AmigosRacingForLatinAmerica: The Porsche Museum displays a unique exhibit.

AmigosRacingForLatinAmerica: The Porsche Museum displays a unique exhibit.: "From 11 to 20 February 2011 The Porsche Museum displays a unique exhibit Stuttgart. The Porsche fan community on Facebook reached a magi..."

The Porsche Museum displays a unique exhibit.

From 11 to 20 February 2011

The Porsche Museum displays a unique exhibit

Stuttgart. The Porsche fan community on Facebook reached a magical milestone at the turn of the year when Porsche added its one-millionth fan on Facebook, one of the largest and most popular social networks on the Internet. Reason enough for Porsche to thank its fans with a special exhibition showcasing a unique custom-made vehicle: starting today, February 11, 2011, the Porsche museum will be presenting a Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid adorned with the signatures of more than 27,000
Porsche fans.

The 911 GT3 R Hybrid was chosen for this extraordinary signature-gathering campaign because it impressively embodies the future of motorsport - with Porsche Intelligent Performance. The all-new hybrid system developed specially for use in a racing car has little in common with conventional hybrid systems as far as its design and componentry go. The 480 HP four-litre six-cylinder flat-twin engine in the back is complemented by an electric front axle drive with two electric drive motors each pumping out 60 kW. Instead of batteries, the electric motors are powered by an electric flywheel accumulator which is charged during braking. The 911 GT3 R Hybrid has already provided convincing proof of its race-worthiness in a 24-hour race at the Nürburgring.

The Porsche Museum is open Tuesday to Sunday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Admission for adults is Euro 8,-, with a special reduction available to Euro 4,-. Admission is free for children up to the age of 14 years provided they are accompanied by an adult. For further information, please visit www.porsche.com/museum or www.facebook.com/porsche.

Public Relations and Media Porsche-Museum Astrid Lübke.

Mühlner Porsche was running like a clockwork Top ten finish despite accident in the team’s Grand-Am debut

Francorchamps – Cape Coral – Daytona: The Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium based Mühlner Motorsport Team had already been looking since several years to participate in the Rolex 24 at Daytona but this is not as easy to manage. Finally in October 2010 the lights were switched on green: Muehlner Motorsports America, LLC was founded in November and a brand new Porsche MY2011 was bought at Porsche Motorsport of North America (PMNA). Already in early December the team participated in a Continental tire test at the Homestead Miami Racetrack.

It was Jörg Bergmeister who did the shake down, and everybody could easily see that the car was directly up to speed. Mark J. Thomas, a regular in Mühlner Motorsport programmes since 2008, was involved in the project right from the beginning. After the successful Homestead shake down Peter Ludwig signed immediately and two weeks later also Dion von Moltke became part of the driver line up. In early January the team participated in the official test the so called "Roar before the 24" and worked hard to be prepared for this new challenge: the Rolex 24 at Daytona. It is the 35th 24h race in the long history of Mühlner Motorsport, but it was the first race ever in the USA for the successful team that participated already in races in 17 countries around the world. One week before the event Cory Friedman joined the team and so the driver line up was finalized with very reliable and -in Daytona- experienced amateur drivers.

Because the team has been able to finalize the complete test program during the test days in early January, team manager Bernhard Mühlner decided that during the practice and qualifying sessions only the absolute minimum laps to fulfil the regulations had to be done. Thursday and Friday were very quiet and Ludwig was the driver who qualified the car on position 21. This was ok because the starting position in a 24h race, will never affect the result. According to the regulations, the driver who qualified the car has to take the start.

The team decided that the drivers should do double stints to save time in the pits. During the first stint this strategic plan didn't pay off because Ludwig was a little bit too careful, when he meant that during a caution period, the car felt a little bit different for him. So he decided to come into the pit, because he was afraid of a slow puncture. But this was not the case, the tire pressure only came down because of the slow driving behind the safety car and so the team lost a lot of positions, already early in the race. The following stints worked perfect, all drivers did double stints and half way the race the team was already 7th out of 32 GT cars. Not by doing the fastest lap times but by taking advantage of the reliability of the car and cool strategy from the pits.

