The Creation of an Audi A4 DTM

Less than four weeks before the first race of the 2006 DTM on April 9th, Audi Sport and its DTM teams are engaged in particularly feverish activity. Coming up next on the calendar are the official DTM tests at Brands Hatch (England) scheduled from Monday to Thursday next week. By then, all ten Audi A4 DTM cars are supposed to be ready for the circuit.

The two new Audi factory teams, Phoenix and Rosberg, and the customer team of Dr Colin Kolles are able to concentrate on fine-tuning work: they will be competing with “used cars”. Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline, on the other hand, will be entering four newly prepared A4 DTM vehicles, the last two of which are presently in the process of being completed.

For the mechanics of Audi Sport Abt Sportsline, this means spending a lot of time in Ingolstadt at the moment. Traditionally, all new racing vehicles are prepared at Audi Sport. The mechanics of the respective vehicle crew are involved in the preparation, which means that they are intimately familiar with the car even before the season has started.

An Audi A4 DTM comprises roughly 4000 components – not counting the engine and gearbox. If all the parts are staged, including the cockpit made of 28 metres of high-strength steel, it takes the mechanics about 50 hours to put together this high-tech ‘jigsaw puzzle.’