# Swiss Spirit Lola on podium at Valencia.



## chernaudi (Oct 6, 2006)

The Audi powered Swiss Spirit Lola finished third overall at the Valencia round of the European based Le Mans Series(LMS) championship. It ran a relatively trouble free race that was wreck filled event. Some people commented that it at times resembled a DTM race.
The #8 Peugeot 908 won. But the #7 Pug went out with a as yet unknown mechanical problem(the Audi R10 hasn't had a mechcanical DNF since Sebring '06). This may be the story line of Le Mans-Peugeot may match(or slightly exceed) the pace of the R10, but the Pugs may miss out on reliability.
And who knows what the Lola Audi may do at LM. The only thing better is an Audi R8 LMP1 Hybrid(technically illegal per ACO rules), or an Audi R9 or R11 LMP1 using the 3.6 TFSI V8, but it probably won't happen, unless the rules go too far against diesels in Audi's mind-and the ACO probably won't let that happen.


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## CoupeS_1971 (Apr 27, 2007)

*Re: Swiss Spirit Lola on podium at Valencia. (chernaudi)*

One thing is for sure. They will never race an Audi R11 on Le Mans for competition again.
The R11 is the 2004 Audi A4 DTM car. I don’t think that that car will be a trait for the Peugeot’s. But it is a car with a roof so maybe it will fit the new ACO rules ;-)
I don’t know if Audi already built a R9 but it seems logic. The 2005 DTM A4 was R12, 2006 DTM A4 was a R12+ and the current A4 DTM is a R13.
Maybe the R9 is a prototype that never made it to on the tracks. Who knows more about the Audi R.. numbers?


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## [email protected] (Apr 9, 2004)

*Re: Swiss Spirit Lola on podium at Valencia. (CoupeS_1971)*

Nice to see the R8-powered Lola doing so well. It'll be interesting to see how they do at Le Mans.


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## chernaudi (Oct 6, 2006)

*Re: Swiss Spirit Lola on podium at Valencia. ([email protected])*

At the Ten-Tenths racing forum, Peter Ellerary said that the R8R was initially called the R9, and some people gave the Bentley Speed 8s that he designed "R9" as a pet name, as the Audi R10 has a slight resemblence to it and the R8.
And where did Audi get the designation "R8" anyways? I always thought that Audi designated their cars by the type and number of cylinders that the most common or(more likely) the base model had. 
In other words:A=Audi model. 4=inline 4, 6=V6, 8=V8
I.e., the base A4 as the 1.8 or the 2.0T, the A6 has a 2.8(EU) or 3.2 V6, and the A8 has a 4.2 or (EU market only) 3.7 V8.
And of course the S and RS cars do have different engines: S4 and RS4 have 4.2 V8s, the S6 and S8 have 5.2 V10s, the RS6 probably will have a 5.2T'charged V10, and the A8/A8L W12 has the 6.0 W12.
Doesn't R=Rennsport(racing) and 8 imply that the R8 has a V8, as I've never heard of any pre-R8 "R" cars?


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## CoupeS_1971 (Apr 27, 2007)

*Re: Swiss Spirit Lola on podium at Valencia. (chernaudi)*

Hello chernaudi
The R numbers are the factory numbers. Like the C1, C2, C3, C4, C5 and C6 for the Audi 100 and A6 production models
TT = A..
80 / A4 = B..
100 / A6 = C..
V8 / A8 = D..
…..
…..
…..
Audi does not use the number system as you mentioned. The A4 is also supplied with a V6 and the A6 is also supplied with a V8, etc.
The 8 from the R8 does not imply that the R8 has a V8. That would mean that the R10 has a V10 and the current A4 DTM car a 13 Cyl. Engine.
I don’t know how they came up with this system. Maybe someone can explain the Audi number system to us.
Regards,
Martijn
P.S. The Swiss Team Lola/Audi isn’t that fast at the moment. I hope this will improve for Le Mans. I hope they will be a good competition for the Peugeot’s in the LMS.


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