Audi R8 GT3.....one down, three more to go

[Peter Lombardo]

Audi R8 GT3

Now that I have completed my Viper ACRX club racer, I wanted to begin the second car in my planned 3 phantom race car set. By phantom, I am referring to the fact that these are cars that physically exist, but not exactly in the configuration and paint scheme I am doing.

The second car I am doing is an Audi R8, converted, more or less, into a GT3 variant. And, as I mentioned before, the 3rd car is a phantom race version of the Corvette ZR1. Back to the Audi, I am beginning with the stock street version on the car. It, obviously, is the Revell 1/24 scale offering.

Basically, I like the look of the car, but, and I know this will sound strange; it just doesn’t look mean or tough enough for me. It gives me a feeling of “softnessâ€, you know, maybe too refined…..just a little too smooth. I know this vehicle is anything but too smooth. From all of the reports I have read, it is a great super car with tremendous power and tons of handling…..but in its stock form I just don’t feel it in the pit of my stomach.

Also, I have never been fond of that carbon fiber panel behind the door. Yeah, I am into the carbon fiber look on spoilers and hoods and interior panels….but those two panels just don’t work for me. I mean, why are they there? What is the purpose? Sure they save weight, but I think they look strangely out of place there.

But when this car is converted into the GT3 variant, I think it becomes all that it can be. The once benign and rather tepid looking coupe now has wheel wells that are widen to cover some serious meat on a set of BBS race rims.

The ground effect lower side rails channel the air flow below the car out the back through a set of diffusers. The front hood is now opened up to vent air flowing through the oil radiators behind the massive center grille.

There are new vents over the front wheels to channel out the air flow through the two engine radiators which sit under the headlights.

Below the headlight will be additional air inlets and a front air splitter to restrict excess air from getting down below the car chassis. The two air intakes behind the doors are extended outward to bring more cooling air into the engine compartment to aid reducing the ambient air temperature in the engine compartment.

There is a new roof scoop on top of the interior cabin that runs down the back replacing a section of the rear window which will open around the inlet. This air intake brings cool fresh air which is channeled into the engine intake.

Around back, there is a slight rear spoiler added to the rear panel just over the taillights. A large wing is mounted on the rear panel also to create additional down force to hold the rear down to the track.

Ok, I got a little dramatic here, but you get the point. I am really enjoying the conversion of the stock car into my version of the GT3.

The first thing I set about doing was to open the doors. Here you can see the “back†of a #11 blade scoring the outside of the door edge.

Here the inside of the door is worked with the knife blade. I tend to work back and forth between the inside and outside, holding the car up to a light to be sure I am scribing the correct spot on the panel. Here the door is worked free…it is only held by the tiny area by the window frame…which was carefully cut away by using the front of the knife blade.

Next, I wanted to build up the wheel well bulge. I began by gluing a stripe of styrene inside the wheel well with liquid glue. This was repeated on all four wheels. I over allow the amount of plastic that sticks out of the well. Excess can be cut away later. Next I applied putty to all four of the fender side of the wheel well extensions, which will be sanded smooth later. Here one of the bulges has be sanded and the extension boxed off at the outer end. To the rear of the front wheel wells you can see the flat fender extension I added that will parallel the front edge of the door. In this shot you can see the hood opened up to form the vent at the front and beginning to be curved back. To the sides of it, you can see the triangular fender openings that will have 3 angled vanes in them to direct air out. This is the addition that I glued onto the rear top fender that will be puttied in to show a small bump of a rear spoiler. Here you can see the two air intakes behind the doors being enlarged. I cut the upper and lower edges with a saw and using a small pliers I bent them outward. Then I glued plastic sheets in the gaps. Once the glue was dry, I grinded them down and sanded them smooth. Later I added putty to smooth it out and sanded it all smooth. Here, I began the fabrication of the roof scoop. I cut out the top and bottom and then cut small silts along the bottom and bent everything with a gentle bend to match the curve of the roof. This was all glued and puttied. Here the scoop in nearing completion and resting on the roof. Next I cut out the front grille and grinded down the back of the grille face. I will post pictures later of that and the other modifications I am making.

In my research of the car, I found about 10 different versions and designs of the car. Some are real and actually driving on tracks around the world. And others are nothing more than computer generated want-to-be’s. I looked at many of the versions and kind of picked and chose the features and design ques that I liked and have incorporated into my build.

