Looking back on the past decade of sportscar racing, there have been many iconic prototype and GT cars that helped shape the era that was filled with close competition and technological innovation.
While Audi will be remembered for its R8 prototype, arguably considered the most successful LMP car of its time, and later conquering Le Mans with diesel-powered machines, the German manufacturers’ sister brand, arguably boasting an even deeper racing pedigree, also left a significant mark in the 2000s.
Seven years since fielding a factory prototype in sportscar competition, Porsche returned to the LMP ranks with an all-new contender in 2005. While many expected the RS Spyder, Porsche’s first purpose-built prototype since the GT1-98, to raise the bar in the evolving LMP2 category, not many could have predicted the level of success it actually achieved.
Porsche engineers Roland Kussmaul and Owen Hayes were instrumental in the RS Spyder's success as well. (Photo: Porsche Cars North America)
The RS Spyder not only conquered its class, but was also one of the first ‘small prototypes’ to take the fight to the bigger and more powerful LMP1 cars in the American Le Mans Series. And much of its success came at the height of the series’ factory prototype involvement, with Audi and Acura also in the battle for top prototype honors.
With 13 overall wins, 35 class victories and 12 championships during its five-year run in the ALMS and select outings in the European-based Le Mans Series and the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the RS Spyder may have not racked up the accolades of the R8, but some could argue it made an even larger impact on the sport.
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The Beginning
As the legacy of the venerable Audi R8 was coming to a close, the story of the Porsche RS Spyder was just beginning. Unveiled in early 2005, the German manufacturer’s re-entry into the prototype ranks proved to be no second-class effort, despite building the car to the second-tier LMP2 specification.
With full works support and famed American entrant Penske Racing running the operation Stateside, there was no shortage of talent from the driver or personnel side. Porsche had entrusted Sascha Maassen and Lucas Luhr, two of its veteran GT factory drivers, and multiple-time ALMS champions, to help develop the RS Spyder, with then-rising stars Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas also handling testing duties by years’ end.
“When we started to test the car in 2005 we found a lot of problems,” Maassen said. “Everything in the car was new. The engine, the gearbox, the chassis, etc. But the progress we made before the first race was the biggest, even so nobody outside of Porsche realized.”
Sascha Maassen and Lucas Luhr debuted the RS Spyder at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in 2005. (Photo: LAT)
The RS Spyder made its debut at the ALMS season-ending round at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca later that year, with Maassen and Luhr handling driving duties. And despite the steep learning curve, and both drivers’ first-ever prototype race, the duo blew the LMP2 competition out of the water.
“The first race was special,” Maassen said. “We finally had to perform after all the work that was put into the project. I remember having to drive for three hours in the race and my back was hurting as the g-forces were amazing. But I didn’t want to get out of the car! We had pole position, fastest lap and won the LMP2 class that weekend.”
Maassen and Luhr recorded a fifth place finish overall, a feat relatively unheard of for a category that was generally a last-man-standing affair up until Porsche’s arrival. While there may have been a general lack of competition at the program’s start, Penske’s future success arguably helped transform it into category that was stronger and more diverse than LMP1.
Built with a clean sheet of paper at its motorsports base in Weissach, Germany, the car was one of the first new-generation prototypes built to the ACO’s evolving regulations. But with all of its development done in Europe, there were certainly some uncertainties heading into the RS Spyder’s first full season of competition.
“We were all eager for this project,” Bernhard said. “Right from the beginning you could feel the enthusiasm of everybody involved. It showed me that we would be successful. But driving wise, I felt right away that the car had not only big potential but it had already a great balance, which was a great base to start from.”
Prototype racing was also something new for three of its lead drivers, which perhaps turned into Porsche’s advantage. While Dumas boasted a handful of starts for Henri Pescarolo’s outfit and a few races with the Team Nasamax Reynard, the Frenchman knew from his first test at Monza at the end of 2005 that the RS Spyder was in a different league. Dumas credited veteran engineer and former driver Roland Kussmaul for being instrumental in their transition from the 911 to the RS Spyder.
Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas scored Porsche's first overall victory in American Le Mans Series competition at Mid-Ohio in 2006. (Photo: ALMS)
“From day one, they were able to build the car around us,” Dumas said. “But Porsche were listening a lot to us drivers. That was the key point there. As soon as you were asking for something, it was done a few days later. But a very important part of the circuit was Penske.”
There were ups and downs through the car’s first full season. Mechanical issues at Sebring and a double-DNF on the streets of Houston put a sour note to their championship ambitions, but Penske’s strength shined through in the following round when history was made.
Bernhard and Dumas claimed overall honors at Mid-Ohio, leading home a Penske 1-2 in the first race won by a lighter and lesser powerful LMP2 machine in nearly three years. While it ended up being the duo’s only overall victory of the season, the two-car effort combined for additional six class wins.
