The Audi R8 is a bit of a go-to when it comes to capturing the imagination of Audi enthusiasts.
Audi originally launched the “R8” name when it began its Le Mans era – first with the R8R, then the most dominant Le Mans car in history with the R8, then with the R8 road car and all its generations.
The brand’s history with mid-engine cars goes back much further. Those in the know can tell you Ferdinand Porsche revolutionized 1930s Grand Prix racing, the precursor to F1, with the mid-engined V16 Auto Union race cars. His grandson Ferdinand Piëch would experiment with cars like the RS 001 and RS 002 experiments for mid-engined rally cars in the 80s as the FIA mulled Group S as a replacement for Group B, then came the quattro Spyder, the Avus… so on and so forth.
For a brand more known for its luxury sedans, Audi has a remarkably rich history in mid-engine automobiles on the track, on the show stand and on the road.
It’s that mid-80s period that many of us find so interesting. This website even has an ongoing series about the modern post-war mid-engine history at Audi beginning with those earliest Group S ideas called the Mittelmotor Saga.
For Audi just struggling to put itself back on the map post war as a luxury entrant in the Volkswagen Group portfolio, a mid-engine rally car and road car simply weren’t in the cards. Looking back on that era though, it was a remarkably rich time for mid-engine sportscars such as the Ferrari 308/328, Lotus Esprit, Lamborghini Countach, BMW M1 and more.
It’s in that timeframe that it’s most intriguing to consider Audi. We know what the RS 001 and RS 002 looked like – the first a test mule and the other a more finalized purpose-built racecar with its egg-like almost Group C profile that likely would have been effective in competition albeit ungainly in person.
Had Audi sought to enter the consumer mid-engine sportscar space, it’s likely they would have gone a slightly different direction than either of those rally cars. Would they have gone with a wedge like the Lotus Esprit? Giorgetto Giugiaro, a favorite partner of Volkswagen and Audi, designed the Lotus and may have had some influence.
Rendering an 80s era R8 is a regular go-to for me when playing with projects on the @4Rings.AI Instagram project. At this point, I’ve created countless R8 designs that could have come from this period – many inspired by Lotus and Ferrari. However, it’s this one that’s captivated my attention most of all.
This particular 80’s R8 seems to lean in more heavily to Audi’s design at that time. The form is a little more Toyota MR2 than Lotus, with that horizontal grille characteristic of any 80s Aud. With hidden lights, one imagines pop-ups and even there Audi had played with similar designs in consideration of an early sports coupe based on the 50’s Ao chassis. Other elements like the three hood vents hark the Sport quattro, while the rectangular body lines on the side seem to carry that low profile frontal grille line down the sides – an interesting accent for the evolved box flare design of the fenders. Even the wheels seem derived from the simple Ronal design seen on virtually any Audi at the time.
Another design cue that pops on this design are the side intakes. Ferrari would really send a design message with the cheese-grater intakes on the Testarossa when that car debuted in 1984. In the case of this R8, we’ve got three stacked rectangles that hark the tri-colore panels in the mid-80s Audi Sport rhombus that was also echoed in factory racing liveries on the rally quattros. Here, that’s harked in form with those stacked horizontal intakes.
I’ve labeled this car a 1985, and which is about as late as it might have been to have this more boxy design. By 1987 they’d be all-in on smoother and more aerodynamic forms.
And what do we imagine it could have been powered by? Of course the enthusiast in me wants the 5-cylinder. That seems to be what they’d been testing in the RS 001, so sharing drivetrain design from the Group S makes a lot of sense.
Alas, it’s entirely imagined. No such car existed.
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