The whole reason I'd travelled to Dresden this week was to visit the new Audi Sportscar Experience driving school at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz - one of the DTM's top tracks and located in the Eastern half of Germany.

The particular session I sampled included track time in the R8 and RS 6 Avant, as well as a brake reaction course in the new A4 that featured some interesting equipment. For the brake test, drivers launch the car and accelerate towards a coned chute that splits right or left to simulate an emergency lane change maneuver. By the time your reach the cones, you're going about 80-85 km/h. At that point, a the car's speed is logged and a randomly chosen direction indicated by blinking red LED lights affixed to the top of the dash tell you which direction to go. Another dash-top readout displays trap speed and time of response from signal to braking. It's a pretty interesting test, showing whether you actually use your brakes to their maximum ability, how quick your reactions are and it teaches you just how good you are at changing lanes in an emergency.

Out on the track, we did the standard Audi Driving Experience lesson of lead-follow with an instructor leading our four-car group in an R8 and showing the optimum dry weather lines, while critiquing our performance. This was done in both R8 and RS 6 Avant and really exposed the capability of each car.

We had a chance to take the RS6 out on the road as well, so expect a review of the car soon.

If you're thinking of a German vacation or European delivery of your new Audi, you might consider this region of Germany. Staging out of Dresden, we easily commuted to the EuroSpeedway, walked to the Verkehrs Museum of Transportation and could have quickly travelled to nearby Zwickau to see the August Horch Museum at the old Horch factory there.


Check out more photos of the Audi Sportscar Experience at EuroSpeedway Lausitz at the link below.

Photo Gallery