From the track to the road, this is what motor car manufacturer’s draw from their presence at Le Mans in terms of the car market, technology, marketing and image. Obviously, the image that Audi has forged for itself through its involvement in endurance racing at the Le Mans 24 Hours since 1999, was at the heart of Wolfgang Ullrich’s speech who emphasized the slogan dear to the Ingolstadt make: namely, progress through technology (translated from the German “Vorsprung Durch Technic).”
He mentioned the innovative work done on direct injection in 2001, now a technology common to all the petrol engines in the Volkswagen range, the low fuel consumption of the diesel engines made by this giant in the car industry since the arrival of the TDI engine, victorious in 2006 for the first time, and the arrival of hybrid technologies. One piece of data made a big impression on those present: in 2014 the winning Audi used 25 per cent less fuel compared to 2013 while achieving the same performance, mind-boggling progress in just a year. Another revealing figure was that between 2006 and 2014 the Audis used 62 per cent less fuel and continued to rack up victories! He also said that the German manufacturer uses the event to communicate on a world-wide basis with its different importers and asks them to use the strong persuasive powers of the race on all the world markets.
