Audi’s R8 supercar doesn't seem to have attracted much attention from any of the attitudinous German tuning houses - until now.
This, bling bunnies, is the Audi R8 GT850 by Prior Design - and the family resemblance to the fire-breathing works R8 GT3 race cars is quite deliberate.
The €24 900 (R265 000 not including spraypainting and installation) body kit you see here will work on either the 4.2-litre or the V10 version of the R8; it starts with a completely new front-end moulding, wider than standard and with revised air intakes featuring carbon-fibre struts, over a carbon-fibre splitter.
Special side skirts (available in your choice of body colour or clear-coated carbon fibre) smooth the airflow along the sides. They also house four (optional) LED lamps that light the road under the car at night - an absolute pre-requisite in certain parts of Durban and on the Cape Flats.
Profile trims strips in carbon fibre are also an option.
The roof scoop and rear end could have come straight off a GT3 racer, complete with huge rear wing, wider bumper, full-width diffuser and carbon-fibre inserts.
Wider fenders front and rear make room for 20” three-piece ADV1 rims shod with 265/30 Contis in front and matching 325/25's at the rear - about €9900 (R105 000) for the set.
Another €2699 (R28 600) gets you an authoritative (read loud!) exhaust system with flap control, while a further €5900 (R62 600) will rechip and retune the 4.2-litre V8 from 308 to 349kw - or, if that's not enough, Prior Design will throw in a compressor to take power to 416kW.
No price on that one, Cyril. Either they haven't done one yet or they don't want to scare away the punters.
Thankfully, sanity prevails when it comes to the V10 version, which is deemed to be sufficiently muscular as issued.
Finally, for customers who don't wish to drive in two lanes at the same time, Prior Design is busy developing a 'narrow' version of the body kit, suitable for the standard rims and tyres, or aftermarket rims of about the same width.