Audi Driving Experience with Paralympics Aces

INGOLSTADT/SEEFELD – August 19, 2008: Just a few weeks before the start of the summer Paralympics for handicapped people, several athletes enjoyed a welcome change from hard training: Audi modified A4 and A5 models and invited the athletes to a ‘driving experience’ in Seefeld. The Olympians were impressed.

“Such a driving experience event is a fantastic opportunity to get to know the full range of possibilities hidden in these top cars,” said a delighted Gerd Schönfelder, who has already won twelve gold medals in his career in the Alpine skiing discipline and is, as a result, the most successful Alpine skier in Paralympics history. “I experienced a lot of new things and spent many exciting hours behind the wheel.”

The driving experience event in Austria lasted two days, participating alongside Schönfelder were cycling star Michael Teuber, mountain biker Tarek Rasouli and ex-ski ace Silvano Beltrametti. For the event, which was the second after the premiere in 2005, an Audi A4 and an Audi A5 were modified for disabled drivers: The cars throttle and brakes were controlled by a hand-operated device that is located next to the steering wheel.

However, this did not detract from the fun on four-wheels. “On normal roads it simply isn’t possible to extract the full potential from such a car. We really were able to make up for lost time today,” reported Teuber. The eleven-time World Champion and ‘Sportsperson of the Year 2005’ drives an Audi privately. Beltrametti was particularly impressed by both the sporting and safe handling of the Audi models: “Driving an Audi is like skiing – you get a kick but still know that you are in control.” After two days of training in Seefeld all the athletes unanimously agreed: “Driving an Audi can get you addicted."

Further driver training events for people with disabilities are already being planned. Whoever, with our without handicap, is interested in participating in an Audi driving experience can find all the information and dates in the Internet at www.audi.de under the category “Experience”.