During my time in Monterey, for the famous Car Week, I had the chance to visit Laguna Seca for the first time. It was an awesome experience I won’t soon forget. One of the best parts, though, was watching the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion race from pit lane. It was incredible to see those visceral, violent race cars in their natural habitat. One of which was the famous BMW V12 LMR Prototype racer, piloted by Bill Auberlen.
The BMW V12 LMR is an astonishing machine. It’s so fast and so capable that many of us fans felt it was unfair to put Auberlen, a superb racing driver, in the car for that race. He was almost unchallenged in the first race, where he led by so much at one point he stopped to do a burnout — mid-race — for the fans. In the second race, only a mistake on his part put him in second place. But because of his dominance on the first race, he and BMW won the weekend.
The best part, though, was the noise. That naturally-aspirated V12, which shares its lineage with the V12 from the McLaren F1, is a masterpiece and makes some of the most incredible engine noises in history. Which is why this in-car audio of Auberlen’s race is just so great to listen to.
On the Marshall Pruett podcast, we get to hear that in-car audio and listen to Auberlen flog the BMW V12 LMR up and down Laguna Seca. It’s a sensational noise from a sensational engine; one with so much buzzy, motorsport character that it’s hard not to want to get in and drive. It was actually Auberlen’s suggestion to put the audio recorder between the LMR’s quad exhausts, on top of its massive diffuser, to better capture the sound. Which was a great idea. Check it out.
