40 Fun Facts About Audi R8

Which Marvel superhero's billionaire alter ego drove an Audi R8 as his personal car across six films?

Iron Man's Tony Stark drove a different R8 in each film of his own trilogy, ending with an electric prototype in the third.

The first Audi R8 shares its chassis and V10 engine with which Lamborghini model, named after a breed of fighting bull?

Gallardo parts in the R8 include some of the chassis and floorpan, the transmissions and even the door handle mechanisms. Sharing them saved development costs.

The Audi R8 was the first production car to offer which lighting technology, now common on new cars?

All-LED headlights were standard on the V10 version, billed as a world first. The 2012 facelift then fitted them to every R8.

The laser high beams of a 2017 limited-edition Audi R8 needed approval from which US federal agency?

FDA approval was needed because of the laser emission, an odd job for the food and drug watchdog. The beams switch on only above 40 mph.

On which American daytime game show did a contestant win an Audi R8 worth $157,300 in December 2013?

The Price Is Right gave the supercar away as one of the biggest and most expensive prizes in its daytime history up to then.

Which number did the Audi R8 China Edition leave out of its serial numbers as unlucky in China?

4 was skipped across the 80-car run, and a V10 special for the same market went further, numbering its 30 cars without 4, 14 or 24.

Which British luxury brand's Speed 8 broke the Audi R8 race car's run of Le Mans wins in 2003?

Bentley belonged to the same parent group as Audi, so the R8's only Le Mans defeat between 2000 and 2005 stayed in the family.

A 2008 Audi R8 concept with a 6.0-litre V12 and 1,000 Nm of torque ran on which fuel?

Diesel power never reached R8 showrooms: Audi cancelled the project because re-engineering the car around the bigger engine cost too much to recoup.

Which parent company owns both Audi and Lamborghini, letting the Audi R8 share parts with Italian supercars?

Volkswagen ownership let the two brands share parts mainly to save development costs, while the R8 kept its own German styling and cabin.

The two-seat Audi R8 shares which engine position with its Lamborghini sister cars?

Mid-mounted here means the engine sits behind the cabin and ahead of the rear axle; one R8 concept even showed its V12 off under glass behind the seats.

The second-generation Audi R8 shares its platform and V10 engine with which Lamborghini, launched in 2014?

Huracán power was kept in full for the top R8 V10 plus, while the base car's engine was detuned. Both sit on the Modular Sports System platform.

What name did Audi give the soft-top convertible Audi R8 unveiled at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show?

Spyder buyers got extra chassis bracing and a pair of roll-over bars to make up for the missing roof, plus a relocated fuel filler cap.

What name does Audi give the contrasting vertical panels behind the doors of the Audi R8 coupé?

Sideblades double as air inlets, and on the second-generation car each one was split into an upper and a lower piece.

The first-generation Audi R8 was assembled largely by hand in which German town, once home to carmaker NSU?

Neckarsulm gave NSU its name, and Audi redeveloped an old factory there for the R8, where about 70 workers fitted 5,000 parts by hand.

What name did Audi give the all-electric version of the Audi R8, later worn by an electric Audi SUV?

e-tron R8s reached customers only in tiny numbers: fewer than 100 second-generation cars were sold, and only in Europe.

At which German circuit did an electric Audi R8 prototype set an electric-car lap record of 8:09 in 2012?

Nürburgring glory came with Markus Winkelhock at the wheel, but Audi shelved the car a year later because its battery range was too limited.

Which Lamborghini-sourced favourite of the first Audi R8 was dropped for the second generation?

Manual gearbox fans lost a six-speed with an exposed metal gate around its lever; the later car came only as a seven-speed automatic.

Before its famous ten-cylinder option arrived, the original 2006 Audi R8 launched with which engine layout?

V8 power came from a 4.2-litre unit that was basically the RS 4 saloon's, reworked with dry-sump lubrication for the supercar.

The 2019 Audi R8 Decennium special edition takes its name from the word for decade in which language?

Latin supplied the name because the 222-car run marked ten years of the V10 engine in the R8.

A one-off Audi R8 called the Star of Lucis was built as a replica of a car from which video game franchise?

Final Fantasy XV's film tie-in Kingsglaive cast the R8 as royal transport, a coming-of-age gift for Prince Noctis of Lucis.

The Audi R8 RWS of 2017, limited to 999 cars, did without which trademark Audi feature?

