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Audi Wants R6 Mid-Engined Sportscar Based on Porsche Boxster to Fill Its Gap

According to the latest gossip from the German media, Audi is once again thinking of making an R family of cars. This time, it's supposed to be an R6 that fills the gap between the TT and R8.
Audi quattro concept 1 photo
Photo: Audi
Auto Bild recently published a YouTube video detailing one of the stories in the next print edition. It's about an R6 mid-engined sportscar that's co-developed with Porsche.

Does that sound familiar? It should because many years ago, such a project was part of a very official partnership between Audi, Volkswagen and Porsche. They even made a few concepts, and all seemed well until Porsche found out it can't make an obscene profit on a tiny 2-seater.

This news report is by no means official and is part of a long list of speculative stories. Every few years, somebody dreams up an R8 TDI, R10, R12, etc. But according to Auto Bild, this story is legit and the R6 even has an internal codename, PO455. Apparently, Porsche is now keen on sharing due to the slow sales of sportscars in recent years hurting profits.

Just like the Porsche Macan was derived from the Q5, so too will the R6 borrow technology from within the VW family. The platform of the next-generation Boxster and Cayman will be key to the baby R8's conception.

Porsche recently switched from 6-cylinder boxer engines to 4-cylinder turbocharged ones. They are likely to be carried over to the next generation of Cayman and Boxster 2-seaters. However, Audi will differentiate its car by using quattro-specific engines and even all-wheel drive. The report claims a 2.5-liter unit will be offered in the R8 with 280 or 340 PS. However, that seems terribly underpowered to us, especially when the RS3 is rumored to have 400 PS soon.

We wouldn't mind yet another 2-seater from Audi. However, with BMW and Mercedes, it seems that the more cars they develop, the worse they get. There is also considerable overlap between the R6 and other performance models like the RS5, TT-RS and the V6 version of the R8 that's coming in two years.

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About the author: Mihnea Radu
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Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida.
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