Audi R8: The last lap of a legend.
The year is 2013, I turn an Xbox 360 and play a forza Motorsport 3 demo, as soon as the game starts, I get impressed, the first car I drive makes me smile with how beautiful it was, a 2008 silver Audi R8, that day, something changed on me, I finally found my favorite car.
Attention: This article was first published on November 14, 2023, when the Audi R8 last lap edition was announced, but was reuploaded in Medium with better quality and updates.
Not only mine, but also the movies and shows favorite
I have to say, I am truly thankful to the Audi Product Placement people for giving us the greatest takes of the R8 in movies, no joke, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a car getting the hype it deserved as much as the R8, just think about this, if a millionaire philanthropic with an incredible superhero armor (made in a cave with some metal) drives an R8, you know that car is as close as you will ever get to be as cool as him, and that’s why the R8 is, and will always be, my favorite super car, my name is Charles Redstone, and today, we are giving a review to the Farewell of the Audi R8, a time that I thought would never arrive, but then again, the electric cars ruining everything cool, anyway, let’s get started.
The year is 2003, Audi unveiled the concept Audi Le Mans Quattro, a secret project that showed the future of the brand
This was just the beginning of Audi in the super car industry, and thankfully this top secret project was able to get approval, and this was the first of its kind, a high performance sport car that can also be used as an everyday car with an important element, luxury, and that why this concept had full led lighting, a 5.0 litre twin-turbo V10 engine (also familiar) and many things that made this a peak to the future of Audi (like its digital cockpit), truly one of the closest to reality concepts we’ve ever seen.
As you can see for this picture, luxury and minimalism are present, and this design alongside the Pines Peak prototype not only are pretty familiar to us, but they also showed a great new direction of the brand in the future.
The proof that you don’t need to be an Italian or an excellence brand to make an awesome supercar
The year is 2006, and in the Paris Autoshow, the Audi R8 is a reality, it was the Audi Le Mans Quattro, just with a different name and production ready with a V8 and a V10 engines, but this was just starting, as soon as it launched, it gained popularity among the supercar world, it wasn’t made by a legacy supercar brand (like Ferrari), neither by one who had a lot of experience with them (Audi sport existed, but it wasn’t aimed for supercars only), and yet, it passed every check on the list, especially for the buyers, it had the reliability, comfort and luxury of an Audi, but on the road, if you wanted to, you will receive the experience of racing a supercar, no matter what, you take off your coffee shop, finish your cup and go straight to Nurburgring, and you will be able to run across it on a decent lap time, on the same car, without even getting out of it, that was the reason why the R8 was born, a supercar that you can drive any day, anytime, or anywhere, while keeping the luxury and, obviously, the sports and racing at its top.
Product placement: Another way of the R8 for shining
Here is the thing, many of you probably haven’t seen an Audi R8 on real life, but you have surely seen one on Movies and TV shows, and that is one of the greatest points of the R8, you know it because it was already famous, it appeared on movies like Iron Man (the entire saga), Transformers 2, 17 again or, the one where it gets destroyed, Date Night, and it also had special appearance on tv shows like CSI: Miami or Bones, and trust me, there are many, but many more movies and tv shows where this car is the star, and there is a reason for that.
Maybe it wasn’t the cheapest, the fastest or even the most luxurious supercar that you could buy, and yet, it was the only one that made sense, you went to the dealership and see one of these, it will make you fell in love with it, it was beautiful and fast, as soon as you enter it you will see a pretty nice looking interior, it has the Audi Navigation Plus System, leather seats, air conditioned with climate controls, a glove box, an aluminum gear shifter, and some space in the back of the seats for putting small stuff, with this description it sounds like a basic car, but once you look it and compare it with other supercars of the time you will see that Audi did the right thing, nothing ridiculous like weird colors or strange buttons on the steering wheel, just an Audi interior that exclaimed “I can be your daily driver but go crazy on the autobahn” and if you had another Audi this was perfect in case you switched cars.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a boring interior, it’s not a VW interior, and it’s not a cheap interior, this is what I think anyone would want to see and fell while going fast on the road, or going to a fancy party, or going to the store, you enter the car and forget about the fact you have a V8 engine on your back, but when you rev it, that’s when you know you did the right purchase, and that is why costumers, drivers and movies liked the R8, it wasn’t a Ferrari, a Lamborghini, a Porsche, a Viper, a Bentley or anything else, it was the Audi R8, the owners of it can be celebrities, CEO’s, a retired businessman, an F1 driver, the rich kid of the town, anyone could purchase this car (if you had the money obviously), now you could flex on it, but for flex there is Bentley, and for serious motorsport and racing cars, there is Porsche and Lamborghini, and Audi is in the middle of “luxury” and “sport”, with the R8 being the proof of this.
The e-tron: a peek of the company future as an electric brand
The R8 was the star of the Iron Man saga alongside Robert Downey Jr. and its charisma, on the first movie we saw him drive an original silver R8 with a V8 engine, the second film showed him with an R8 Spyder in white and a V10 engine, however, the third film (and the last) showed him driving a white Audi R8 E-Tron, now there are no pictures of it online so you need to watch the movie to understand why this is later switched to a Red Audi R8 E-tron, on the outside, it looks the same as the refreshed R8 coupe, so much that when I first saw the movie I didn’t noticed the E-Tron branding on it, and the fact that the car that Tony drived in that scene was a prototype of a fully electric R8 that came true in 2015 for the European market.
