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Design Review: Audi Le Mans concept

by Sam Livingstone 16 Sep 2003 

Today Audi is a premium brand. Maybe not quite in the same league as fellow

compatriots Mercedes Benz and BMW to some, but without doubt a brand with

more 'premium' equity than most. And the Le Mans is inextricably linked to this

intangible asset of brand; essentially, its primary role is as a signifier of Audi's

intention to be a more sporting, more premium and more emotional brand.

 

The most direct way that the Le Mans

impacts on the brand is that it is named

after a famous race which Audi has won

three times in recent history and is

based on the mid engine configuration

of those race cars: it is a reminder of the

 Audi brand's motor sport involvementand success. Based on a lengthened

version of the Lamborghini Gallardo

platform, it is also a statement that Audi

is serious about its sports car 

pretensions, that it is the leading

dynamic brand of the Volkswagen group

(outside of the rarified Lamborghini and

Bugatti) and is shaking off any remnants

of conservative 'mainstreamness' that

then CEO Ferdinand Piech so accused

it of a few years ago. The third way it

contributes to redefining the Audi brand

is as a car designed to showcase a new,

more emotional design direction that

shall thus convey a more emotionalbrand identity.

 At the front of the car is Audi's new

graphic facial identity already seen on

the Pikes Peak and Nuvolari concept

cars from earlier this year, albeit

positioned lower than before and with

the four ring Audi logo mark positioned

separately on the bonnet. Picking up

from the front side air intakes below the

head lamps is a feature line that runs

over the front wings, along the length of 

the flanks and down into the rear air 

outlets below the rear lamps.

This line characterizes the Audi and

harks back to the Quattro Spyder, Avus

and Rosemyer mid engine Audi

concepts that have emerged over the

last twelve years, and distinguishes it

from the Gallardo and other mid engine

supercars.

Exterior designer Frank Lamberty

told Car Design News that he didn't

want the formal surfacing previously

typical of Audi and so put more

movement into the surfaces for a new

emotional Audi design language.

He also explained how the expansive

aluminium covers for the side air intakes

denotes the car's mid positioned engine

and is inspired by the exposed

mechanical structural elements that

motorbikes have. Both Frank and

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© 2012 Car Design News Ltd

interior designer Jens Sieber are bikers

and it is inside that the motorbike

influence is even more apparent.

 A 'monoposto', driver orientated focus to

the interior is immediately evident with a

form arching up from the driver's door 

handle, over the instrument binnacle

and down into the transmission tunnel.

This dynamic form truly delivers a driver 

centric feel similar to a bike and

supports a high mounted paddle shift for 

gear selection, not so dissimilar to the

positioning of the gear selector on the

new Porsche Carrera GT whichdemonstrates that race car gear shift

positions are at last filtering through to

sports car interiors.

The binnacle display is a mix of 

analogue and digital and has an option

to show where the car is positioned on a

race track when racing if the 'race' mode

(bottom left steering wheel button) is selected, in a similar way to the display on

Playstation's Grand Turismo or the latest WRC 'virtual spectator' coverage - a

great virtual racing concept to import into a real driving or racing experience.

But what wows most with the Le Mans interior is, again borrowing from the world

of motorbikes, the way the hard, gunmetal coloured metal structure defines the

core architecture and is then enveloped with softer formed technical materials -principally a three material laminate with lightweight, almost translucent properties.

This gives a very unique emotive feel to the car, connects it to race car design,

has an undoubtedly modern premium feel and thus demonstrates a very possible

future Audi interior design direction.

How much people really want a 600+ bhp mid engine Audi is not so clear, but

given that the platform already exists and that this car delivers so many powerful

and appropriate messages for the brand, it seems more likely than ever that an

 Audi supercar will make production. But even if it does not, the Le Mans is a

harbinger of future Audi design direction and probably the most exciting car of the

show.

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