Editor’s Blog on the relationship between sport and business car

AS I guided my Audi A6 towards the local garden centre and through the streets of my particular part of west London’s leafy suburbia last Sunday – and drove over the rutted roads, marvelling at the Audi’s sensational ability to soak up the bumps and bangs and the expense this is going to cost the council to fix – across the channel (and over France) Audi Motorsport was wrapping up a fairly sensational year of motorsport.

With the Le Mans 24 Hours behind it – their 10th victory in the 24 hour classic – Audi went on to win the German touring car championship (known as the DTM) at the grand prix circuit of Hockenheim.

While admitting that Audi didn’t win the race on the day, Dr Wolfgang Ullrich, the head of Audi motorsport, said: “We won the team championship and clinched the runner-up’s slot in the championship with Mattias Ekström. It’s been a perfect DTM season for Audi with seven victories and the champion’s title for Martin Tomczyk.”

Next year, though, Audi will be retiring their main works Audi A4s in the DTM, and introducing the A5 DTM to the German touring car series. The car looks fantastic (pictured left).

Now there really does appear to be little in common with the understated elegance of the new Audi A6 and these aggressively spoiler-clad racing machines. But Audi maintains racing improves the breed with knowledge gained in lightweight materials, endurance proving and the hot-house engineering environment that motor sport engenders.

Take lightweight and more CO2 efficient LED lighting. The Audi R8 is credited with having the first full LED headlights worldwide. Slowly but surely an increasing number of Audi models are offered with full LEDs as an option, including the new Audi A6.

Audi also forces the new headlight technology in motorsport. The Audi R10 TDI was the first race car with LED daytime driving lights in 2006. The Audi R15 TDI, which broke the 39 year old distance record at the 24 Hours of Le Mans last year, was equipped with a combination of xenon headlights and LEDs.

“When you’ve driven once with full LED headlights you don’t want to have anything else,” explains Le Mans record winner Tom Kristensen. “The light is stronger and vibrates less than a normal headlight – this is a clear advantage and particularly at Le Mans, a track that has many dark braking points in the night.”

While I’m sure I didn’t require the additional illumination to get me to the dark areas of the garden centre car park on a lovely sunny afternoon – it’s comforting to know that motorsport is contributing to the excellence of the car you get to drive. Whether it’s for business or pleasure.

And the quality of this new Audi A6, from its finish to its drivability, is really first class. Just like Audi’s motorsport season.

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