The world’s most famous TDI for sale (again).

While Cadillac’s entry was relatively quick and well publicized, Audi and the wider Volkswagen Group’s route into F1 had been in the making for much longer. VW had long toyed with the idea of ​​bringing one of its brands into F1, with Porsche supplying engines to McLaren in the mid-’80s and even developing a V10 that would eventually end up in the back of the Carrera GT. Meanwhile, it was often rumored that Audi was in talks to appear on the grid solely because of its performance in sports car racing. Between 2000 and his final season in 2016 he achieved no fewer than 13 victories at Le Mans, one of which was achieved in spectacular fashion in an R18 TDI, similar to the car we have for sale here.

At the 2011 24 Hours of Le Mans, Audi released three of its radical new R18 prototypes, ditching the old car’s open design for a closed hood and swapping its predecessor’s 5.5-litre V10 diesel for a lighter 3.7-litre V6 turbo. Things went fast from the start, with Audi running 1-2-3 in the early hours of the race. Shortly afterwards, car number 3, driven by Allan McNish, was involved in a horrific accident on the Dunlop Esses from which, incredibly, he walked away with a handful of marshals and photographers. Then, in the middle of the night, Mike Rockenfeller crashed into a GT at full speed near Indianapolis, destroying everything but the R18 survival cell. Luckily he also walked away. Despite the setback, Audi kept its number 2 car ahead of a trio of Peugeot 908s to take a sensational tenth victory around la Sarthe.

What we have here is an R18 TDI built to the same specifications as the Le Mans winner, albeit with a slightly different competition history. Chassis 107 competed throughout the 2011 season in the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup, now known as the World Endurance Championship, with mixed results (a 4th place here, a 7th there). However, a year later he would score pole position at the first WEC round at Sebring, Audi’s tenth at the venue. It would ultimately end the 12-hour race 15 laps down, continuing the series of setbacks, with Audi retiring him straight after.

From there it was then repainted in the Le Mans-winning colors of 2011 and served as a promotional car, before being gifted to Audi legend André Lotterer. In 2024 he appeared again at the Goodwood Festival of Speed ​​with 2011 Le Mans winner Benoît Tréluyer behind the wheel, and has since returned to the Sebring colors to display his spectacular lap around the old air base.

Audi would later adapt the R18 platform with a smart all-wheel drive hybrid system, which proved so innovative that F1 teams demanded a change to the 2026 rules to prevent energy harvesting from the front axle. While that technology never made it to chassis 107 here, it still played a crucial role in Audi’s dominance of the sport. Of course, you’ll have to call the seller to find out about prices, but a relatively modern prototype that’s eligible for historic events like Le Mans Classic will certainly fetch seven figures. That’s a lot of money to spend on an old diesel, but we can’t help but think it’ll be worth it.