Filed under: Sedan, Videos, Audi, Specialty
Some vehicles are made to be stretched. Others, less so. A
Lincoln Town Car, for example, is a good platform for a limo. A
Mercedes-Benz S-Class, sure. A
Rolls-Royce Phantom. We could even see the attraction behind a Cadillac Escalade limo, if we had to. But not an exotic supercar.
The folks over at Carbonyte would beg to differ, though. The British coachbuilder made its reputation, such as it is, by helping
Mercedes-Benz and
McLaren develop the chassis for the
SLR. But after that, things took a drastic turn for the worse.
Following the SLR project, Carbonyte turned its attention to unusual stretch jobs that usually involve supercars we'd rather not see chopped up and lengthened. Among its first projects was a
stretched Ferrari 360 Modena that
did not please the people in Maranello. Then the firm
turned a Smart ForTwo into a giant rolling Red Bull can, before
setting its sights on the Bugatti Veyron and Koenigsegg CCX.
We're glad we never saw those projects come to fruition, but the company is now reportedly preparing to do the same with an
Audi R8. Whereas the Ferrari job incorporated two giant gullwing doors to give access to all the rear buckets at once, the R8 project - commissioned by the same company that owns the Ferrari limo - appears to feature individual gullwing doors for each of the passenger seats.
The vehicle is reportedly tipped to be completed by this coming summer, and will retain the donor car's 5.2-liter V10 - but we'd guess not its all-wheel drive system, and none of its handling dynamics. Check out the renderings in the image gallery above and the ludicrously dramatic
video after the jump.
Continue reading British limo company eager to show its chops with stretched Audi R8 [w/video]
British limo company eager to show its chops with stretched Audi R8 [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Eight-and-a-half hours into the Dubai 24 Hours endurance race,
United Autosports mechanics had a question about their Audi R8 GT3 LMS racecar. Lucky for them, a very well-connected Audi engineer was reading.
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Renowned Alabama-based VW/Audi/Porsche tuner APR will run this year's 24 Hours of Daytona with a brutal-looking
Audi R8 LMS, done in a particularly glowering version of their traditional black and white and red all over.
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Filed under: Convertible, Coupe, Performance, Technology, Audi
Perception versus reality. It's the schism that defines so many struggles in life - sports cars among them. While we know beyond the shadow of a doubt that the latest automated dual-clutch transmissions can shift faster and smoother than any human possibly could, purists still want that manually operated clutch pedal and a proper stick to row through the gears. Sure, many will tell you, though the robotic transmission might do a better job of it, they (and by they, we include many of us here at Autoblog among them) still take pleasure in doing it the old-fashion way.
Those purists are finding themselves increasingly disappointed by many automakers who are fazing out the old three-pedal setups. And the latest performance icon to join those ranks could very well be the next-generation
Audi R8, if the latest reports are to be believed. Although the current R8 is encumbered by a lackluster automatic transmission option, later in 2012
Audi is expected to offer a seven-speed DSG that will, according to the ruminations, be the only gearbox offered once its complete replacement rolls along in 2014.
The manual won't be the only element missing from the next-gen R8, though. Britain's
Car magazine also claims it on good authority that the iconic side-blade that distinguishes the current R8 will be gone from the next model, and while a V10 may be offered at the beginning, it may be fazed out for a turbo eight with more power. Here's to progress, then, and enjoying working that clutch pedal in the meantime.
2014 Audi R8 to do away with manual gearbox originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 21 Dec 2011 08:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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A poster over at
Luxury4Play found out the hard way that teenage girls in SUVs aren't always the most attentive drivers when one barreled into his Audi R8. It hurts to look at.
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APR Motorsport has already committed to racing the Audi R8 LMS in the 2012 Rolex Grand Am series. But this is the first actual photo of the Grand Am prepped car, on track at today's
test session at Daytona.
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