One to Buy: 1 of 4 built 2000 Abt Sportsline Audi TT-R
Although a renowned Audi tuner, Abt Sportsline’s decision to challenge the Mercedes-Benz and Opel works teams with its own TT-based challenger for the newly reformed DTM was incredibly ambitious.
The resultant TT-R was based around a purpose-built carbonfibre tub with attached tubular spaceframes, state-of-art suspension and braking, trick aero and an Xtrac six-speed sequential gearbox. Propulsion came from a 460bhp normally aspirated 4-litre V8 supplied by Heini Mader.
While Mercedes and Opel picked up eight wins apiece in the 16 race 2000 DTM, Abt Sportsline’s best result was a fifth at Oschersleben. Undeterred, Christian Abt’s team returned for another crack at the series in 2001 and picked up five wins from 20 outings. In 2002, Aiello was crowned DTM Drivers’ Champion to cap a fantastically successful programme.
Set to go under the hammer at RM Sotheby’s Munich sale on Novermber 23rd is a veteran of Abt Sportsline’s 2000 campaign: chassis TT-R 00.01.
Chassis ‘01’ was the TT-R allocated to Abt’s number one driver, Laurent Aiello, with whom it secured the model’s best year 2000 results (the aforementioned fifth place finish at Oschersleben plus a seventh and ninth at the Nurburgring).
The car is offered in superb condition throughout having undergone much recent work.
Reprinted below is RM Sotheby’s description:
Estimate: €400,000 - €600,000
Chassis No.: TT-R 00.01
Registration: Bill of Sale Only
One of four TT-R DTM chassis entered by the Abt Sportsline team for the 2000 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) season
Driven by former BTCC champion and 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Laurent Aïello
Achieved points-scoring DTM finishes at Oschersleben and in both races of the Nürburgring round in October
Aïello finished the 2000 DTM season as the leading Audi driver in the Championship
Rebuilt over 2020 and 2021; covered around 480 kilometres of testing since
Ideally suited to events including DTM Classic and more
After an enforced three-year break following the demise of the Class 1 Touring Cars series, the DTM returned in 2000 and was duly relaunched as the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters.
New regulations mandated rear-wheel-drive, tubular-framed “silhouette” cars powered by 4.0-litre V-8 engines but outlawed the costly hi-tech driver aids that led to the downfall of the previous incarnation of the series.
The Championship was due to be contested across nine race weekends with each comprising two 100-kilometre races of equal points-scoring value.
Mercedes-Benz and Opel lent the series welcome manufacturer support and the former campaigned its CLK-DTM model, while Opel entered its V-8-powered Astra DTM coupé. In contrast, Audi was represented only in a semi-official capacity. The Abt Sportsline team—who won the Super Tourenwagen Cup for Audi in 1999—entered four TT-Rs for Laurent Aïello, Kris Nissen, James Thompson, and team co-owner Christian Abt (with Roland Asch competing in a single round).
The TT-R featured a tubular frame and integrated roll cage produced by the British Foss-tech concern, while its 460 PS V-8 engine was supplied by Heini Mader, and its six-speed sequential gearbox by Xtrac.
The first half of the season proved challenging, with five non-starts and 10 race retirements blunting Abt’s assault. However, team leader Aïello—at the wheel of the car offered here, which raced under the number “9”—produced a solid performance at the Nürburgring in August to finish 11th, just missing out on a solitary Championship point.
An inspired drive by the Frenchman in the first race at Oschersleben in September ended with him finishing 5th, after qualifying only 18th, while a return to the Nürburgring in October yielded a double-points-paying finish, with 9th in the first race and 7th in the second. At the season’s end, Aïello finished as the top Audi racer, just one point behind former Formula 1 driver Stefano Modena’s Opel and five adrift of Mercedes-mounted former McLaren test driver Darren Turner.
In 2001, chassis TT-R 00.01 was sold to a German collector who retained it until 2010. Subsequently passing into Italian ownership, a rebuild was embarked upon in 2020, which included overhauling the engine and gearbox. Following some 180 kilometres of testing, the car passed into the present ownership in 2022.
According to the vendor, a mere 300 kilometres of additional testing has been covered since, reportedly between the consigning owner and the 2001 FIA GT champion, Jean-Philippe Belloc.
Today, the TT-R remains a spectacular example of this most distinctive and idiosyncratic of DTM contenders. Furthermore, in view of the DTM title subsequently secured by Aïello in 2002 at the wheel of a revised TT-R, it may be viewed as the genesis of this victorious programme, making this a car of considerable historical relevance.
