Barn finds don’t have to age for decades to become the bread and butter of a car-rescuing vlogger gang. However, traditionally, classics have far more appeal than modern examples. Sometimes, breaking the old habit is a good thing, and here’s proof: a bagged-out 2010 Audi R8 Spyder abandoned for just five years ticks almost all the boxes of an actual barn find. This remarkable Audi could proudly stand next to half-century-old Chargers and Wildcats if not for the complete lack of rust and abundance of contemporaneity (plastic for the win!).
Audi joined the supercar makers’ club so late in the game that everyone thought they’d hit the dirt face flat down. In 2007, the Germans owned a proper high-performance brand – Lamborghini – and the Audi R8 was diving head-first into a world of go-very-fast cutthroats. Putting a V10 in the admirable body sure spiced things up, and offering a removable top was another can’t-resist attribute.
The 5.2-liter engine (the one that Lamborghini engineered) held its own, and the supercar evolved until its production ended earlier this year. Naturally, aftermarket mods didn’t stay away from the fastest factory-produced Audi (combustion-only models considered). As if the bullet-shaped R8 wasn’t already a low-stance car, tuners have fiddled with many examples and bagged them out so low they can’t drive over a coin.
Take the example in the video – a stunning black Spyder that sat under a shade for the last five years, collecting dust, mold, and dry leaves. (the looks of it make me wonder what barn finds will look like 50 years from now, with the current rust-ignorant materials used in cars. They might as well be road-worthy without any work whatsoever… provided that we’ll still use roads in the 2070s).
Photo: YouTube/WD Detailing / Detail Dane
This R8 Spyder sunk into the ground – and that’s not just an optical illusion induced by the deflated airbags (the mice chewed the lines of the air-lifting system). The WD Detailing team needed four hours to get the car from its resting place into the trailer – 240 minutes of getting the convertible moved some ten feet over. With the nearly nonexistent gap between the rocker panels and the ground, the only way to get the car off its spot is to place dollies under the wheels and drag the Spyder out.
The detailing part is unexpectedly accessible and predictably remarkable – with the interior in excellent overall condition – and the cherry on top of this cake is the engine firing right up. I can’t say anything about the smoke under the V10 lid, but the 5.2-liter, 518-hp (525-PS) two-seater sounds ready to get going (once the suspension is fixed).
The all-wheel drive supercar is equipped with a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox, which gave it the 0-62 mph (100 kph) top score of 3.8 seconds – a respectable time back in 2010 when the car emerged onto the market.
After nearly two decades in news television, Răzvan turned to a different medium. He’s been a field journalist, a TV producer, and a seafarer but found that he feels right at home among petrolheads. Full profile
Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?
Google News