Hello and welcome to the official website of Audi Style Racing!
That’s right, team Audi Style Racing is going to try another full 24 hour endurance race, commencing at 10am on June 30th and finishing at 10am on July 1st! The race will be at Buttonwillow Raceway, which is the home of our first LeMons race and a track we really enjoyed. It also happens to be the second closest track to us in the 24 Hours of LeMons series at a mere 8-10 hour drive, which will be nice! We’ll try to get plenty of pictures and do in-car video footage, although it may be a little more challenging during night hours due to the lighting.
(Cue Jason Statham)
“It always rains in Sonoma”
This is our teams fifth race together, with the same much loved and equally maligned 1982 Audi Coupe GT. Although GT originally as in Grand Touring, it now really means “Ghetto Turbocharged”. It’s a 2100lb, 200HP/250TQ I5 5speed short geared beast of a car. Front Wheel Drive only (Sad face). However with custom cut springs up front, and chopped springs in back (to the tune of roughly 700lbs/in) we’ve mitigated much of the understeer expected from a car like this. Summarily, having blown up 2 motors, 1 transmission, 2 uprights, 2 clutches, ball joints, wheel bearings and hubs and one rare master cylinder and one very rare f%@-ing shift bushing, we’ve been busy replacing parts as the “lemons court” allows within their rule set (this count excludes bloodied knuckles). For this race, we went in knowing what could go wrong, and were the most prepared we had ever been. Read more…
The team celebrating our best finish ever!
Audi Style Racing placed fifth in class and 34th overall at our third attempt to conquer Infineon Raceway/Sears Point in our 1982 Audi Coupe. The third time is in fact the charm!
After three engine swaps, two transmissions, and a boatload of miscellaneous repairs, the team was hoping for a race that didn’t involve major mechanical repair…and to that extent, we finally experienced that feat. We learned that consistency & reliability of the car is such a huge part of your finish in endurance racing, yet those factors are also what makes LeMons racing so interesting in that none of the cars racing are going to be very consistent or reliable given their age & shoe-string budgets.
Team Audi Style Racing is hoping that “the third time’s the charm” in our latest attempt to race at Infineon Raceway in the 24 Hours of LeMons series on March 24-25 (event details here). Our previous finishes of 91st and 93rd (mind you out of ~175 cars, so not as bad as it sounds) were a lot of fun, but we’re hoping that with some improvements in driving ability(10% less crappy than before!) as well as a better understanding of the weak points of our car (more or less the engine, transmission, suspension, exhaust, ignition, timing and electrical system, we think we have a shot to break into the high-80s this time around!
We had another great time at Infineon Raceway (aka Sears Point). Since our last race there – a lot has changed. A new engine (or two), a new livery, and a renewed sense of enthusiasm – and it showed. While the car died in the final few hours, we went from being the team that was known as “the team that were misfiring so bad they could barely make it up the hill” to “the team that didn’t totally suck.” But more importantly than anything, we keep having more fun than ever, and in the words of Team Petty Cash – “we really love to play race car.” If the most fun wins, then we’re definitely in the running for the lead…
Technically speaking (e.g. not sorting by “the most fun wins”), we were 36th in our class, or 93rd overall. At our best, we were 17th in our class and 51st overall, which is something we’re all pretty proud of. We also had the 4th fastest lap time in our class – so we know we can be very competitive, and we’re continuing to make strides in the right direction. Now we just need to work on consistency, and continue to reduce our pit stops & repair needs.
Our Team Picture from Infineon Last Year
This is your official invite to watch us race LIVE at Infineon Raceway this weekend, Oct 22-23, in the 24 hours of LeMons.
We have just about 10 days until we’re at Infineon Raceway for our next 24 Hours of LeMons race, so I wanted to write a quick post and update everyone where we’re at.
Our coupe now runs under its own power once again!
We got our junk yard engine to replace the last engine we blew up in Reno just a short time ago, and it’s already installed and running again. I guess the third time was the charm in learning how to install engines in our car!
We also hit another milestone – we’ve owned the car for one year.
In the car’s rookie year, we’ve put down some crazy stats:
Racing is something that most people will never understand. It’s not just a sport or something to do on Saturday night. It’s a way of life. Once your in it, it’s in your blood. Once you make your first lap you can’t stop. The track is home away from home. You smell that race fuel, rubber, and when you hear those engines scream it’s music to your ears. Repost this if racing is your way of life.
Our Previous Engine - Catastrophic Failure
As you may have read from our last race, Goin for Broken 2011 at Reno-Fernley Raceway, we had some engine problems that took us out of the race after just 45 minutes of racing. At first we thought it was just a blown head gasket, we later discovered a cracked head.
Our team sponsor Audizine joined us for at Infineon Raceway a few months ago to witness the insanity that is the 24 hours of LeMons firsthand. We were joined by Anthony, the owner of Audizine, and Sean Rivers, a master of video production. The guys from Audizine had such a good time, they decided to run a feature on us – which came out excellent if we don’t say so ourselves.
Read more…
We should’ve known by the name of the race what would lie ahead for our venerable coupé in Reno. It says “Goin’ For Broken” and we took it to heart. Here is our post-race wrap-up of LeMons Reno 2011.
Another race is in the books for team Audi Style Racing – 24 Hours of LeMons Sears Pointless 2011 at Infineon Raceway. Unlike our last race, we could no longer use the excuse “it’s our first time” for every amateur mistake we made (that’s what she said!). Thankfully, we didn’t need to make any excuses either, as our team showed some great progress in both working together and working with the car to get it across the finish line in one piece. Overall, the team was much more organized, cohesive, prepared, and most importantly, we had a lot more fun along the way.
