Month: September 2021

After a two-year break, the DTM is returning to Austria and with it also the fans: For the first time since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, spectators will again be allowed in the DTM paddock. The proximity to the fans has always been a special feature of the popular racing series, which has been sorely missed lately.

Accordingly, the ABT Sportsline team is looking forward to the two races at the Red Bull Ring (Live on SAT.1 and ran.de from 1 PM on Saturday and Sunday).

ABT Sportsline’s main goal for the weekend is to defend its lead in the teams’ and drivers’ standings. At the same time, the team located at Johann-Abt-Strasse in Kempten knows very well that a lot can always happen on the picturesque race track near Spielberg in Styria.

At the first event in Spielberg in 2001, Laurent Aiello clinched a podium for ABT Sportsline at its first attempt with second place in the compact Abt-Audi TT-R. At that time, he was the only one of the three ABT drivers to see the checkered flag in a turbulent race.

One year later, the fans witnessed one of the most spectacular races in DTM history, in which Laurent Aiello would have needed just two points more than Bernd Schneider to secure an early DTM title. After a memorable last lap and an accident in the final corner, Aiello and ABT Sportsline had to wait another three weeks for their first DTM title triumph.

The champagne for the championship title was already chilled in the pits at that time and the ABT house band Fire44 was waiting outside the gates of the race track.

In 2003, Aiello narrowly missed the podium in fourth place. After that, the A1 Ring was rebuilt and did not play host to any DTM races for quite some time.

In 2011, Oliver Jarvis took the first podium for ABT Sportsline at the newly opened Red Bull Ring. Memories of qualifying that year are not so positive in Kempten: Miguel Molina and Mattias Ekström crashed in the pit lane (!) on slicks in the rain and both drivers had to start the race from the last row of the grid.

ABT Sportsline celebrated its first race win at the Red Bull Ring with Edoardo Mortara in Saturday’s race in 2015. Mattias Ekström was victorious one day later. Until then, the Swede had been denied a podium at the race track of his long-time partner Red Bull, of all places.

Ekström triumphed again in 2017. Nico Müller made it a perfect double podium for ABT Sportsline with third place, which was a great birthday present for Thomas Biermaier, who celebrated his 40th birthday on race day.

A year earlier, Ekström lost his cool following Saturday’s race, after he had already been “flipped” in the first corner and, from his point of view, unfairly blocked during his pursuit to catch up. “It’s always the same clowns,” ‘Eki’ exclaimed on television at the time.

Most recently, Nico Müller scored four podiums in a row for ABT Sportsline at the Red Bull Ring. In 2018, the Swiss could even have won, but in both races he made way for his Audi teammate René Rast, who still had a chance of winning the title shortly before the end of the season.

Team ABT Sportsline has raced in Spielberg twelve times with the DTM so far. In 15 races, the team has achieved three victories and a total of eleven podium finishes. At the last four events at the Red Bull Ring, ABT Sportsline always brought back at least two trophies to Kempten.

Actually ABT CUPRA XE wanted to celebrate the birthday of its driver Jutta Kleinschmidt on Sunday with champagne on the podium. However, after a brilliant performance in qualifying, where Jutta Kleinschmidt and Mattias Ekström finished second overall, the team was stopped in the semi-final on Sunday morning. The reason was a technical issue on the drive shaft of the all-electric single-spec car.

“Unfortunately, we experienced another unfortunate semi-final today because the drive shaft gave up after just a few seconds. So we fought the competition with blunt weapons and had no chance for a spot in the final,” says Mattias Ekström. Together with his teammate, he had caused a stir on Saturday with a strong performance in qualifying: after both runs, the Swedish-German duo finished second.

“The race day was then absolutely not what we had hoped for. What remains are the impressions from our visit to Greenland and of course lots of data. We will analyse everything very carefully and then attack again in Sardinia at the end of October,” says Ekström. Just six seconds after the start of the second semi-final against the teams of Nico Rosberg and Michael Andretti, the race car with Jutta Kleinschmidt at the wheel suffered a defect on the rear right drive shaft and was subsequently barely drivable. Although the 2001 Dakar winner and also Mattias Ekström fought bravely over the eight-kilometre circuit, a spot in the final remained out of reach.