While Maassen and Luhr were crowned drivers’ champions in 2006, work was already underway for the next generation of RS Spyder, which debuted at Sebring the following year. It was the same race which Acura took to the stage with its new LMP2 contender. Penske and Porsche’s competition was about to get a whole lot stronger.
The Audi R8 Spyder makes me want to move to California.
A few minutes in the convertible, sun pinking my nose, and I’m ready to trade my life in the blizzard-prone Northeast for earthquakes, fires, state bankruptcy and paparazzi.
Since the Spyder sports car starts at $161,000, I’ll probably have to live in a rundown place in the Valley, but I’ll still be ruling Los Angeles from the Audi’s leather-bucketed throne, with the V-10 engine right behind me.
I’m a fan of the R8 coupe in both 4.2-liter V-8 and 5.2- liter V-10 guises, and was not surprised to see Audi roll out of a topless version. It’s a time-honored -- and bottom-line pleasing -- tradition among makers of exotic cars.
What I didn’t expect was that trading its metal lid for a soft top would also set the rather constrained R8 free. It ditches the Hugo Boss suit and briefcase for board shorts and aviator shades. The convertible looks different, handles differently, and completely changes the perspective from inside the car.
My metallic-brown test model twinkles in the L.A. sunlight as I snap down the freeway at 85 mph, other cars ceding territory to its bright LED running lights. Then, into Beverly Hills for a latte, where I’m one of the tribe. No matter that I’m an arriviste -- so is everybody else.
This R8 has the larger V-10 engine, and it’s arguably more power than you need in a convertible. After all, ditching the top also means that the R8 could no longer function as a weekend racetrack car, a personal fantasy I often entertain on snowy Sundays in New York City.
Manual Shift
In the coupe, I prefer the superfast 6-speed automatic transmission, controlled by behind-the-wheel paddles. You can shift in a tenth of a second. Yet here I’ve got an old-world, six-speed open-gate manual shifter. You have to negotiate the metal stick through a series of open, gaping slots large enough to drop a nickel into.
On the racetrack you lose too much time finding those gears. Yet in the convertible it’s perfect: Passengers in higher-riding cars get to look down into the open cockpit and watch the operation. Every time you shift, there is a soft clink of metal on metal.
Caffeinated, I head for the Angeles National Forest north of the city, a place I’ve always imagined as primeval timberland, but which suffered a terrible fire in 2009, so I find instead spindly copses of flame-touched foliage. What it still offers are thickets of looping ridge-side roads.
Corkscrew Turns
I drive for hours and hours and am never once behind another car. The R8 pulls me relentlessly along, grabbing purchase with all four tires through tight corkscrew turns and open sweepers. The combination of all-wheel-drive, mid-engine layout, manual transmission and big engine is the perfect algorithm for a convertible.
It’s not as stiff as the coupe, true, yet it feels more like motoring. The weight is ideal, and even though I’m shifting mostly between redline at third into fourth, I come nowhere near the limits of the car. If I heard tires shrieking on these narrow roads, it would mean I’d done something grievously wrong.
The brake and accelerator pedals are perfectly situated for blipping the gas as you downshift -- a racing technique used to blend engine speeds and one of those esoteric techniques that’s both pleasing and rare to get right. I do it correctly almost every shift in this car.
There are a few things I’d change. Mostly, I wish the R8 had a “mean” button you could engage, which would open up the engine and allow it to get really throaty and wild, more like the Lamborghini Gallardo from which it is derived. Even when you’re really gunning it, the V-10 is too polite by half. Fine around town, but out here I want to hear myself.
Leg Cramps
The footwell is also cramped, with the left-side dead pedal pushed too far forward, so my left leg cramps. I wish the seats had slightly better lumbar support, too.
In the shadows of the mountains it’s much colder, in the 50s, but it’s below freezing back home so no worries. I’m in a T-shirt with the top down. I get out at the crest of a 7,000- foot ridge, ostensibly to look at the view. I soon give up peering through the smog and just stare at the car.
The Spyder has lost the coupe’s signature side scoops, and you can no longer see the engine itself behind glass. Yet with the top missing, the proportions are better -- wider and more squished. More exotic.
I leave the mountains far to the east of the city. It’ll be a long ride back on highways, along flatland that’s already full of traffic moving at 80 mph. I hurl myself into it, confident in my machine.
No more snow days -- just warm wind in your face. It’s a California dream.
The 2011 Audi R8 5.2 Spyder at a Glance
Engine: 5.2-liter V-10 with 525 horsepower and 391 pound-
feet of torque.
Transmission: Six-speed manual or six-speed automatic.
Speed: 0 to 60 mph in 4 seconds.
Gas mileage per gallon: 12 city; 19 highway.
Price as tested: $171,915.
Best feature: That sense of entitled freedom.
Worst feature: Can we get a bit more noise, please?
Target buyer: The Los Angeles titan.
(Jason H. Harper writes about autos for Muse, the arts and leisure section of Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)
To contact the writer of this column: Jason H. Harper at Jason@JasonHharper.com or follow on Twitter @JasonHarperSpin.
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