Audi has marked the 50th anniversary of its legendary five-cylinder engine with a project that celebrates both heritage and future talent. Fourteen apprentices from the brand’s Neckarsulm facility in Germany have created the GT50 Concept, a one-off race car inspired by some of Audi’s most iconic motorsport machines. It is the fifth consecutive year Audi has given its trainees full responsibility for designing and building a complete vehicle, and the results are more ambitious than ever.
The team began with an Audi RS3 donor car, stripping it back to its bare structure before tackling the build’s greatest challenge: the bodywork. In a clever nod to the marque’s past, they grafted the roof from a classic Audi 80 onto the widened silhouette.
The GT50 Concept draws clear inspiration from the Audi 90 IMSA GTO and the 200 quattro Trans-Am of the late 1980s, complete with a handmade roll cage, enormous rear diffuser, wide arches and a towering rear wing. The exterior panels are crafted from glass-fibre-reinforced plastic, produced using laminated GFRP techniques familiar from top-tier motorsport. Lightweight wheels recalling Audi’s Le Mans racers and side-exit exhausts complete the dramatic look.
Once assembled and painted inside and out, the GT50 Concept made its debut at Audi’s end-of-year staff assembly in Neckarsulm, earning an enthusiastic reception from employees. More can be seen in the video below.
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