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The all-new Lola-Audi in which the Swiss Spirit team will contest this season's
Le Mans 24 Hours and Le Mans Series broke cover at Silverstone on
Friday.
The test, which was conducted on the Stowe circuit at Silverstone, went exceptionally well with 75 laps completed and not a single problem with the new package which sees the first time ever that Audi have worked with a customer chassis provider.
Marcel Fassler drove the LMP1 Lola chassis and even though the Stowe circuit is exceptionally tight, the Swiss ace could already feel that the package has enormous potential. The car is now on its way to Ledenon in the South of France for two days of testing in readiness for a public debut at Valencia in a few weeks.
The Swiss team are sure to be front runners with the Audi V8 bi-turbo powered Lola LMP1 in the LMS this year and the team are already targeting the Peugeot LMP Coupe cars during this season's racing.
Last season the Swiss Spirit team competed in a full European programme with the French Courage chassis manufacturer. With Fassler continuing with the team for 2007 it was decided to upgrade to the Lola B07/10 chassis, that proved to be the only consistent challenger to the Audi R10's in last seasons American Le Mans Series.
In charge of the new combination of Lola chassis and Audi engine will be experienced sportscar entrant and long standing Audi customer Fred Stalder, who ran Touring Cars for the German manufacturer in the 1980's and 1990's. Jean Denis Deletraz has a long and varied career in motorsport after racing for the French GDBA F3000 team in the later 1980's before making his Formula One debut for the Larousse team in 1994. Deletraz has also raced many sportscars and enjoyed success with Stalder's former team, ROC in 2001 and 2002 when they took victory in the LMP675 class at Le Mans.
Marcel Fassler is acknowledged as one of the fastest sportscar drivers around and is a former test driver for the Sauber Formula One team. He was also a front runner in the DTM with Mercedes and Opel.
Lola Cars International Ltd Managing Director, Rupert Manwaring said of the project: "This is a great opportunity to work with a fellow major player in International sportscar racing. The LMP1 has undergone a major update for the 2007 season. With these developments combined to the huge promise the design showed last season, it is another ringing endorsement of the trust that top teams and manufacturers have in Lola products."
The Lola B07/10 has undergone a significant aerodynamic upgrade to achieve sizeable performance gains at low and medium downforce tracks. The new evolution of the LMP1 car will also feature suspension and transmission changes to further enhance the cars durability in 12 and 24 hour races.
This summer will also see Lola engineers busy working on the next LMP racer, the B08/60 Coupe which will be the first customer LMP Coupe available in the world.
For more information, please visit www.audi.com |
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The Lola-Audi underwent a very promising first run.
(Picture John Brooks)
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Marcel Fassler waits as everything is checked and double-checked.
(Picture John Brooks) |
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The Audi bi-turbo V8 engine.
(Picture John Brooks)
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Marcel Fassler give the B07/10 its head.
(Picture John Brooks) |
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