“It’s my birthday today, but unfortunately we all didn’t get the present we had hoped for,” said Jutta Kleinschmidt. “The track here in Greenland was extremely demanding for the cars, we saw that in many incidents over the past few days. It hit us in the semi-final after just a few metres, it was simply out of our hands. On the positive side, we’ve seen that we’re right on track when everything runs smoothly. We want to and will prove that in Sardinia.”

The next Extreme E event is on the calendar on October 23 and 24: The nine teams will then fight for the next victory at the Island X Prix in Sardinia (Italy).

Their great popularity has transformed the ABT Power Days into a firm tradition, dating back many years. From 30 September to 12 October this autumn, customers will once again be able to enjoy a 20 percent price saving that applies to all ABT Power and ABT Power S performance upgrades*. Particularly large savings can be made on premium models such as the current RS 6. Fitted with ABT Power S, instead of 600 HP (441 kW), it delivers a staggering 700 HP (515 kW). Alongside this particular highlight, performance upgrades are available for many other Audi, VW, Seat, CUPRA or Skoda vehicles. At the heart of every ABT Power performance upgrade is the specially developed ABT Engine Control (AEC) unit. The power upgrade from ABT Sportsline is characterised by its outstanding quality and comprehensive protection. Further information at: www.abt-sportsline.com/abt-power-days.

The promotion applies to vehicles that are under two years old. If you would like to benefit from it, visit the company’s headquarters in Kempten or any of over 100 participating ABT dealers throughout Germany. The only other condition: The product must also be installed there within the specified period. Appointments are available now and customers from Austria, Switzerland, Finland, Spain, Poland, Russia, Ukraine and South Africa are also eligible to take part in their respective countries.

A small excerpt from the whole range to awaken anticipation: With ABT Power S, the 4-litre diesel SQ8 with 435 HP (320 kW) is boosted to 510 HP (375 kW) and the Q5 2.0 TDI leaps from 204 HP (150 kW) to 235 HP (173 kW). A browse of the ABT Online-Configurator reveals a seemingly limitless range of “upgradable” vehicle models of all classes, group brands and body shapes, such as the Golf VIII GTI with the 2.0 TSI engine, which, thanks to ABT Sportsline goes from 245 HP (180 kW) to 290 HP (213 kW). Need more space? The most powerful VW T6.1 now delivers 226 HP (166 kW) instead of 199 HP (146 kW). A new addition to the range is ABT Power for the CUPRA Formentor, which reaches a peak power of 370 HP (272 kW). The standard model delivers 310 HP (228 kW). Another interesting vehicle is the Skoda Scala. With a little help from ABT Sportsline, the data sheet of the top model shows 190 HP (140 kW) instead of 150 HP (110 kW).

Kelvin van der Linde has given Team ABT Sportsline its 70th victory in the DTM. Following his victories at Monza and Zolder, the championship leader also won Saturday’s race at the Nürburgring. After the first half of the season, the South African, who lives near Kempten, has a 33-point lead in the drivers’ championship. In the teams’ championship, ABT Sportsline is also at the top of the table after the first half of the 2021 DTM season.

Saturday was a picture-perfect day for ABT Sportsline: Kelvin van der Linde secured pole position for the third time this season with a perfect qualifying lap and then celebrated a commanding victory. On the way, he only had to shake twice when late stoppers Timo Glock and Alex Albon put up a massive fight against the ABT driver. The South African stayed cool, grabbed the two opponents and, after crossing the finish line, ordered an ice cream from SAT.1 commentator Eddy Mielke, which was promptly served to him by colleague Andrea Kaiser at the podium ceremony.

Walter Kolb accepted the trophy for the winning team. The 73-year-old pensioner from Isny had auctioned a seat at the pit stand of ABT Sportsline for the race at the Nürburgring by donating 6,000 Euros for the victims of the flood disaster in the region. The DTM was the first race event after the flood at the Nürburgring.

Before the start of the race, children affected by the flood had visited the ABT Sportsline pit and were even allowed to hold the steering wheel of the eventual winning car in their hands before the race. The visit of the children touched the ABT drivers deeply.

