Audi R8: Audi sends its mid-engined flagship in search of supercar scalps

摘要

The R8 did not make Audi. The formidable glaze coating of Ingolstadt's reputation was baked long before it indulged an impulse to make a bona fide mid-engined sports car. But when it did, when the result proved exceptional and exciting and idiosyncratic, it was concrete evidence that the manufacturer was indeed capable of almost anything. Just as it had reeled in the huge lead that greater longevity had given BMW and Mercedes-Benz, so it might now compete with the mighty Porsche. The R8, in its original V8 format, was an automotive attestation of the boldest sort: the 911's status is not sacrosanct and Porsche's path to driving nirvana isn't the sole means of ascent. Quattro GmbH had conceived of another way and Audi rallied the ambition, expertise and investment required to make it happen.