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Audi R8 Back in Racing I found some explanation about the limited tracktime in the TOYO TIRES 24h Dubai 2008: Audi CR-8 loves the race track The TOYO TIRES 24h of Dubai 2008 had the debut showing the world the first metres of the Audi CR-8 on the race track. The car developed by Creventic BV from Holland made a few testing laps on Sunday 6th on a small part of the circuit of the Dubai Autodrome. Running without any problem, Cor Euser worked for getting a set up in the car. The handling of the car felt OK from the start. At the free practice on Thursday Jaap van Lagen and Cor Euser worked further on the car adjusting the AST suspension and wing. During qualifying and night practice the CR-8 got better and better. All the time the car showed no problem at all, quite amazing looking at the fact there have been no tests with this car so far. On race day Cor Euser took the start. The car performed well and Cor could easily run a 2m15s with the CR-8. Cor was pleased about the balance of the car. After one hour he came in for refuelling. After refuelling Cor wanted to start the engine again but the electronic gearbox was stuck in first gear and it was not possible to start the car. The CR-8 mechanics plugged their laptops in and found an unknown error and after calling many experts in Europe it turned out that the car was missing a modification of a hydraulic unit which is operated by the electronic gearbox. This modification should exactly avoid what happened to the car at the refuelling station. The team did not have a spare unit with them. The other Audi CR-8 the team brought to Dubai had a manual gearbox so did not had this specific part. With Dubai closed for the weekend and no Audi dealer to reach it looked like the team could not continue the race. Suddenly in the night a friendly race enthusiast turned up in the teams pit box 3A, telling he had good contacts with Audi. With a special tester it was confirmed that the problem was caused by this particular unit. Fortunately our contact had access to the Audi warehouse in Dubai where this part could be picked up and mounted. After mounting the engine could be started again and needed to learn all the gears. (A part of this was filmed and is becoming quite popular on YouTube now). In the meantime in the middle of the night it was raining heavily. During ?Code 60? Ivo Breukers went out on the track. The car was performing perfect again and could be shifted through all the gears. The car was on manual cut rain tires and to avoid every risk, and keeping in mind the weather forecast that the rain would stop in the morning, the team decided to come in and to wait for the dry track so the slicks could be mounted again. In the early morning later than expected the track got dryer and Ivo Breukers and Jaap van Lagen could drive the car without any problem in a few stints to the finish. In total the CR-8 did 113 laps without any problem at all. The replaced hydraulic part was the modified one so it is expected this specific problem will not occur again. Although the team would have liked to see that they could have had more track time it is satisfied with the reliability it showed on the track during this test race. The CR-8 will now go on a heavy, heavy diet. After this diet it will look a little different and should have lost almost 200 kilo?s. Together with some other modifications the car will become a little faster for the next test.