During a minute of silence and interviews before the race, Mike Rockenfeller had tears in his eyes. “Luckily I was wearing sunglasses,” said the ABT driver, who grew up near the Nürburgring. Things didn’t seem to go well at all for “Rocky” at his home race afterwards. After the first lap of Saturday’s race, he found himself in 21st place, but then fought his way up to third after a late pit stop and was subsequently celebrated as the “man of the race”.

The dream Saturday for ABT Sportsline was followed by a nightmare on Sunday: in a wild race, Kelvin van der Linde was touched by Liam Lawson when braking for the chicane and pushed into his team-mate Mike Rockenfeller. Both ABT drivers had to retire and remained without points for the first time this season.

Markus Winkelhock, who replaced Sophia Flörsch at the Nürburgring, also got to know Liam Lawson. The Swabian moved through the field on Saturday in Mike Rockenfeller’s slipstream, but then collided with Lawson on his way to the front. The subsequent drive-through penalty cost him a top ten result. In the turbulent race on Sunday, Winkelhock also fought in the leading group with his ABT Audi R8 LMS until a drive-through penalty.

This location is absolutely new territory for all drivers and motorsport fans: in Kangerlussuaq, a small town in Greenland, the all-electric Extreme E series will be holding its next event this weekend (August 28 and 29). For the ABT CUPRA XE team, the third race is also like a fresh new start to the season: for the first time, Jutta Kleinschmidt and Mattias Ekström will go into a race weekend together and prepared. After an Extreme E season with many challenges so far, the goal now is a clean weekend and a trophy.

After Jutta Kleinschmidt stepped in at short notice at the end of May, the only female Dakar winner to date now forms a permanent team with Mattias Ekström for the remainder of the season. In Greenland, the German-Swedish duo will now face a mixture of stones, gravel and sand instead of soft dunes and beaches as in Saudi Arabia and Senegal. One lap is around nine kilometers long and has to be driven twice in qualifying, the semifinals and the final – once by Kleinschmidt and once by Ekström. In the final, five cars compete against each other in a race for the first time in Greenland.

Jutta Kleinschmidt: “Felt welcome immediately”

“When I joined Extreme E as a Championship Driver and Advisor, I never thought that one day I would be competing as a permanent driver alongside Mattias – it’s still like a dream come true. I immediately felt very welcome in the ABT team. The challenge in Senegal was to get used to the car and all the procedures within a few hours. The challenge in Greenland will be different: After the hot temperatures and all the sand in the desert, we now have to get used to the completely different conditions in the Arctic. I can’t wait to get to Greenland and enjoy my first real weekend with Mattias and the team.”

Mattias Ekström: “Want smooth weekends”

“For us, the Greenland event is like a little fresh start to the season. Jutta is the ‘Queen of the Dakar’ and I’m still almost a rookie. That’s why it’s also special for me to have her in the team. In Senegal we had no preparation and still did some pretty good runs. Now we’ve had some time to look into things and prepare better. We have three race weekends left and we want to make them as smooth and successful as possible. This championship is far from over.”
 

Team ABT Sportsline travels to Zolder with mixed emotions this week for the third race weekend of the 2021 DTM season (both races start at 1 PM CEST on Saturday and Sunday, live on SAT.1 and ran.de).

The team led by Hans-Jürgen Abt and Thomas Biermaier has good, but also not so nice memories of the Belgian circuit. In 2002, Laurent Aiello and Christian Abt in the compact Abt-Audi TT-R ensured a superior 1-2 victory in the pouring rain. At that time, Zolder was the second race on the calendar and Aiello’s victory was an important step on the way to his sensational drivers’ title of the private Team ABT Sportsline against the factory teams from Mercedes-Benz and Opel.

By contrast, the wounds that Zolder left on the team from Kempten last year have not yet completely healed. Due to COVID-19, four DTM races were held at the Belgian circuit within one week. In these four races, Nico Müller lost his commanding championship lead to René Rast.

Robin Frijns also experienced two difficult weekends in 2020. After an accident with a fire, the ABT crew even had to completely rebuild his Audi RS 5 DTM on site in the Zolder paddock.

Nevertheless, Team ABT Sportsline’s Zolder record in seven DTM races so far is quite impressive: In addition to Laurent Aiello’s winner’s trophy from the 2002 season, there are six more Zolder trophies at ABT Sportsline in Kempten. In addition, today’s SAT.1 expert Martin Tomczyk secured his first DTM pole position with the Abt-Audi TT-R at Zolder in 2002.