I basically always knew the design I was going to build; I just wasn’t sure what paint and sponsorship scheme I was going to use. Because this is an Audi, I know that silver and/or charcoal silver are a must. Ok, but what else. I spent some time on JHL.com and scanned through what felt like a few thousand sets of decals. You know, it would sure make more sense if they listed them by scale….but no, they have them all jumbled up with no set pattern, 1/43, 1/24, 1/20 and 1/12 scale decals all mixed up…..it makes no sense. Anyway, after an eternity of looking I found a neat sheet of Jagermeister decals designed for use on a 1/24 scale BMW….BMW, Audi, BMW, Audi….why not? With a little creative painting and a nice new paint scheme of silver, charcoal and orange, this could look pretty cool. I always loved the look of the Jagermeister cars. I have the 1/12 Tamiya Porsche, the 1/24 Alfa Romeo and the 1/24 BMW 3 series, all with the orange livery and the neat Reindeer head.

So, this will be a version of the GT3, the main difference is that the real GT3 has a V10, this is currently a V8 and the GT3 rules don’t allow all-wheel drive, so I think the front drive mechanicals will have to be omitted. I will have to see if I can convert the engine into a 10 from an 8. I don’t know how that will play out.

Edited November 7, 2010 by Peter Lombardo

[cruz]

Another project I am sure will turn out great, keep us posted please!!

[RodneyBad]

Another Mr Lombardo build already?

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeet.

Body is looking super already.

Really nice clean work.

I love it..

[crispy]

Peter, you're a machine. I absolutely love each of your builds. Great work and thanks for sharing the techniques with us. I know it makes me a better modeler.

Chris

[John Teresi]

Wow!! Peter.......you really luv your modeling.......I can`t seem to stop ether .......I guess we both have the passion.......great start buddy.

[aksarben]

Man you really dive right in to a project, I'm inspired by your work on the wheel well extensions.

Looking forward to viewing your progression.

Steve

[Peter Lombardo]

I found a little time this afternoon to do a little more work on the GT3 Conversion.

Here the air scoop is attached to the roof…. Once the putty is dry, it will be smoothed into the roof. Here the rear window and engine cover are in place You can see where the rear window is marked. It will be removed here, under the roof scoop so that the engine cover will open and the scoop will have the air intake hoses attached leading to the intake plenum. You can also see the small rear spoiler molded on to the rear just being the engine cover. There will also be a larger rear wing mounted above the rear deck. Here is the nose with the lower fascia in its beginning stage…. You can also see the three vent vanes on the two fender air vents. These just need a final filing to be complete. Here you can see down through the vents. Here the grille is in place. I used the Dremel tool with a sanding drum to grind away the backing on the grille and open up the egg crate grille. Once the glue is fully set up on the lower fascia pieces I will grind them down and adjust all of the edges. Then a lower plate gets attached and the front end will be just off the ground. The section just below the headlight opening will be reworked with new angled slots, rather than the standard lateral bars.

[Jantrix]

Hmm................

[vizio93]

Wow that is looking absolutely awesome man, I like the fender flares and vents !!! Keep it up man

[Fuel Coupe]

Nice work Peter. Great stuff....

[Jon Cole]

Peter, this rocks! Giving the R8 the Badass treatment... yes!

[cazxr2]

Stunning. Trully stunning. I love the way u think, I mean Audi should employ u to do this to a real car and sell it as a race speck road car. Can't wait to see the next update.

[Foxer]

A great looking car looking even better!!!

[Peter Lombardo]

Yesterday, I finished up just about all of the body modifications to the Audi R8 GT3.

I still need a little fine sanding and of course a fine coat of primer…

especially the doors which are still virgin. The door hinges will be a little tricky on this because there is such little space just ahead of the doors on the fender.

My standard style hinge will not work here….but that is no biggy.

On the grille, where those two holes which are meant to hold the license plate are, two road lights will be recessed there.

I drilled out the tiny projector light in the headlight housing. That will be replaced with a small HO train MU jewel light. The headlight covers on the factory run GT3’s are yellow for the Le Mans race….they look pretty cool like that so this will get that treatment too.

Behind the front and rear air inlets and outlets there will be a black mesh. The engine radiators go under the headlight fixtures and the engine oil cooler goes in the center behind the lower part of the center grille.

Next up on this is the chassis and the interior and a full roll cage. I have to semi-gut the interior because, in the street version that the kit represents, there is too much “plush†and as a race car that just won’t do.

Now, I want to congratulate my beautiful and wonderfully understanding wife, Sue. Today she has put up with me for 35 years!

35 years ago we were married and I have to say that marrying Sue was the best thing I ever did. This shot was taken a few years ago at WDW. That is our daughter Melissa, now married and just gave us a beautiful grand son 6 months ago, Sue, Jonathan, our son and me on the right. 35 wonderful years….Sue allows me my hobbies and golf…what more could a guy ask for. She is even working while I am playing on the computer…..what a wonderful woman. I sure choose wisely…..Sue, maybe not so much!

