bringing the German manufacturer’s sporting achievements right up to date, McNish will also demonstrate the actual Le Mans 24 Hour race winning Audi R10 TDI which created history earlier this month (17-18 Jun) by becoming the first diesel-powered sportscar to win the prestigious French race.

First British public appearance for diesel-powered Audi sportscar in Britain

The Audi R10 TDI in the hands of Frank Biela/Emanuele Pirro/Marco Werner won the Le Mans race while McNish, partnered by Dindo Capello and Tom Kristensen, finished third. Audi’s new diesel-powered sportscar started from pole-position, led every lap, set the fastest race lap and also set a new race distance record on its Le Mans début - having won its first and only other race in March.

The Scotsman arrives in Goodwood from North America via RAF Wittering. McNish and co-driver Capello bring down the curtain on the phenomenally successful Audi R8’s seven year racing activity in the fourth round of the American Le Mans Series at Lime Rock (1 Jul). Meanwhile McNish will also have "challenged" a RAF Harrier "Jump Jet" down a 1-mile runway at RAF Wittering (6 Jul).

70th anniversary for European Championship winning Auto Union

The Auto Union C-Type which McNish drives is the famous 16-cylinder, six-litre "Silver Arrow", a car weighing over 16cwt (824kg) and capable of 211mph, similar to which Bernd Rosemeyer won the European Championship 70 years ago. In this era, cars carrying the Four Rings emblem, were victorious on 33 occasions in 59 races.

After World War II, all of the Auto Unions from Zwickau were taken to the Soviet Union and the whereabouts of many thereafter is unknown. To commemorate its achievements in vehicle technology, AUDI AG commissioned Crosthwaite & Gardiner, of Buxted in East Sussex, to build a replica of the C-type race car with its single-seater body. This replica was finished in 1998 and is now part of the Historic Collection of AUDI AG.

World début for "recreated" D-type

Meanwhile a 1939 Auto Union D-Type "recreated" by Roach Manufacturing plus Crosthwaite & Gardiner, which can be seen on static display, is the only type of its kind in the world and is making its world début at Goodwood. The D-Type’s first race with the unusual double-supercharger engine configuration was the 1939 Belgium Grand Prix while H.P. Müller won the car’s very next race (French GP).

Additionally an "original" V12 mid-engined 1938 Auto Union D-Type is also coming over from AUDI AG’s highly-acclaimed Museum in Ingolstadt. The D-Type was driven by the top Auto Union drivers Tazio Nuvolari, Hans Stuck, H.P. Müller, Georg Meier and Rudolf Hasse.

This actual chassis is one of the few to survive the exodus to the Soviet Union at the end of the war in 1945.

"Original" Audi quattro rallycar back at Goodwood

The actual "original" Audi quattro rallycar will be joined by a 1983 GpB Audi quattro A2 rally machine on Goodwood’s rally stage. Both ex-factory cars have been lovingly and superbly restored by Manchester-based quattro enthusiast John Hanlon.

"Flying Finn" Hannu Mikkola, who at the invitation of Lord March, has given advice on revisions to the extended rally stage since last year’s inaugural event, was reunited with the original 1980 quattro at last year’s Goodwood event and will once again drive the "original" Audi rallycar.

Hanlon’s latest acquisition, Michele Mouton’s 1985 Pikes Peak record breaking Audi quattro S1, will be driven up the hillclimb while Audi Tradition’s 1988 Trans Am championship-winning Audi 200 quattro machine also makes a rare visit to the UK and will be driven by former Audi Sport chief Dieter Basche.

AUDI AG motorsport successes have always been linked with ground-breaking developments - later adopted in to Audi’s roadcars. The best examples of these have been quattro, permanent four-wheel-drive, which celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2005 and revolutionised rallying in the 1980s.

Direct petrol injection (FSI) technology, giving excellent accelerator response and fuel economy, was used at Le Mans for the first time in 2001 and remains unbeaten in the French long-distance race between 2001-5. And following its recent history-making Le Mans victory with a diesel-powered sportscar, Audi ably continues to demonstrate its Vorsprung durch Technik slogan - progress through technology - to perfection.