Dinner is Served: Crispy Audi R8 To Go

Just when Audi was getting ready to launch the open-top version of its supercar, dubbed Spyder, at the 2009 Frankfurt Auto Show, a 2009 R8 model was catching fire out of the blue on Romanian roads.

Unlike other situations, this time the car was not driven by its owner, but was in fact tested by two Audi service center engineers.

The car, estimated at about 130,000 euros, was left by the owner at the service center for its periodic inspection. While testing the supercar on the A1 highway, the two engineers noticed an error signaled by the laptop connected to the vehicle’s CPU.

They instantly pulled over and got out of the car just in time, as the R8 caught fire out of the blue and burned until the only thing left somehow intact being its front end, PRO TV reported. As you can see in the picture, the firefighters got too late at the scene of the fire.

The exact cause of the incident is still under the question mark, but the highway police is investigating the case in order to establish whether the engineers were making an authorized test to determine the technical condition of the car or they just took the R8 out for a spin.

According to the aforementioned source, the Audi representatives from Romania released a statement in which they were confirming that the car was being tested by a specialized engineer and that an internal investigation will determine why the R8 caught fire.