NEW YORK?Audi Sport is to Audi what M is to BMW or AMG to Mercedes?the tuning arm, the skunk works where cars go to lose weight, gain power, and find extra speed for the track. The US is a big market for Audi Sport, and the brand had several models on display at this year's New York International Auto Show. There was the TT-RS and the brand new RS5 Coupe, but for us the real star of its stand was a new racing car, the R8 LMS GT4.
Audi Sport customer racing is separate from the factory backed efforts in DTM and the now-shuttered World Endurance Championship program, and you can actually buy these cars to run yourself. The new GT4 car fits into a gap between the RS3 LMS?a front-wheel drive touring car?and the R8 LMS GT3.
The R8 GT3 has been a sales hit; more than 200 have found homes thus far, and it's racked up quite a lot of wins (including a memorable race in Macau where one GT3 finished the race upside down). But GT3 racing is getting expensive?the cars cost upwards of $400,000 (~?300,000) and that's before you factor in spares or the cost of running in a series.
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