TOM KRISTENSEN
The nine-time Le Mans 24hrs winner talks vans, fast estates and supercars
“SPORTS CARS ARE RACING CARS FOR THE ROAD, AREN’T THEY?”
Iwas born in a petrol station in Denmark that my father was running. He was a racing driver too, both on gravel and tarmac, but my interest was always in karting. I started when I was seven or eight years old but I wasn’t allowed to race until I was 10.
I had to wait until I was 18 to learn to drive on the road too. I think I got my driving licence not necessarily on my birthday, but certainly very soon after. I actually took the test for trucks, though – because of the karting and the need to travel with all of our stuff.
I think I only drove with the examiner in a truck for half an hour, and that was enough. I didn’t actually drive with them in a car, but I’d driven with my dad plenty of times.
My first car – well, vehicle – was a VW LT35 turbodiesel van. It had a marquee on the side and I took the wall out from behind the seats and added another bench – then you could put the two together to make a couple of beds. We used to go
racing in that. It was massive – you could fit the kart and plenty of people in there.
When I moved to Germany to compete in Formula 3, the team gave me a VW Golf. It was a MkII GTI 16v. Then I went to Japan and started racing for Toyota, so I had a Corolla and then a Toyota Soarer, which didn’t exist in Europe, but it looked like a cross between a Supra and a Lexus.
After that it’s all a bit of a blur, I went through a lot of cars because I drove for Honda, then BMW, Audi, Bentley and then back to Audi again. Although, at one point while I was being lent cars, I did actually buy a used Audi S4 estate.
I’ve also owned an original Audi R8 from the first year of production. It was a manual with the V8 engine. Very nice. And I had a Bentley Continental which I used to cruise in when I had long distances to cover in a short amount of time.
The last car I bought though was a 1967 split-screen VW bus. My family love it – they think it’s the coolest car we’ve ever had – but it’s definitely also the slowest car I’ve ever owned. When you get to around 50mph, it doesn’t want to run any faster.
My favourite car to drive above all is the Audi RS6 estate. Throughout the different generations it’s the car that I’ve done the most kilometres in, for sure. When I was racing it was the perfect fit. There’s so much space. You could put a bike, golf bag, racing gear and private gear in the back and still have room for all of your wife’s stuff.
Then you’ve got the grunt combined with the quattro four-wheel drive. You aren’t hindered by any bad weather. It’s the ultimate car.
Modern sports cars really are racing cars for the road, aren’t they? Things like the Ferrari 488 Pista and the Ford GT – they’re supercars, and for me supercars are what I did in my racing years. Then with hypercars, what Bugatti is doing is absolutely wonderful and Koenigsegg is on a roll, but that’s not what I aspire to. It’s not what I need. I wouldn’t swap my current RS6 for any of them.