AUDI HAS FINALLY BUILT THE LAST R8

Production was extended due to a late surge in demand.

It’s taken a while, but the Audi R8 has finally reached the end of the road.

The German marque has has built the final example of its flagship sports car, according to Top Gear. And unlike the TT, which went out of production last year, there is no sign of a successor on the horizon yet.

Audi first introduced its “sensible supercar” in 2007. Two generations later, the brand is finally retiring the model having built nearly 44,000 examples, a number that includes both the coupé and spyder versions, over the last 17 years. The R8 has never sold in high numbers—production peaked in 2008 when just over 5,000 were built—but has long been respected, thanks to the potent V-10 it shares with its corporate cousin, the Lamborghini Huracán. The automaker planned to finish up production last year, but a surge of late interest pushed that end back to March. Audi wound up building 1,591 examples of the 2023 R8, or 49 percent more than in 2022.

The car show’s magazine was on hand to watch the last of those R8s roll off the line at Böllinger Höfe plant near Stuttgart earlier this month. The final example is a coupé finished in Vegas Yellow (like the R8 picture above), outfitted with the carbon-fiber exterior package, and rides on a set of 20-inch alloy rims.

The last R8 is also a high-performance Performance Quattro Edition variant. That means it’s powered by a naturally aspirated 5.2-liter V-10 that pumps out 602 horses and 413 ft lbs of torque which is routed to all four wheels by a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox. That’s enough to launch the car from zero to 60 mph in just 3.1 seconds and a top speed of 205 mph. Of course, this example will never come close to touching either of those numbers. The final R8 isn’t going to a customer, instead it’s destined for Audi’s official museum in Ingolstadt.

The death of the R8 means that Volkswagen Group’s V-10 has entered its final days as well. The other vehicle that features the mill, the Huracán will also finish up production later this year, according to Motor1.com. The Italian supercar has been a massive success, which explains why its successor is expected to debut later this year, while there is still yet to be any word on a potential R8 follow-up.

Written By Bryan Hood

© Robbreport