Coupe or spyder?
Two beautiful Audi R8C and R8R, a coupe and a spyder, are in the pit lane, patiently waiting for the start of hostilities, during the preliminary tests preceding the 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans.
For its Le Mans debut, Audi entrusted two open prototypes to Reinhold Joest and two to Richard Lloyd for the following driver lineups: at Joest: #7 for Alboreto/Capello/Aiello and #8 for Pirro/Biela/Theys. At Richard Lloyd: #9 for Ortelli/Johansson/Abt and #10 for Wallace/Weaver/McCarthy
Audi driver Didier Theys recalls exclusively for The Human Side of Racing: “We did a lot of testing with both configurations before Le Mans. The reason Audi opted for two different prototypes was that the GT1 regulations were still in force, and Toyota was very competitive in them. Audi therefore wanted to keep the prototype that had the best top speed.”
The Belgian driver continued: “We did comparative tests at Paul-Ricard and we found that the R8R prototype was faster in the twisty sections, while the covered one (R8C) which had a very small wing and therefore benefited from a better top speed.”
Didier Theys: “I drove this (covered) car many times with Johansson and Ortelli at Paul Ricard, but since Joest knew me well because I had done Le Mans several times with him and liked me, he moved me out of the covered prototype and put me in the R8R Spyder with Pirro and Biela. Of course, I’m very happy about it because we finished third overall!”
The Belgian concluded: “The other model had a lot of mechanical problems, despite the fact that the engine and gearbox were the same on both types of cars built at Richard Lloyd near Snetterton, but well, they were two solutions to try, because Audi was taking its first steps at Le Mans and wanted to be sure of making the right choice.”
In this 1999 edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, victory went to the BMW V12 LMR of Yannick Dalmas, Pierluigi Martini and Joachim Winckelhock, but Audi did more than defend itself by taking 3rd and 4th place overall with its two Spyders, a fine start for the German manufacturer and a superb result for Didier Theys.
