Feature: Audi at Design Miami/ 2013

By John LeBlanc MIAMI, Florida – The old saying, “there are many ways to skin a cat” can also be applied to the innovative ways automakers are using in the sales and marketing of their new cars. Take for example what Germany’s Audi is doing here in sunny, south Florida, as a way to promote its 2014 R8 super car. Unlike jousting for media attention at one of the many international auto shows that happen around the world, since 2006 Audi has been the official automotive sponsor of the Design Miami/ exhibition, an intimate annual event that collects influential art collectors, gallery owners, designers, curators and critics from all over the globe in one spot. The event doesn’t attract the typical “gas-in-the-veins” car junkies or tire-kicking new car buyers you’d usually find at a typical auto show. But it does bring awareness to Audi’s commitment to good design as a pillar of its product development to a non- automotive crowd. “Audi has always been at the forefront of car design, and an event like this illustrates that to a very influential group of people”, says Audi Canada’s Curt Nielsen. Audi is not playing the traditional role of show sponsor at Design Miami/, held December 3rd to 8th. This year, the automaker is also appearing as an exhibitor and as a “source of inspiration that seeks creative dialogue”. To that end, Audi created an all-new display booth, highlighted by a large sculpture dubbed “Fragmentation” (a three-dimensional installation that plays on the red rhombus, the symbol of Audi Sport) as a backdrop to a pair of Audi R8s on stage: a 2014 R8 V10 Spyder and a customer sport program R8 LMS racecar that will be on the grid of the inaugural United Sportscar Championship (a merger of the previous American Le Mans Series and the Grand-Am series) at Daytona, Florida on January 25, 2014. The linking of technology and design to market its vehicles is not something new for Audi. In the past, the automaker has developed installations with international designers and architects such as Moritz Waldemeyer, Mirko Borsche, Bjarke Ingels, Clemens Weisshaar and Reed Kram. 
And the non-automotive attendees and media that can be found at an event like Design Miami/ are similar to the demographic that would consider a high-end vehicle, like the recently updated Audi R8 mid-engine supercar. Inspired by the 2003 the LeMans show car, the first production R8 went on-sale two years later. Since then, the Audi supercar has gone on to become the face of the brand’s 21^st-century design resurgence. And as a mid-engine two-seater with all-wheel-drive (that can be had for about half the price of the Lamborghini Gallardo it shares its aluminum spaceframe with), the Audi R8 has also become one of the most accessible supercars you can buy. The second arrow in Audi’s Design Miami/ marketing quiver is to promote its customer racecar program, launched in 2009. Audi racecar customer teams have won titles in Belgium, Germany, Portugal and Sweden as well as in the FIA GT Series and the GT Sprint International Series. At the beginning of the 2013 season, the 100th customer racecar based on the Audi R8 was delivered. And in the VLN Endurance Championship on the Nürburgring-Nordschleife, the Audi R8 LMS that took four overall victories was the most successful car of the 2013 race season. For the upcoming 2014 United Sportscar Championship season, Audi’s first customer team, Flying Lizard Motorsports from California, will be running a pair of R8 LMS cars for the new American sports car series. “We’re delighted that such a renowned team has opted for the Audi R8 LMS,” says Romolo Liebchen, Head of Audi Sport customer racing. The twelve-event United Sportscar Championship schedule includes such classic American endurance race venues as Sebring, Watkins Glen and Road Atlanta, as well as the lone Canadian race at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in Bowmanville, Ontario, next July 13. The Audi R8 LMS will compete in the production-based GT Daytona (or GTD) class. (The automaker says the GTD version of the Audi R8 LMS only differs from the Audi R8 LMS ultra GT3 racecar in details only.) Audi also says, one of the key advantages of the R8 LMS racecar will be its service-friendly and cost-efficient nature. Customer race teams only have to perform maintenance on the R8 LMS’s V10 at 20,000 kms intervals. Besides sharing the stage here at Design Miami/, the link between the Audi R8 street car and Audi R8 LMS racecar are quite tangible. Audi says more than 50 % of both cars is made up of shared parts. And by taking such a non-traditional approach to the selling and marketing of its vehicles, the German automaker is hoping the Design Miami/ crowd see link between good design and Audi’s products. This article was originally published at Driving.ca

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