Le Mans Classic: Audi puts its legendary R18 endurance car up for sale

At the 2026 Le Mans Classic, sponsored by Aramco, this Audi looms over the paddock. Almost comically, however, it sports a paper ‘for sale’ sign, tucked under its windscreen wiper.

This car in particular is chassis #304, made of carbon fibre composite with aluminium honeycomb.  

Drivers Marc Gene, Oliver Jarvis, and Lucas di Grassi took this Audi LMP1 car to third place in a sensational Audi 1-2-3 finish at the 2013 Le Mans 24 Hours, the trio having completed 347 laps.

Audi has chosen Le Mans Classic as the venue to put this car in the shop window as part of its Audi Sport racing legends programme, which offers historic race cars from the German marque’s stock to drivers and collectors around the world.

Audi rebuilds former prototypes and touring cars such as the Audi RS5 DTM car for historic racing events such as Le Mans Classic.  

This Audi R18 has been restored by a team comprising many of the engineers who worked on it over a decade ago at Le Mans.

At the 2026 Le Mans Classic, it is set up in its period-correct low-downforce configuration to take on the long straights of Le Mans.
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Powering the car is a turbocharged V6 engine that puts power to the rear wheels. Traction control and a limited-slip differential - the geartrain that controls how the rear wheels rotate relative to each other - ensure that the driver can keep it on the track.

This particular car weighs around 915 kilogrammes and, at 4,650mm in length and 2,000mm in width, is nimble enough to take on any circuit. In fact, this exact chassis did, having not only taken third at Le Mans, but third at the 2013 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium, and second at the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo in Brazil.

It also won the 2013 6 Hours of the Circuit of the Americas (USA) outright with Loic Duval, Allan McNish, and Tom Kristensen at the wheel.

There is a catch. The Audi R18 is a hybrid car, but Audi does not activate the hybrid system. Including an active hybrid system would make the car ineligible for historic racing events such as those at the 2026 Le Mans Classic, but also make it more expensive to run and maintain.

“So, everything from the hybrid system is still in the car, except the flywheel; we just took it out and balanced it with weight so that the balance of the car is the same” explains Audi Sport racing legends marketing director Rainer Denninger. “But the MGU [Motor Generator Unit] is still there, but disconnected from the driveshaft, so it is not able to produce any power.”

The R18 was a part-time four-wheel-drive car with the MGU having sent power to the front wheels, but now it is a permanent rear-wheel drive car. That flywheel, which accumulated energy from the brakes, was designed by Williams. McNish once said that the hybrid system was so effective, it was like having “traction control”.
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The 2013 R18 e-tron Quattro is a diesel-powered car, the third in a dominant generation of Audi R18 prototypes that took 18 wins from 47 races.

Hybrid system or not, this is a complex car. The three manuals printed for the drivers, engineers, and mechanics, come to a total of around 1,000 pages. To aid in this Ulyssean encounter, Audi invites the buyer or driver for a full-day workshop at its Neuberg track and offers its engineers to aid in trackside operation and maintenance.

The buyer must also service the R18 around every 2,000km to 3,000km to ensure safe operation.

So, that brings up the inevitable and alluring question of cost.

Audi invites bids from potential buyers and does not have an official pricetag on the car, but it is expected to sell for around €3-5 million.

That will buy you one of the finest endurance racing machines, with a provenance worthy of some of the world’s greatest racetracks and events, including the Le Mans Classic, and one very exclusive seat.