ZIM IS ME!

Star Wars:

Vivaldi:

And to end off, a lap of Sebring onboard the Audi R15, talked through by Alan McNish:

Allan McNish, Tom Kristensen and Dindo Capello scored a Sebring victory in the new Audi R15 TDI.

Sebring Raceway website reports

Audi scored a debut victory for its new Audi R15 TDI as Allan McNish, Dindo Capello and Tom Kristensen teamed to win the 57th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Fresh from Florida on Saturday night. McNish crossed the finish line 22.279 ahead of Peugeot’s Franck Montagny in an epic battle between sports car racing’s two diesel powers.

McNish took the lead at the 42-minute mark when Montagny made his final fuel-only stop. McNish clicked off fast lap after fast lap to build up enough of a gap to make a late splash for fuel with 14 minutes remaining and maintain his lead.

McNish re-entered the track while Montagny was just entering the backstretch. Montagny drove with fellow Frenchmen Sebastien Bourdais and Stephane Sarrazin.

The second Audi of Lucas Luhr, Mike Rockenfeller and Marco Werner finished third.

The American Le Mans series website reports:

One slip up, one extra minute in the pits and the story might be different. Yet it’s a familiar story with a familiar ending – Audi debuts a new car with a victory at Sebring. The German marque posted win No. 1 for the Audi R15 TDI on Saturday as Allan McNish, Dindo Capello and Tom Kristensen beat Peugeot at the 57th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Fresh from Florida.

McNish crossed the finish line 22.279 seconds ahead of Peugeot’s Franck Montagny in an epic battle between sports car racing’s two diesel powers. The two prototypes stayed on the same lap throughout the 12 hours in a carry-over from last year’s clashes at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and Petit Le Mans, also razor-thin Audi victories.

“This one for me this one was better than Le Mans because we came here with a new car and at the end of every stint it was at the maximum for the entire 12 hours,” Capello said. “To come here with a new car really says something for Audi.”

#2 Audi R15

Fourtitude has an article about the all new Audi R15 LMP1 car and its first race this weekend.

Now it’s serious: After tests in Spain and Italy, the first race looms for the new Audi R15 TDI. During the 12-hour race at Sebring (Florida, USA) on Saturday, March 21, the new diesel racing sportscar meets the competition from Acura/Honda, Peugeot and others.

For Audi Sport Team Joest, the US endurance classic acts specifically as an endurance test and to gauge the level of competiveness for the 24 Hours of Le Mans on June 13/14, 2009. At the same time, the team under Head of Audi Motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich aims to continue the brand’s impressive run of results at Sebring around the demanding race track in the heart of Florida: Audi has won eight times to date – in just ten races.

The article has some nice pictures, but for even cooler ones go to Seriouswheels.

Autoweek (dutch) has a story about the new audi A8.

2010 Audi A8

A car that hasn’t been in the news for a long time is the Audi A8. But that will change in 2010 because that’s when Audi’s 3rd generation limousine comes out, retiring the current one after 7 years.

According to the german Automobilwoche the new chassis will be made out of aluminium, the trademark of the current and first A8.

Autoblog has an article (in dutch) about the new Audi S5 Cabriolet. For those of you not savvy in Dutch, there’s a movie and plenty of images to admire this piece of german engineering.