Allan McNish, descending Hosier Lane, pops his Audi R8 Croc, chassis #403, into first gear for the slow left-hander before blasting up the short Flinders Street straight in the 2027 Melbourne 1000 km…I wish!
Gabriel Bortoleto gaining some points in his Audi R26 was an impressive start from a ‘newcomer marque’ upon debut at the 2026 Australian Grand Prix.
So too were their marketing and promotional activities in and around the race – activations – I think is the name given to this stuff by today’s, perky little brand-meisters.
McNish , Audi R8 ahead of David Brabham’s Panoz LMP-1, about to hook into the Adelaide GP circuit’s Chicane early in The Race of 1000 Years on 31 December 2000 (Audi Sport)
Not least Audi Australia’s short film to reintroduce the Audi R8 LMP900 ‘Crocodile car’ that won the Race of a Thousand Years in 2000 driven by Rinaldo Capello and Allan McNish.
70,000 enthusiastic spectators saw McNish and Capello prevail in an event shortened to 850 km from its scheduled 1000 km, from the Franz Konrad/Charles Slater/Alan Heath Lola B2K/10 Ford and the Dodge Viper GTS-R raced by Olivier Beretta/Karl Wendlinger/Dominique Dupuy.
‘The concept for the film called for the car’s original driver, three-time Le Mans winner Allan McNish, to reprise his role behind the wheel, pulling the dust covers off the car in a warehouse at an undisclosed location, before blasting up the Great Ocean Road in Victoria on his way to Melbourne where Audi’s next great motorsport challenge was about to take place. McNish is now the Director of the Audi Revolut F1 Driver Development Program. See here:https://youtu.be/1mvWxrqLCL4?si=di_c8Gkf1AzFkTN_
The R8’s race livery was a nod to Australia hosting its first ALMS (American Le Mans Series) race at the end of a season that saw Audi dominate Le Mans, taking the first of a record number of Le Mans wins.
“The ‘Crocodile R8’ is the perfect bridge between the brand’s racing history in Australia and our entry into Formula 1,” said Audi Australia’s General Manager of Marketing, Nick Reid.
The Race of a Thousand Years ended a near perfect year for Audi in which McNish won the 2000 ALMS driver’s championship and Audi the manufacturer’s.
The Croc was retired after Adelaide and has since lived between visiting gigs at Audi’s Ingolstadt Museum. In advance of its movie star role, Audi Tradition engineers shook the car down on an airstrip and blew one of the R8’s twin-turbos in the process. Without a spare on the shelf, they used the original blueprints to fabricate a turbo casting (perhaps a pattern?) and then made a new one.
The logistical nightmare of this undertaking in the red tape and due process capital of the world – Australia – fries my brain. In masterful understatement, James McRory wrote, ‘Putting a race car on public roads – never mind iconic stretches of blacktop like the Great Ocean Road is best described as a ‘logistical nightmare’. Wanting to drive one through a major city like Melbourne only increased the degree of difficulty by a significant margin. Add to all this a schedule that was tighter than two coats of paint.’
‘Permits and road closures, traffic marshals, police escorts, technical support for the car and transporting it all over Victoria required tremendous forward planning and execution. Just getting the car to Australia in time and through customs presented all manner of challenges, the car arrived Down Under two weeks before the Australian Grand Prix and days before filming was set to commence.’
I wrote a long feature about the R8 a while back, no point starting again, see here:https://primotipo.com/2019/06/28/crocodile-audi-r8/
Blowing off a couple of trams in these two shots. Still opposite Flinders Street Station, Allan is heading south, towards Princes Bridge.
Heading in the same direction below, this time about to clear Princes Bridge, St Kilda Road over the Yarra River, our murky, but cleanish wonderful river. Engine note at this point would have been worth hearing! My rat run in Collingwood to my girlfriend’s 1.5 km away on St Kilda Road, is on this stretch. I shall be making R8 noises as I cross Princes Bridge from now on…
McNish. What a fun start to his AGP carnival weekend it must have been!
Etcetera…
McNish in #403 during the Adelaide Race of a Thousand years.
And pretty relaxed in Hosier Lane in late February 2026. This graffiti/street art lane between Flinders Street and Little Collins Street works hard from pre-dawn to midnight every day.
Great Ocean Road, Cumberland River turn-around point? No shortage of recording devices in use. How ancient does the technology of ‘Grand Prix’ seem?
Night-time service depot for the Melbourne Performance Centre crew, who look after Audi customer racing in Australia. It’s at the south, dead-end section of Russell Street behind the Ian Potter Centre-National Gallery of Victoria.
Beavering away on the car in the wee small hours above, and below, enjoying the dawn view east with three Balloons in sight beyond the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
This is more like the Balloon view Melbourne inner-east early-birds get on a good day!
6.45am on April 5 taken beside the Yarra on the Saint Heliers/Collingwood Children’s Farm site in Abbotsford.
Credits…
Audi Australia, James McRory for words and most of the photographs, Audi Sport, Newport Railway Museum, Joe Portlock-Getty Images
Tailpiece…
Finito…
primotipo... 