Driving an Audi R8 GT/photo: Audi, editing: Nir Chen
Within six months, Audi is parting ways with another legendary sports car.
After the TT production was stopped in November, last week the last R8 rolled off the production line in Hilborn, Germany, in a yellow coupe version that was put on display at the Audi Museum.
The R8 was perhaps the least sold Audi, but the most popular supercar.
When the project was launched 20 years ago, it was Audi's first entry into a field that even luxury manufacturers think twice before entering, so as not to be disgraced and because of the expensive investment required for the development and production of models that are more image promoters than car manufacturers.
But the Germans had an opportunity here: the Lamborghini subsidiary needed assistance in the development of the new Hurricane.
So they agreed to support and in return took the platform and built a cheap, or less expensive version of their own.
At first the Hep settled on a V8 engine, but after a few years they also asked Lamborghini for its V10 engine for the R8.
Driving we will remember:
Farewell driving in the final edition of the R8
Test for the open Spider version
And there was also an open spider/manufacturer site version
The result?
At its peak, in 2008, Audi produced more than 5,000 units of the R8.
Since then, demand has decreased and the production line was supposed to be closed at the end of 2023, because the old car did not meet the new cyber protection regulations, and certainly not the air pollution limits.
But a surprising influx of orders extended production until almost the end of the first quarter of 2024.
As far as Lamborghini was concerned, the Audi version was no threat: the Hurricane outsold the R8 in most years and, together with the Uros, improved its financial situation so much that it did not need assistance when it approached developing a successor .
It will get a V8 engine but with a plug-in drive in the spirit of the times.
Audi, for its part, has been promising for several years to introduce an electric supercar, but this will not happen immediately with the cessation of production of its gasoline supercar.
It arrived in Israel quite early, already in 2008, at a price of NIS 1.2 million for the V8 and 1.6 million for the V10.
The price has decreased over the years, partly due to competition from the parallel imports, and the last edition with the big engine was sold in Israel for NIS 1.2 million.
The licensing office currently has 33 R8 cars registered.
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