But then Thomas, in his second time in the car, hit the wall in turn one and the complete front and both right wheels and the axles behind were destroyed but the mayor difficulty was the broken radiator. The only good thing was that he was able to bring the car back to the pits. Although the Mühlner Motorsport mechanics did a great job to fix everything, it took 42 minutes and all chances for a possible podium finish were gone half way the race.

When the car rejoined the track, a very long caution period (2h 47min), because of fog early in the morning, was not really helpful to regain positions by the reliability of the car and the strategy of the team. At the end of the race car #18 finished 9th of all the GT's because during the whole race no technical problem caused an additional pit stop.

Renate-Carola Mühlner quotes after the race: "It makes me very proud that in our 35th 24h race again no technical problem happened to our car. With the exception of the accident we only refuelled the car, changed the tires and only once the brake pads thanks to the high quality of the Pagid brake pads. Our Bilstein suspension worked perfect throughout the race, and our mechanics did again a great job to prepare the car in a way that no technical problem stopped us during the race. They also did perfect and fast pit stops even though the way to do this was totally new for us because of the regulations in Daytona, which are totally different than in all the other 34 24h races we did before. Although you can't think like this everybody can easily calculate on what position we could have finished the race if the accident wouldn't have happened. But we will come back…"

Audi R8 LMS locks out first row at Bathurst

Audi R8 LMS locks out first row at Bathurst

Ingolstadt/Bathurst, 5 February 2011 – Audi starts on pole position into the
2011 motorsport season: Audi race experience Team Joest qualified its brace of
Audi R8 LMS cars on the first row of the grid at the Bathurst 12 Hour race in
Australia. The Australian driver trio Warren Luff/Craig Lowndes/Mark Eddy
clinched first place ahead of the sister car of Marc Basseng/Christopher
Mies/Darryl O’Young (D/D/CN).
In spite of a very short period of preparation, Audi race experience Team Joest had a
dream start to the Bathurst weekend. After two free practice sessions of only 50
minutes each, the outfit achieved the best possible result on the demanding track
with the Audi R8 LMS claiming first row in qualifying. An evenly-balanced
performance of the line-ups paid off as the individual best time of each driver was
taken into account for an aggregate result that determined the starting grid. In the
field of 26 entries, it was not the car with the individual best time of one driver that
eventually led the standings.
Inside the Audi camp, the chase for the best time turned into a “Luff affair”: Warren
Luff claimed the best time of an Audi driver, setting a lap time of 2m 09.6s. The
aggregate time of all Audi R8 LMS #7 drivers added up to 6m 35.3s. A balanced
team result was completed by the Audi R8 LMS #8 car: Its sum of the three drivers’
times on the undulating 6.213 kilometre Australian circuit was only three tenths
slower. Marc Basseng was fastest of the three Bathurst rookie drivers and drove a
2m 10.8s lap.

Audi race experience Team Joest focused only in first qualifying on the battle for
pole position. The team based in Wald-Michelbach (Germany) used the second
qualifying session predominantly as a chance for the drivers to familiarise
themselves with the car and the circuit as they did in free practice, and to simulate
race conditions with full fuel loads in preparation for Sunday’s race.
The fastest drivers were awarded a prize money of 5,000 Australian dollars by the
organizers. Audi race experience Team Joest and its drivers decided to donate the
money to the people of their host country who have been affected by natural
disasters recently. Audi Australia supported this move so that a total sum of 10,000
dollars was donated. The sum will be directed towards the Premier’s Disaster Relief
Appeal that supports the victims of floodings and cyclone Yasi.

Quotes after qualifying

Romolo Liebchen (Head of customer sport, quattro GmbH): “We can be happy with
our positions on the grid as it is the first time that we took to the track at Bathurst.
We focused on first qualifying because we then expected the best results – this was
precisely what happened. We’ve used second qualifying to prepare perfectly for the
race. Each driver gave us a positive feedback on the set-up of the Audi R8 LMS.”
Ralf Jüttner (Technical Director Audi race experience Team Joest): “We came to
Bathurst without even a shakedown test, plus the free practice sessions were very
short. Our drivers either didn’t know the car or they didn’t know the track. Now we
have ticked every box of a full program we had to go through. In second qualifying,
we did our homework for Sunday and no longer fought for positions. Our six drivers
did their best laps in the morning. That worked really well with every driver. We are
well-prepared for the 12 hour race.”

