It’s the end of the road for the Audi R8 as the final example of the “sensible supercar” rolls off the assembly line at the German marque’s Böllinger Höfe plant near Stuttgart.
The last one out, so to speak, is a Performance Quattro Edition finished in Vegas Yellow; outfitted with the carbon-fibre exterior package and 20-inch alloy rims.
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Destined for Audi’s official museum in Ingolstadt as opposed to a paying customer, it houses the same naturally aspirated 5.2-litre V10 engine as the Lamborghini Huracán, which is capable of generating 602 horsepower and 413 pound-foot of torque.
This powertrain is mated to a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox and routed to all four wheels. In terms of performance stats, this translates to a 0-100 sprint time of approximately 3.1 seconds, along with a top speed of around 330 km/h.
Following in the footsteps of the Audi TT, which was discontinued last year to make way for an electric successor, the R8 was initially set to be killed towards the end of 2023. An influx of demand, however, provoked a stay of execution.
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According to Motor1, production was extended to accommodate for the 49% spike in sales (1,591 units). Still, it proved to be Audi’s “slowest-selling global product” by a considerable margin. Hence why there’s zero word on a direct successor at this stage.
Between the coupe and spyder variants, in total, less than 44,000 R8s have been built and sold since its introduction back in 2007.
The demise of the Audi R8 as Lamborghini phases out the Huracán effectively means Volkswagen Group’s V10 is riding into the sunset.
This is well and truly the end of an era for supercars powered by naturally aspirated 5.2-litre engines.