Now for the second one I also couldn’t find official pictures of it, and because there is no way to know if that is the real car or just a render let me explain it to you, it looked a lot like the second generation R8 as it launched on 2015, however, this model was only sold in selected countries and the sales ended up being bad so they cancelled this variant of the R8 and focused on the Coupe and Spyder, both only with V10 engines, years later Audi announced that the E-Tron models were their new focus and that the R8 (even at the moment of publishing this article) is not contemplated on that group, meaning that there is not third chance for the R8 electric or E-Tron.
The second generation: the sequel that is as good as the original
The first generation was the reason why I started loving Audi and the V8, later switched to, V10 engines and the reason why I have a scale model of a Red V8 Audi R8 in my office, so when I heard that they were going to launch a second generation I was worried to think they could screw something in the design or the engine, and thankfully, the opposite happened, this sequel was as good as the original, or even better if you ask me.
The outside of the car had sharp lines and aerodynamic drops, in comparison with the first generation it looks way more futuristic and aggressive, you may even believe it is another car, but once you looked at it, you knew it was an R8
The interior had changes that makes you feel like you are driving a spaceship, for the first time since the Le-Mans concept we get a fully functioning Audi Virtual Cockpit on the dashboard, and nothing else because now there is no screen in the center of the console, just the Digital Cockpit and some air vents alongside buttons, the minimalist and simple interior is still here while keeping the luxury and sport materials, its beautiful.
No offense to the 1st Generation and its owners, but the second generation R8 really looks like a luxury sportscar, it is a timeless design and for sure, a pretty beautiful one, the V10 engine is one of the last in the species as it was shared with the Lamborghini Huracan (in my opinion, the Audi looked way better) and overall the car was peak in the technology of the brand so even the 2015 model year will feel like new, again, its an R8, it doesn’t get old.
In 2021, Audi made an strange decision and decided to sell the new Audi R8 with and RWD version, according to the reviews, it is fun to drive, there is a visual redesign alongside it so check it out on the official Audi Newsroom.
The last lap: A goodbye to a dream
I don’t understand how I will explain this to the people, like, how this car is pretty important to me, even though I don’t own one, neither I’ve driven one outside simulators, yet, after testing it on Test Drive Unlimited 1 & 2, Forza Motorsport 7 and Horizon 2, 3, 4 and 5, and many more racing games, I can say that I love it, if you ask me what car I would drive if I were super rich, there is just one answer, the R8, no matter the time or the year, it will always be my favorite supercar, and this is a pretty sad moment for me and many people outside there, fan or not, this is a peek of the pretty boring and soulless future we will have in a few years with the car industry.
There are alternatives like Audi’s own E-Tron GT, the Porsche Taycan, A Tesla Model S Plaid (if it ever arrives to you), a Lucid Air, and many more electric alternatives that are faster and “cheaper” than the R8 especially considering you can no longer buy a brand new R8, so for me there is no real alternative at all, what is the point of buying an electric sedan that goes fast if there is no joy on it? Sure they are fast and fun but the thing is that no other car (at least new) is going to give you the same experience as the R8, period.
And even Audi knows that, they tried to delay this as much as they could but the EU stu… I mean, The EU regulators and the overall costumers started focusing on electric cars as a “ecological alternative” and because more people is getting rich while having families, they need SUV’s, meaning that the R8 and many more coupe’s are dying thanks to that, so yes, this is the final goodbye to the R8, and what a better way to celebrate it than with The R8 Last Lap.
https://youtu.be/3wiuFnTdq8Y?si=bKYjyIFMbCtdAHD_
The Audi Last Lap Video, source: Audi USA
The last lap is a short film made by Audi where they show the evolution and especial variants of the Audi R8 across the years, you can watch it on the social networks of the company or by clicking this link, the film used drone shots, professional stunt drivers and a lot of R8 models, it’s nice to see that the car will be remembered as one of the best in the last era, and hopefully we see the name again in something that isn’t an SUV.
This isn’t the end, but it’s a goodbye
I want to give a lot of thanks to Audi and all the people behind this car, you created a masterpiece that no one will ever be able to recreate or copy, this car has a great legacy and i’m glad you were able to keep it this way, and the reason why this isn’t the end is because now I know that in the future I will be able to buy an R8 and it will grow in value, but also, that the Audi brand already knows how they can make beautiful and powerful cars, meaning that all the other Audi models may not be called R8, but surely will have a piece of it.
Thank you so much for reading this little walkthrough of the Audi R8, I hope you enjoyed this and if you like the idea of me owning an R8 in the real life made sure to share it, now i’m starting to sound like a youtuber lol, anyway, hope you enjoyed this farewell, stay tuned for the follow up and remember that, as always, I am Charles Redstone, stay hydrated and have a nice day, I will see you in the next one.
UPDATE from 2024: This feels like those post apocalyptic movies where the main character watches a video from the past and now explains to the invisible audience that the world is ruined, so basically, Audi has officially gone completely electric by now, there is no direct succesor of the R8 and probably won’t ever be, the prices of used models have stayed high by now and some people is claiming the car will start to become a collectable item, the Audi TT has also gone out of production and the new branding of Audi makes the base model cars look like an RS or S version due to the red square icon, meaning that by now, every single Audi looks like an RS version, so yeah, Audi has lost it by now, well, I guess this is the end so, thanks for watching this update and I will see you in the next one.