Mark Eddy (Audi Australia R8 LMS #7)
“Working with Audi race experience Team Joest is great fun. After qualifying, we are
starting to have a handle on what the car does at Mount Panorama. I’m sure that we
should have a really good race car. Of course we want to turn this into a winning
result on Sunday.”

Craig Lowndes (Audi Australia R8 LMS #7)
“It’s a great opportunity to have a new exposure to a new team. Audi came to
Australia and are providing a first-class outfit – not only the garages but also the
cars. And it’s good to see the support that Audi Australia has given to Audi race
experience Team Joest. The circuit we love, but the car is not so familiar to me. Each
time I get in the car, I get more comfortable. The 12 hour race will be a long day.
It’ll be no different to any normal endurance race: look after the car, look after the
fuel consumption and hopefully be on the lead lap at the end of the last hour.”


Warren Luff (Audi Australia R8 LMS #7)
“It’s been an amazing opportunity. The car has been so good to drive. In qualifying, I
was very happy with the car and the time that we did. I’m very much looking forward
to the race and hopefully we can have a good result for both Audi and Audi race
experience Team Joest.”
Marc Basseng (Audi Top Service R8 LMS #8)
“We have used the first qualifying to achieve good times. In the second session it
was all about longer distances. So we could see how the car’s temperatures progress
and how the tires worked. So we have concentrated on race preparation as it is
crucial to have a good car for that. I think that’s precisely what we’ve achieved. It is
all the better that the qualifying result is that good.”

Christopher Mies (Audi Top Service R8 LMS #8)
“This is a nice result as Marc, Darryl and myself didn’t know the track at all. I’m very
positive about it. We are an evenly-matched driver pairing. Hence we have a chance
for a podium result. At the end, we’ve tried a harder tire compound under a full fuel
load to generate reference data. Even then, I could drive consistent times which was
a surprise. So we are well-prepared for the race.”

Darryl O’Young (Audi Top Service R8 LMS #8)
“I’m quite pleased with the way the weekend has evolved so far. It’s tough to learn
the circuit with just two free practice sessions. Before qualifying, both Christopher
and me each drove seven laps. Still, we were able to get decent times. What matters
the most is the 12 hour race not the position on the grid. We want to drive a clean
race and keep out of troubles in traffic. The team has been working really well and
set the car up perfectly.”

Qualifying results
1 Eddy/Lowndes/Luff (Audi R8 LMS) 6m 35.3s
2 Basseng/Mies/O’Young (Audi R8 LMS) 6m 35.6s
3 Owen/Koundouris/Koundouris (Porsche) 6m 36.6s
4 Baird/Quinn/Quinn (Porsche) 6m 37.9s
5 Reynolds/Fiore/Cini (Porsche) 6m 41.9s
6 Wall/Mawer/Crick (Porsche) 6m 43.5s
7 Russell/Kingsley/Lago (Porsche) 6m 48.6s
8 Bowe/Leahy/Edwards (Ferrari) 6m 50.2s
9 Simonsen/Searle/Lester (Ferrari) 6m 52.0s
10 Emery/Twigg/Grant (Mosler) 6m 52.3s

INFO and Fotos: Jurgen Pippig/Audi Comunications Sport.

PRESS RELEASE 04 February 2011 Success Ballast Out, Compensation Times in for FIA GT3

