The Autódromo De Terramar-Sitges is a kidney-shaped oval racing track near Barcelona in Spain. Built back in 1922 it held a handful of races before falling into disuse, but unlike many of its contemporaries this ghost-track oval is accessible and intact. Crumbling… but intact. Minor events aside, it’s stood in the Spanish sunshine for 80 years awaiting the sound of another real racing car.
So, what could be better than doing something that you can normally only do in games: taking a modern GT racer around the track. Audi decided to do just that, with Spanish DTM driver Miguel Molina and rallying legend Carlos Sainz at the wheel of an R8 LMS GT3 car, setting a new lap record in the process.
After an initial run around the vertigo-inducing, virtually vertical banked corners in a Caterham, the R8 LMS was unleashed to skim the tree-lined track and do what only rally cars should normally do. And this is what happened. It’s bumpy. It’s fast. It’s terrifying. Watch and enjoy – possibly from behind your hands.
Jonathan Moore