All-wheel drive was already banned on the R8 LMS race car by GT3 rules, so the lighter RWS brought the racer's layout to the road.

The Audi R8 has served in which trackside role at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and in Germany's DTM series?

Safety car duty has also taken the R8 to the British Superbike Championship and the FIA World Endurance Championship.

Audi's 2011 #WantAnR8 campaign, offering fans a day with an Audi R8, ran on which social network?

Twitter users tweeted the hashtag for a chance to win, and the response was strong enough that Audi brought the contest back.

Evo magazine's first Audi R8 group test ended by declaring that the Audi had humbled which sports-car maker?

Porsche's 911 Carrera 4S was the benchmark in that test, beside an Aston Martin V8 Vantage and a BMW M6, and Evo judged the R8 the better sports car.

Which driver won Le Mans five times in the Audi R8 race car and broke Jacky Ickx's record of six wins?

Tom Kristensen even helped end the R8's streak: in 2003 he was assigned to the sister team that beat it, then returned to win twice more.

The second-generation Audi R8 swapped several large metal body parts for which lighter, stiffer material?

Carbon fibre was not new to the R8: the earlier open-top R8 GT already used it for the cover over the folded roof and the large rear side panels.

The Audi Space Frame that forms the core structure of the Audi R8 is built from which lightweight metal?

Aluminium monocoque in place, each R8 was scanned by 95 lasers in five seconds to confirm that over 220 measurements sat within 0.1 mm.

Which 2004 science-fiction film featured the Audi RSQ, a concept car whose styling influenced the Audi R8?

I, Robot gave Audi its first film-built concept, a coupé that rolled on spheres instead of wheels through the Chicago of 2035.

At the 2008 World Car of the Year awards, the Audi R8 won the Performance prize and which other category?

Design honours made it a double for the R8, which was also Automobile Magazine's 2008 Automobile of the Year.

Which men's lifestyle magazine named the Audi R8 its Car of the Year for 2008?

Playboy's prize sat beside more traditional honours that season, including Canadian Car of the Year from that country's motoring journalists.

Which power-boosting hardware, fitted to the 2003 concept's engine, did the production Audi R8's V10 do without?

Turbochargers gave the Le Mans quattro concept 610 PS, a figure the road car matched only in 2015, and without them.

In Audi R8 model names such as 5.2 FSI, the letters FSI stand for Fuel Stratified what?

Injection of petrol directly into the cylinders also fed the R8 race car that won Le Mans, linking the road car to its namesake.

Which audio brand supplied the 465-watt premium sound system fitted to the Audi R8 V10?

Bang & Olufsen, the Danish hi-fi maker, supplied the system as one of the cabin upgrades that came with the V10 engine.

The Virtual Cockpit display of the second-generation Audi R8 was first introduced in which other Audi model?

TT drivers got the Virtual Cockpit first; the R8 added it along with extra chassis electronics to sharpen its handling.

Joest mechanics could swap which whole section of the Audi R8 race car in barely over three minutes?

The rear end held the transmission, suspension and subframe as one unit, a trick so effective that Le Mans organisers changed the rules to blunt it.

Two Audi R8 LMS cars finished 0.71 seconds apart in the 2011 12-hour race at which Australian circuit?

Mount Panorama at Bathurst had only just opened its 12-hour race to GT3 cars, and Audi's Le Mans team Joest took a one-two at the first attempt.

An Audi R8 LMS ultra driven by Piccini, Rast and Stippler won the 2012 24-hour race at which Belgian circuit?

Spa fell to Phoenix Racing with a second Audi team close behind; in GT3 trim the car could pull 1.8 g through corners.

The HN R200, a rebodied Audi R8 built by Metal Hoffman, was a tribute to the 130 RS from which carmaker?

Škoda fan Petr Novague designed the car, which kept the R8's engine; despite plans for up to 30, only three had been built by 2019.

Which Italian racing-car constructor built the Audi R8 Le Mans prototype together with Audi and the Joest team?

Dallara had already built the open-top R8R of 1999 for Audi, while the closed R8C made in Britain was retired after a single Le Mans.

The second-generation Audi R8 made its public debut in 2015 at the annual motor show in which Swiss city?

Geneva hosted a double debut, since the battery-powered version of the new R8 was revealed on the same occasion as the V10 cars.