Success Ballast, which has been a feature of the FIA GT3 European Championship since 2009, has been replaced with Compensation Times for the 2011 season. Instead of the top three cars and drivers being awarded +20kg, +15kg and +10kg in each race, they will receive a time of +15 seconds for 1st place, +10 seconds for second place and +5 seconds for 3rd, which will be added to the minimum pit stop duration set for the following race in the Championship. The move away from success ballast was made after it was felt that success ballast, coupled with ballast weight used to balance the performance of the various cars in the championship, was adversely affecting the performance and competitiveness of some cars. This led to the decision to remove success ballast from the equation, but keeping ballast weights as part of the Balance of Performance tests for each homologated model. The Compensation Time will be added to the pitstop time of the top three cars and drivers at the next race. The top three in the first race of the weekend will have the Compensation Times applied for the second race of the same weekend and not at the next event as was the case with success ballast, the top three of the second race weekend will have the Compensation Times added to the pitstop time of the first race at the next event. Success ballast was introduced in 2009 to stop one team / driver pairing dominating the championship and, while this has proved to be successful, the application of Compensation Times during the pitstops will be equally effective while not being reliant on adding ballast to a car. SRO CEO Stephane Ratel said: “This move away from Success Ballast in GT3 should help the teams to be more consistent throughout the season while keeping a check on the top three cars and drivers at each event so we don’t have one dominant team/driver combination. This change will help keep the FIA GT3 European Championship in its position as the leading GT series in Europe.” About the FIA GT3 European Championship The 2011 FIA GT3 European Championship will take place over six double header events across Europe starting in Portugal on the 7/8 May at the Autodromo do Algarve. The first four events will be with the FIA GT1 World Championship before finishing the season as the headline series with two events at the Smolenskring in Russia and finishing at Zandvoort in The Netherlands in October. As well as competing against some of the best up and coming sportscar drivers in the world, the overall champions will join a very elite group of European title holders. 2011 FIA GT3 European Championship 7/8 May Portugal Algarve 4/5 June Great Britain Silverstone 2/3 July Spain Navarra 16/17 July France Paul Ricard 20/21 August Russia Smolensk Ring 15/16 October Netherlands Zandvoort Info :Jeff Carter/Media Delegate.

Double victory for Porsche at long distance classic in Florida

Daytona 24 Hours, USA

Double victory for Porsche at long distance classic in Florida

Stuttgart. Porsche’s success story at the Daytona 24 hour race continues. At the 49th running of the long distance classic in Florida, the sports cars from Zuffenhausen celebrated an impressive double victory. Porsche works driver Wolf Henzler (Germany) won the strongly-supported GT class with his American teammates Andy Lally, Spencer Pumpelly, Steven Bertheau and Brendan Gaughan at the wheel of TRG Racing’s Porsche 911 GT3 Cup. Despite starting from the back of the grid, they finished the race one lap clear of the Paul Miller Racing squad with Bryce Miller, Tim Sugden, Bryan Sellers and Rob Bell. For Porsche as the most successful manufacturer in the history of this race, this marked the 73rd class win.

“I’m thrilled to have won such a fabulous race for the second time since 2005,” said Wolf Henzler. “It was very tough fighting our way through the field. But our car was perfectly prepared and we were able to maintain our quick pace from start to finish.” For the Porsche factory pilot, this was his third straight win at a 24 hour race after Le Mans and Spa.

Porsche works drivers Richard Lietz (Austria) and Marco Holzer (Germany), sharing driving duties with Americans Craig Stanton and John Potter in the 911 GT3 Cup of Magnus Racing, made the start of the 2011 motorsport season perfect for Porsche with fourth place. After leading the field with the Brumos-Porsche, works driver Marc Lieb and his American teammates Hurley Haywood, Leh Keen and Andrew Davis lost positions during the night after an off-excursion damaged the radiator. After a dramatic start and a gripping race, thick fog brought out the safety car for a good two and half hours in the early morning. The pilots put in an impressive charge and profited from the speed and reliability of the 911 GT3 Cup to clinch fifth.

“Our Porsche 911 GT3 Cup ran perfectly,” said Marc Lieb. “We had a good chance to win. But in such a top-class field you simply can’t afford any lengthy repairs in the pits,” Richard Lietz: “As the old saying goes: A miss is as good as a mile. Still, we can be happy with fourth.” His teammate Marco Holzer agreed: “My second Daytona race went much better than my first last year. So my aim for 2012 is clear: I’m after the podium.”

Porsche works driver Joerg Bergmeister (Germany) provided the first highlight on the Daytona International Speedway. After claiming pole position with his strong performance and a new lap record, he pulled clear of his rivals at the start of the race. With the Porsche-Riley, the overall Daytona winner from 2003 built up his advantage to 16 seconds by lap 27 before the first pit stop, and in the meantime turned the fastest lap of the race. His works driver teammate Patrick Long (USA) was running in second place when he handed the Flying Lizard Motorsports’ Daytona prototype powered by the Porsche six-cylinder engine over to Seth Neiman (USA). After just a few laps, in an attempt to avoid a spinning competitor in front of him, Neiman left the track and damaged the underbody and radiator. The team lost 19 laps through essential repairs. Ninety minutes before the flag, an oil cap on the left side of the engine came loose and the leaking oil caught fire. Repairs at this late stage made little sense.

