Red Hot Audi R8 Spyder with 600 Ponies will Burn your Pockets

If the factory ready Audi R8 Spyder isn"t quite to your liking, perhaps the tuning folks over at Sport Wheels can help you build the roadster of your dreams, albeit at a very, very steep price. If our calculations are correct, the full treatment will cost you around ?62,000 (US$85,000 at the current exchange rates) or about half the price of an all-new R8 Spyder in Germany.

The tuning house begins from the outside with numerous carbon fiber parts including the front bumper (?7,799), brake cooling ducts (?1,259), front spoiler (?1,799), rear bumper (?4,799), rear diffuser (?3,799) and fixed wing (?1,999).

Next up are the engine and exhaust system upgrades (?6,048), which help boost output to 600HP and 580Nm of peak torque. Stopping power can be further improved with MOV?IT-CER ceramics brake calipers, but at a ludicrous cost of ?21,990.

Those sexy looking alloy wheels sized 20-inch up front and 21-inch at the back with Dunlop Sport Maxx tires are priced at ?4,599, while the tune is completed with an aluminum coil-over suspension for ?7,349.

Goodwood Celebrates Audi"s Centenary by Suspending Cars over Massive Sculpture

This year"s featured marque at the Goodwood Festival of Speed (3-5 July) is Audi as the Ingolstadt-based automaker is celebrating its 100th birthday. To commemorate the anniversary, Lord March, who hosts the festival at his back-yard 12,000-acre West Sussex estate, commissioned the creation of massive sculpture that features two cars from Audi"s history, the iconic 1937 Auto Union streamliner and the just launched R8 V10 sports car suspended in the air, at either end of the "swoosh" of tire tracks.

Designed by the Gerry Judah, Lord March"s creative collaborator, the sculpture weighs in at a total of 40 tonnes or the equivalent of 40 small family cars and it took two 100-tonne cranes to raise the monument and about four weeks for 12 men to fabricate, build and install it in front of the Goodwood house.

"I drew about 20 ideas and some had elaborate bridges with vaulted arches but somehow they didn"t have quite the right style," said Judah. I then had a flash of inspiration and designed this "swoosh" with a car at either end to represent Audi"s 100-year history.

"It"s made entirely of steel and although the design looks simple, it"s actually extremely complex, because the structure has to be rigid and completely balanced without the need for hundreds of supporting props."

Audi Presents Updated Navigation System Plus for A3, TT and R8

Just like any other electronic product, navigation systems are continuously upgrade with better software and hardware. Audi"s updated navigation system plus with MMI (Multi Media Interface) for the A3, TT and R8 models promises to offer improved route calculation speeds thanks to a latest-generation processor clocked at 600 MHz while another significant enhancement is are the 800 x 480 pixel, high-resolution graphics displayed on the 6.5-inch screen.

On the back of the display, which can be folded away at the push of a button, are two slots for SD and SDHC cards with capacities of up to 32 GB, enough to store about 14,000 songs or 700 hours of music.

Also new on Audi"s updated navigation system plus is the optical parking assistant which can be combined in the Audi R8 with the rearview camera. Aside from the acoustic warning signals, the distance to the front and to the rear is now displayed optically on the high-resolution display.

The new system is available for order now with prices ranging between ?2,270 and ?2,565, depending on the model.

Chinese Hybrid Sports Car Mixes Audi R8 and Ferrari Styling Traits

It has come to the point where this blatant copying of Western car designs from Chinese auto manufacturers is getting totally ridiculous. The Tong Jian S11 that was reportedly revealed at the Shanghai Motor Show earlier this year but somehow escaped our radars, borrows several styling cues from a number of vehicles including the Audi R8-esque profile and the Ferrari-inspired tail design.

The Tong Jian S11 is said to be a hybrid sports car that presumably combines electric motors with an internal combustion engine. There are no specific details on the car"s mechanics nor if it is scheduled to enter production at some point.

Via: Leblogauto & Autoblog.com , Images: Goche Sohu

Audi Proposes R8 Spyder Car Cover for Unhappy BMW and Mercedes Owners

From the creators of last year"s R8 V10 garage door decal promo, comes this new advertising project for Audi. This time, creative advertising agency Lowe Roche, came up with a groovy Audi R8 Spyder car cover aimed at BMW and Mercedes-Benz owners who are disappointed with their vehicles, as well as the rest of us who can"t afford [...] Ingolstadt"s flagship roadster model.

Here"s the description from Lowe Roche"s webpage: "Don’t have an Audi R8 Spyder? Now you can pretend to have one. Trick your neighbors, and best of all, trick yourself into thinking you have the car of your dreams. Perfect for the BMW or Mercedes owner in your life filled with regret."

Is it just me, or does the wording make the description sound overly conceited?

Source: Lowe Roche

Unholy Tuning: Audi R8 Sedan Based on A8 Limo

If you were ever wondering what an actuall Audi R8 sports sedan would look like, sorry to say, you"re out of luck. However, if by any twisted chance you"re interested in finding out what would happen if a first-generation A8 and R8 got naughty in bed, scroll down and check out the rest of the photos. According to the forum members of the Audizine site, the R8-wannabe sports sedan was snagged outside Hooters (now, why aren"t we surprised...) in Montreal, Canada.

Source: Audizine

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Anderson Germany unleashes the Audi R8 V10 Racing Edition with 585 HP

Anderson Germany is just one in a long line of tuners who think they can make the Audi R8 better. Called the Racing Edition, the Düsseldorf-based tuner"s R8 V10 has gone through a number of external and internal modifications, including an engine upgrade that increases peak power to 585 hp (436 kW).

The appearance can make or break a tuned car"s fortune, so the Germans offer a complete visual kit, meant to make the body look better and also more aerodynamic. The material of choice here is carbon fiber. The lightweight material is found on the aggressive front apron, the discrete rear spoiler, rear diffuser, rear window bordering and the exterior mirrors.

Even the 19-inch wheels, which are wrapped around in 235/35 and 295/30 tires, receive a carbon finish with orange accents.

What about the interior? You guessed it: carbon fiber all the way, combined with leather and orange stitching. The packet includes carbon door trims, radio frame, ashtray, gear stick frame, hand brake knob and steering wheel.

To gain those 60 extra ponies, engineers used a new, valve commanded exhaust system, which is also 17 kg (37 lbs) lighter, better air filters and modified engine management software.

Anderson Germany didn"t release performance figures, but they claim top speed has increased by 12 km/h or 7.5 mph. Also, pricing and availability are not known yet.

By Csaba Daradics

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