Scot McNish targets third Le Mans winposted in LMANS11 | 12 | 2010
SCOT ALLAN McNish has confirmed he will bid for his third Le Mans 24-Hours race next June after he unveiled his mean-looking, all-new Audi R18 at the Audi Sportpark in Ingolstadt, Germany.
The Dumfries racer, who will lead Audi's challenge in the classic French endurance race alongside team-mates, Dane Tom Kristensen and Italian Dindo Capello, will drive a 'closed-cockpit' Audi in the race for the first time. The car is also powered by a brand new 3.7-litre V6 TDI turbocharged diesel engine.
“After racing an ‘open’ Audi sportscar since 2000, it was a renewed experience for me to drive a sportscar with a roof," admitted McNish (pictured with his new racer), who has already tested the new sports-prototype.
“I tested the R18 for the first time at the end of last month, which was essentially the Coupé’s initial roll-out combined with its maiden test. The car ran very well without any technical problems. We encountered wet and dry running enabling us to collect a lot of information in all types of track conditions.
"Efficiency is the key word. When you sit in it straight away, the first time in a closed cockpit for 10 years, it takes a bit of getting used to it. But they've put a lot of effort into making the driver comfortable.
"The first feeling of the car is that it does everything you want it to do. It's not aggressive or snappy. We made some adjustments and it reacted to what we did in the correct way. There were no surprises. It's a car you can get in and start to push and feel, but to talk about relative performances, you can't really do that. The first feeling is that it's a positive base to work from.
"Audi has done a great job with the design – the front certainly looks very aggressive – I’m sure we have a contender for race honours.”
McNish, who won his second Le Mans 24-Hours in 2008 driving an open-topped Audi, took his first win in the endurance classic in 1998 driving a “closed” Porsche sportscar. The last time the 40-year-old raced with a roof on his car was in a Toyota at Le Mans in 1999.
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Jim McGill