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Hear Audi’s Newest Race Car Roar From Behind The Wheel

Racing is an expensive endeavor, and in the United States at least, there are few series that allow budding young racers to climb the ladder, learn from professionals that have been there and done it, hook up with an automaker, and, most important, not break the bank. This coming weekend I’ll be facing some highly motivated youths in such a series — Audi Sports’ TT Cup.

The race is at a track called Oschersleben, which I stupidly thought was in Austria — until my plane landed in Germany. Fortunately geography won’t help me tackle this challenge, taking the TT Cup car — which is based on Audi’s new TTS road car, a machine arriving stateside soon — and competing against the 18 regular drivers, all aged between 17 and 25 (the championship victor receiving a works drive with Audi in its R8 GT3 car), and five guest drivers, two of which previously competed in Germany’s esteemed DTM series.

The weekend consists of two races — one on Saturday, the other Sunday — with a practice session on Friday. The above video is from today’s testing at an obscure track I can’t pronounce the name of, just outside Berlin. The machine is considerably lighter than the production TTS (2,480 lbs.), and boasts racing suspension and slick tires, but the engine and gearbox are mostly identical to stock, with 310 horsepower and a “push-to-pass” function that increases power by 30 hp for a limited time.

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As you can see, it’s a riot to drive.

And that’s despite it being front-wheel-drive, not all-wheel-drive, which for a rear-wheel-drive guy like myself takes some getting used to. But practice went well; we were the quickest among the guest drivers. Now to take on those pesky youths and see where we really stack up.

Catch all the action live here: Race one begins Saturday at 10:55am EST, followed by Sunday at 6:20am EST. Can’t be bothered waking up early? You can also watch the races on demand by clicking here.