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Special thanks go to Pyry who translated the following article from Finnish to English and provided the scans as well! The text is so great, that I will just add some remarks in [brackets]. | |
| History:
This car is one of two identical racers built in 1992, under the supervision
of Andre van de Watt (who was chief of VW motorsport in ´98 when the article
was written), based on IMSA GTO regulations to compete in the South African
sportscar championship. The chassis were built by taking brand new Audi
100s, stripping them of all bodypanels and other excess and then molding new
panels from kevlar and carbon fibre. Then the bodies were packed up along
with the internals of an Audi 90 IMSA-GTO and shipped off to South Africa. The
cars won every race they we´re entered in and took all class track records
aswell. Risto Buri located the car and 1995 and Pertti Kuismanen (Remember the name?) needed
little convincing to buy it for a reasonable 1.5 million Finnish marks [225000US$]. The
car was then shipped back to Ingolstadt without the engine, gearbox and drivetrain
because the toll costs of importing the complete car would´ve been
astronomical. It´s sister car was put in a museum.
The puzzle was then completed by using parts from the vaults of Audi´s motorsport division. The engine is from an Audi 90 IMSA-GTO, the six speed gearbox is from a ´90 DTM quattro and most of the chassis and suspension components were from a ´91-´92 V8 DTM Evo. Pertti Kuismanen then campaigned this Über-Audi very successfully in Finnish Super Saloons, for example winning 11 of 13 starts and 13 of 13 poles during the ´96 season. In 1997 he drove the car in the German STT aswell as in Finland.
Tech Data: Note: Kuismanen was apprehensive of doing a maximum attack standing start because the titanium axles had proved weaker than steel ones and he didn´t want to stress the drivetrain too much (the weak link), so the performance figures aren´t entirely accurate :) He also warned the road tester of what it would cost to rebuild the engine and then at the end of the session destroyed it himself... | |
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Side: No aerodynamic wonder, the frontal area of the car is so big it moves
as much air as a good sized lorry at top speed, the exhaust comes out of the
hole beneath the WIPAK lettering.
[This must be one hell'o'lorry, doing 300km/h and creating loads of downforce ;)] |
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Engine: Engine-# MGT-11, the turbocharger sucks air through the tiny air
filter. When the revs rise above 5500rpm all hell breaks loose
[Now, I have seen bigger air filters on 75PS cars! I wonder if the rules forced Kuismanen to do this.] |
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Interior: The rev counter red line sits at 8500 rpm, the two gauges to the
left are used to monitor engine temp and fuel. The lower of the two digital
displays is used for displaying boost pressure, the turbo screw is one of
the knobs to the right. The upper display is used for monitoring oil
pressure and temp, fuel pressure and temp, cooling water temp, exhaust
pressure etc. The Momo steering wheel has the buttons for radio and rear bar
adjustment. The Recaro seat weighs 2.9kg. The gearshift is a standard
H-pattern.
[Note the extra cooling fan left to the board with the sponsors. And especially watch all those lines in the place where the co-driver seat was. Those must be the lines to and from the coolers in the trunk. Looks like a snake-pit!] |
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Rear: nice trunk lock
[Noteworthy is the big opening through which the hot air from the various coolers in the trunk can escape. The diffusor is nothing short of spectacular.] |
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Suspension: The brakes are from a DTM Evo, most of the suspension parts are
titanium and hideously expensive... [Note the red cooling "pipe" to the disks and the onboard car-jack in the lower left area.] |
| In 1996, the car had extra parts on the rear wing and a single large exhaust. |  (2)
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| In 1998, the extra pieces were gone, the exhaust consisted of two pipes and the opening looked a bit improvised. The rear view mirrors now were larger and the front wing attachments had grown, too. |  (3)
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