By the way, the starting grid at Zolder in 2002 was very special: At that time, the ABT mechanics mounted Red Bull and Hasseröder cans on the endplates of the rear wings of the Abt-Audi TT-R cars for fun. Competitor Opel had found a loophole in the regulations at the time and declared a controversial widening of the rear wings as a “rear wing holder”.

Safety car deployments are not uncommon in the DTM at Zolder. Last year, Mike Rockenfeller benefited from this: Thanks to a good strategy, “Rocky” clinched second place and thus his best result of the 2020 season.

The 2013 DTM champion wants to build on this next weekend, as does championship leader Kelvin van der Linde, who describes Zolder as his favorite track on the DTM calendar. For Sophia Flörsch, Zolder is new territory. She has been preparing in the simulator.

For many years, connecting a Weber DCOE rod linkage system to a throttle cable has been difficult, with no easy way of attaching the cable to a rod operating arm, however Webcon has
now solved that problem with its new FK0005 Rod to Cable Lever kit.

The kit has been designed to work with a 5/16” cross rod. The lever from FK0005 kit is simply installed in the most convenient location and the yoke and pin then allow easy connection to a throttle cable.

The installer then simply needs to fabricate a suitable cable outer anchor bracket and the installation is complete.

FK0005 is available from stock priced at £17.95 plus VAT

Available directly from Webcon and from appointed Webcon dealers around the world.
For further details contact Webcon UK on +44 (0)1932 787100 or visit www.webcon.co.uk

Webcon is delighted to announce the release of its long awaited manifold and linkage set
to allow fitment of three Weber 40DCOE carburettors to the Triumph GT6 engine.

The new kit features stepped manifolds to clear the sloping bonnet on the GT6. The new Webcon manifolds are designed, cast and manufactured in the UK to Webcon’s exacting quality standards and the set also includes a Webcon Marine-grade stainless rod linkage system to ensure a smooth, accurate set up and operational longevity.

The inlet manifold set and linkage can be ordered as part number MW0091 at £446.25 plus VAT.

Alternatively, the manifold set and linkage can also be ordered as a complete set with three genuine Spanish Weber 40DCOE carburettors as part number PTR304 priced at £1884.75 plus VAT.

Available directly from Webcon and from appointed Webcon dealers around the world.
For further details contact Webcon UK on +44 (0)1932 787100 or visit www.webcon.co.uk

The latest addition to Webcon’s extensive catalogue of EFI fuel pressure regulators is the twin feed range.

Webcon’s twin feed regulators have been designed for installations where the regulator is fitted either before, or in the middle of the fuel rail.

The new range is supplied with twin 8mm side feeds and a single 8mm base return, and is available in a number of pressure settings as shown below:

WFR205T £91.82 plus VAT 0-5 bar adjustable
WFR235T £87.26 plus VAT 3.5 bar fixed
WFR240T £120.23 plus VAT 4.0 bar fixed
WFR245T £109.88 plus VAT 4.5 bar fixed

Available directly from Webcon and from appointed Webcon dealers around the world.
For further details contact Webcon UK on +44 (0)1932 787100 or visit www.webcon.co.uk

Historically, there were various types of fresh air vents for early and late Minis and the vents were handed for left and right.

Mini Spares has now announced its own replacement ‘eyeball’ vent that is compatible with both the early bayonet type fittings as well as the later version with a slot. Thanks to the multi hole pattern around the rim of the Mini Spares vent it will also fit both sides of the dashboard.

The MiniSpares vents and seals are also ideal for use in kit cars , street rods and for adding face level ventilation to other classics (additional parts will be required). The Mini Spares vent can be ordered as part number 37H7035MS at £14.40 each inc. VAT and the foam seal is available as part number ALA6292 at just 64p each inc. VAT.

Note: The ‘MS’ suffix at the end of a part number denotes a genuine Mini Spares product that has been designed and manufacturered to at least the quality of the original part it replaces although, in many cases, the original quality is exceeded.

For more details contact Mini Spares on
+44 1707 607700 or visit their website: www.minispares.com