Radical Abt Audi makes rare DTM visit to Britain.

Five Audis like you've never seen before roar in to the Donington Park motor racing circuit near Derby this weekend!

The outrageously styled Abt-Audi TT-Rs contest the third round of the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters on Sunday (19 May) aiming to continue their dominant form.

Former British Touring Car Champion Laurent Aiello, ex-Grand Prix driver Karl Wendlinger, Christian Abt, Mattias Ekstr?m and Martin Tomczyk drive the spectacular 160mph Audis for the Abt Sportsline team.

The Audi quintet have left their rivals trailing in the opening Hockenheim and Zolder races finishing 1-2 in all four races with Aiello (three) and Tomczyk (one) taking the spoils.

A V8 engine powers every car contesting the DTM with Audi's thundering, flame-belching 455bhp block tuned by renowned British engine builder Neil Brown, of Spalding, Lincolnshire. Other components such as the gearbox, brakes, tyres and engine electronics are also "controlled" by the organisers and are identical on each car. The Audi rockets from 0-60mph in a little over three seconds.

Another British company, Hewland Engineering, of Waltham, Berkshire, builds Audi's six-speed sequential transmission. And while the exterior of these Audis look dramatically different from the TT Coup? we are now accustomed of seeing on British roads, they do have some things in common - the interior air outlets and door handles!

A 45 minute qualifying session on Saturday sees drivers allowed just 12 laps to set their best time while a 35km qualification race precedes a 100km main race - in which cars must pit to change all four tyres - on Sunday.