This Crazy Stripped Audi R8 Runs 1,500 Horsepower While Being Road Legal
I travelled to the USA for the first time a few weeks ago, and the first thing I saw as I stepped out of LAX was a selection of cars with beaten and missing panels. Any modification to a car in England is a rare thing, but at least where I live, seeing a car missing panels is like rocking horse s**t. This Audi R8 is precisely that.
This specific R8 has a long and illustrious history. This R8 started out as a 2012 R8 GT. It’s a rather rare car, with just 333 units produced and 90 of them sold in the United States. An updated version of the 5.2-liter V10 was used at the time, generating 552 horsepower (412 kilowatts) and 398 pound-feet (540 Nm). According to Audi’s factory claims, the R8 GT can do the 0 to 62 mph (0 to 100 km/h) dash in 3.6 seconds and reach 199 mph (320 km/h). It is not a sluggish vehicle by any means.
Unfortunately, this one-of-a-kind automobile was involved in an accident after being sold to its second owner and in their ownership for a mere six days. A portion of the front end of the grand tourer was destroyed, as well as the driver’s side door and right side rear quarter panel. It was eventually sold on Facebook Marketplace to Scap Life Garage, which is doing something very special to it.
Originally they were going to salvage it if it didn’t hold any value as a unit, but very quickly the mods started pouring into the car as they added more power and embraced its skeletal demeanour.
Underground Racing added twin turbos to create a whopping 1,500 horsepower, and with the guys chucking away a number of the heavy panels, it’s a lot lighter than it was stock. In fact, it barely even has front lights. The main beams are from a tractor trailer, and the normal headlights are from a Ford Mustang. Guess what that means? It’s road legal.
There’s still a lot of work to be done on the car as well as a host of testing. In fact, it hasn’t even seen a drag strip yet, but it will, as one of its builders, Austin, assures fans that the R-Tronic auto ‘box will make it an incredibly potent quarter-mile car.
We’re very excited to see where the project takes us.