“We were completely satisfied with the performance of our car over the entire weekend,” said Joerg Bergmeister. “We clinched pole position and turned the fastest race lap. Unfortunately, we lost a great deal of time early on in the race. At the end a fire caused by leaking oil signalled an early retirement for us.” Patrick Long said: “To now, Flying Lizard has had no experience with the Daytona prototype. Still, everyone became familiar with it very quickly. It’s just a shame that they couldn’t reap the rewards for all their hard work at the end.”

In the overall classification, the best placed Porsche-Riley finished third with Joao Barbosa (Portugal), Christian Fittipaldi (Brazil), Max Papis (Italy) as well as Americans Terry Borcheller and JC France. The power-unit of the Daytona prototype fielded by Action Express Racing was a privately-developed eight-cylinder engine based on the Porsche Cayenne. The sister car, which had led on and off over the distance, saw the chequered flag in ninth place.

“Again this year, Porsche teams have made an indelible mark on the Daytona 24 hour race,” summarised Porsche’s Head of Motorsport, Hartmut Kristen. “The double victory in the GT class was well earned. My big compliments for the professional preparation. Flying Lizard Motorsports also gave a sensational performance at their Daytona campaign.”


Race result

Overall classification
1. Pruett/Rojas/Rahal/Hand (USA/MEX/USA/USA), BMW-Riley (DP), 720 laps
2. Dixon/Franchitti/Montoya/MacMurray (NZ/GB/COL/USA), BMW-Riley (DP), 720
3. Barbosa/Borcheller/France/Papis/Fittipaldi (P/USA/USA/I/BRA), Porsche-Riley (DP), 720

GT class
1. Henzler/Lally/Pumpelly/Gaughan/Bertheau (D/USA/USA/USA/USA), Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, 685 laps
2. Miller/Sellers/Bell/Sugden (USA/USA/USA/GB), Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, 684
3. Espenlaub/Foster/Dempsey/Long (USA/USA/USA/USA), Mazda, 681
4. Lietz/Holzer/Stanton/Potter (A/D/USA/USA), Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, 675
5. Lieb/Haywood/Keen/Davis (D/USA/USA/USA), Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, 673
6. Tremblay/Edwards/Christodoulou/Bomarito (USA/USA/GB/USA), Mazda, 670

Public Relations and Media
Motor and Sports Press
Oliver Hilger

Successful test for the Audi R18

Successful test for the Audi R18
• Two new Audi R18 cars used in tests at Sebring (USA)
• Preparation for the 2011 Le Mans 24 Hours
• All nine “factory” drivers shared the test tasks
Ingolstadt, January 31 – Four and a half months before the Le Mans 24 Hours,
preparations for the endurance classic are in full swing at Audi. Two new Audi R18
cars and one Audi R15 TDI were used in tests at Sebring (U.S. state of Florida).
The program planned for the tradition-steeped American circuit specified endurance
runs for one of the completely re-developed LMP1 sports cars while the second Audi
R18 was primarily used for development work. The Audi R15 “plus plus” that will be
fielded at the 12-hour race at Sebring – the season opener of the Intercontinental Le
Mans Cup (ILMC) – completed a long run as well. In addition, the basic setup for the
race in March was worked out on the vehicle.
During the tests, which ended on Saturday, the nine Audi “factory” drivers took turns
at the wheel so that all of them had the opportunity to drive each of the three sports
cars.
“We’re very pleased with the performance of the Audi R18 at our first outing at
Sebring,” said Head of Audi Motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich. “We opted for this
race track because it makes high demands on the mechanical systems of our
vehicles. The temperatures are better than in Europe right now, plus the dry weather
provides us with assurance that we’re able to conduct the endurance runs as
planned. On a wet track the loads would be lower and the test results therefore less
conclusive.”
Communications Motorsport

Comunicado Oficial Audi Motorsport/bajo autorizacion legal de Audi Sport.