Audi might just bring back the rear-wheel-drive version of their R8 supercar, according to a new report.
For now, the R8 remains Audi’s halo vehicle. After announcing the death of the TT sports car, the R8 now pulls double duty as the sportiest of Audi Sport’s vehicles. This is despite the fact we’re still not sure if the R8 will live on past the current generation.
But before we see the R8 leave for the big parking lot in the sky, Audi might just give is a superb racing version with rear-wheel-drive and GT3-inspired technology.
At this year’s Nurburgring 24 Hours, Piston Heads sat down with Audi Sport Boss Oliver Hoffman to talk about the R8. He said that Audi most definitely wants to build another rear-wheel-drive version of the famously AWD supercar, but that “pedestrian safety regulation” was holding the company back.
"We have some good ideas for a more extreme R8 as we know the powerful exterior design of our racing car is amazing--people want to drive this on the street," Hoffman said of the R8 LMS GT3 racer that would eventually win the Nurburgring 24 Hours race. "The racing car engine is almost identical to the road car's, so that's already proven, but we have the GT3 drivers doing chassis testing for us.”
This suggests that Audi will have a GT3-derived chassis and thus a rear-wheel-drive setup. The last time Audi created an RWD R8 was in 2017 when the R8 RWS was announced at the Geneva Motor Show. That car was limited to just 999 units, which all sold out within the year.
Currently, a reborn R8 RWS is still in the earliest stages of development, so don’t count anything as set in stone yet. We could be a year or more away from seeing a prototype on the streets, and the R8’s longevity is still an open-ended question within the halls of Audi.
One other thing Hoffman wanted to mention: don’t expect any other RWD-only RS vehicles from Audi. Apparently, their customers really love all-wheel-drive and there’s just not a lot of demand for an RS sedan that can kick it’s tail out whenever it wants.
(via Motor1)