Anyway, since 35 years is a bit of a milestone, I wanted to congratulate my Sue and I.

[Stang67]

Thanks Peter! Great work! I always learn from your stuff. Congrats! You are blessed!

[935k3]

Awesome job Peter. Here is an action shot of one from the Nurburgring 24 hour for inspiration.

[Blake Rogers]

i love the body work pete ur work is in a art form all of its own

[jeffs396]

Great stuff as usual from you Peter!

Love the wild mods on the R8...very creative!

Congrats on your anniversary and your grandson!

[made007]

what putty did you use? that green one? awesome bodywork pete

[Peter Lombardo]

what putty did you use? that green one? awesome bodywork pete

Thanks....I used two putty's on this one. The gray is the Worlds Best Putty, Tamiya....very hard to find in the USA any more.....a friend in Japan gets it for me, and the green is Squadron Green putty. It is also available in white too. They are the same, as far as I can tell....I only got the green tube, because last time I used the white putty and I just felt like using the green stuff. It works fine, but remember, it shrinks up as it hardens so you need to allow for that. The Tamiya stuff does too, but not so much. I generally use Bondo, two part body filler for the bigger stuff. It does not shrink and it dries very quickly and is easy to grind and sand.

I did not need to use it here because I was not doing large modifications to this car.

I use all of the putty types for different uses. Bondo for big stuff, Squadron, or a similar putty for medium size jobs because it is inexpensive and easy to find. and Tamiya for only the "fine tuning" and small areas because it is very fine grain and difficult to get.

[seeker589]

I found these recently.

For Inspiration:

[Peter Lombardo]

I found these recently.

For Inspiration:

Thanks Guys!!! I have, copied to my hard drive, just about every picture taken of the R8 GT3's, but I can always use more. I noticed when looking at the variants of the race cars, almost all of them look a little different. They seem to all have unique features....so I am incorporating the design que's that I like into mine since it is a phantom version.

[made007]

Thanks....I used two putty's on this one. The gray is the Worlds Best Putty, Tamiya....very hard to find in the USA any more.....a friend in Japan gets it for me, and the green is Squadron Green putty. It is also available in white too. They are the same, as far as I can tell....I only got the green tube, because last time I used the white putty and I just felt like using the green stuff. It works fine, but remember, it shrinks up as it hardens so you need to allow for that. The Tamiya stuff does too, but not so much. I generally use Bondo, two part body filler for the bigger stuff. It does not shrink and it dries very quickly and is easy to grind and sand.

I did not need to use it here because I was not doing large modifications to this car.

I use all of the putty types for different uses. Bondo for big stuff, Squadron, or a similar putty for medium size jobs because it is inexpensive and easy to find. and Tamiya for only the "fine tuning" and small areas because it is very fine grain and difficult to get.

i use bondo too, but i asked because that putty looks very hard to sand, but thanks for the help, ill keep an eye on this one

[Peter Lombardo]

We ( yes, I have a mouse in my pocket) are nowhere near done with this one, but I wanted to post an update on the paint scheme that I came up with on the “imaginary†Audi R8 GT3 I am doing. I say imaginary, even though Audi does race GT3 cars, because my version is a compilation of a number of features from many different cars, seemingly, no two exactly alike, and a completely fictitious paint scheme. If you look back on this post you will see the body modifications I made….but this post is the basic paint and sponsorship decorations.

I started with a basic Audi silver paint scheme….after all, this is Audi, it is a German car and the German national racing paint scheme was always silver.

Over the top of the silver I added a coat of Dupli-color Clear Effex which is a clear gloss with tiny brilliant “glitter†flecks to make the silver “pop†with brightly colored highlights in the sun. The effect is not over the top…in normal light it is just a silver race car.

I spent a considerable amount of time on the various Japanese model sites of internet retailers of decals looking for the basic sponsor decals I wanted to use on this car. I finally settled on a set of decals for the sponsor Jagermeister. I have done a number of race cars with the Jagermeister livery, and still have the 1/24th scale BMW 320i and the 1/12th Porsche 934 both by Tamiya to build one of these days. All of the “Jager†cars have that distinctive orange paint scheme and I do like it, but I wanted to do a different take on that…..because, after all, this is an imaginary race car.

I ordered a set of “Jager†decals from Museum Collection intended for an Alfa Romeo 155V6Ti

(I built the Tamiya version of this car years ago) and I have to tell you guys the quality of these decals is completely first rate. They are smooth, cleanly printed and thin but opaque enough to cover any color under them….they are great. Once these decals arrived, I had to settle on a paint scheme to work with the silver and the “Jager†decals. I wanted to play off the juxtaposition of the “Old European†style lettering of the Jagermeister name and logo and a more modern look to the paint. I wanted silver as the dominant color but I need to get the orange in there too. I thought about a two tone scheme with silver and orange, and almost went for that but I just couldn’t pull the trigger on it,

It was then that I was looking at a few old tuner magazines that my son had….do you think he got them for the hot babes in bathing suits since he drives a Jeep Wrangler….not exactly a tuner machine????? Anyway, they reminded me of the current trend of bright graphics laid over the base color. Some of them are shards of colors, some have tribal designs, but they all have that “random†feel about them. I thought about how this old style logos and realized that this was just what I wanted. But I was not sure of what kind of graphics to use. I knew I wanted Orange as one of the colors, but I figured I could use Red and Yellow too as they create orange when mixed together. So I had the colors, now I needed the pattern.

I gave this some thought and decided I wanted the look of “splattered paint†on the car. And better yet, I wanted it to look like the car just drove through puddles of paint on the track and the paint was splashing up onto the car. I spoke to my brother who is a sign maker and has computer programs that have “clipart†of many effects. He showed me some great clipart effects of splatter artwork. There must have been a hundred or more patterns in every imaginable size and shape. I chose two patterns and we “manipulated them to fit the size and shape I wanted. He then broke them apart and made layers so I could set up the three colors I wanted. I then had him create drop shadows for each of the thousands of “splats†to make it look like the paint splatter was just above the paint. The shadow was placed just below and behind depending upon the placement of the decal on the car. Then, he applied a really neat effect to the splatter droplets to give them even more depth which incorporates different color highlights to each of the three main colors.

Once completed, we printed the three decal patterns, from top down here, center, left and right onto a sheet of clear decal paper. Here the decals are printed on the decal paper which is a bluish white color…..but when the decals are taken off the paper, they take on a translucent look which when applied over silver create a “candy†look which is really cool. Here the left side is done and the right side decal is setting next to the car.

Here you can see the candy effect and even see some of the glitter coming through the decal to heighten the glow.

In this shot the center layer has been applied to the car…so all of the first layers of color graphs are in place…

I applied the decals in just three sections, each section going on “wholeâ€. I have to tell you, it was tedious and time consuming but I think worth the effort. In doing my Viper with the snakeskin decal pattern I learned to go very easy with the decal solvent so I used it sparingly this time. I only used it when the decal was firmly in place and only in the more difficult locations where there were many curves and crevasses to deal with. I applied the solvent with a Q-Tip and used the Q-Tip to masseuse the decal into place at the point of application. My best two weapons for getting the decals down are a very sharp knife blade to cut the decal where necessary and my trusty hair dryer. Since I don’t have much hair anymore, I have found a great use for the old appliance. It softens the decal with heat and the air pressure forces the decal down to the curves of the body….and as an extra bonus, the heat helps evaporate the liquid under the decal to speed up the entire process. Once this was all dry, I began the sponsor decals.

I originally debated with myself as to whether I wanted the sponsor decals under, over or a little of each the graphics. But I figured if a sponsor was going to lay out large sums of money to advertise on a race car, they would not appreciate a set of graphic covering their logos so I opted to place them over the graphic. Here is the front view….

And the rear view..

In this shot ( a little bigger) you can see the wheels I am using for this car…. My goal here was to have the splatter effect look as if the paint was on the track, as I said before, so I have the center graphic coming up out of the nose grille air outlet and sweeping up over the car and the sides begin at the front radiator openings and flow down the sides. I love it. Once this was all dry, I brushed on a layer of Future to help seal all of the decals and give the car a consistent shine.

I lifted these from the Tamiya Opal Astra V8 Coupe race car kit (it is an extra kit of that car I have). I painted the wheels with a very bright silver and then brush painted on Testers Brass over the spokes. The decals came from a great set of tire sponsor decals I ordered from Japan also. I painted on some gloss lacquer to the tire side wall, once dry I applied the decal for Michelin. Once that was dry, I brushed on some flat clear over the whole tire side wall to make it a consistent flat sheen.

Next I will fit all of the little details to the body like the road lights to the grille up front, the taillights in the back and the headlight covers which are painted translucent yellow. The tow hooks and windshields go on along with the large rear carbon fiber wing and the interior will be completed and installed. This is the second mate to the Viper I did. Next up is the Corvette ZR1 phantom GT3 and just added to the list is a Ford GT GT3 variant. Both the Corvette and the Ford GT will have unique graphics….exactly what I don’t know yet…but they will be different, I can say that.

[Albert Moore]

Hi Peter,

Well, I think I'll go put my box stock R8 back in its box and come back when I'm all grown up. That is awesome looking! The body mods look amazing, as does the paint and graphics. I look forward to seeing this baby done up in its entirety.

Cheers,

Albert