Photo: Underground Racing
Underground Racing has showed off a custom Audi R8 featuring an interesting piece of engineering. The customer car prepared for delivery had a gated manual gearbox, a feast we haven’t had since the first-generation Audi R8 ceased production.
Underground Racing is a Charlotte, North Carolina-based shop specialized in twin-turbo Lamborghini Huracán and Audi R8 builds. They’re most famous for the crazy performance figures squeezed out of the factory V10 engines, but now they have another trick ready to impress. Manual transmissions are popular among enthusiasts, and Underground Racing obliged with a manual transmission swap for the newer R8s.
The job was done at the request of one of their customers in Dallas, Texas, who also ordered UR’s twin-turbo setup. The result was a marvelous 2020 Audi R8 with 1,500-horsepower under the hood and a manual transmission replacing the 7-speed dual-clutch transmission. Thanks to Underground Racing expertise, R8’s center console looks like it’s coming from Audi.
The tuning house fitted the car with a street clutch for factory-like drivability but kept the factory all-wheel-drive system in place. The manual transmission came from a first-generation Audi R8 but needed some work to seamlessly integrate with the powerful engine. The car also got a Performante center-lock wheel conversion, complete with custom-finished Performante wheels.
This is, for now, a one-time job, but Underground Racing confirmed it will soon develop into a regular entry in their catalog. We must say it isn’t cheap, as the transmission swap will only be offered to those that also pay for the twin-turbo kit.
We don’t know the price yet, but the tuning kit starts at $49,000 installed, with prices as high as $175,000 for the most powerful configurations. So you’d probably need to thoroughly ponder whether you want a stick-shift Audi R8 or you can do with the seven-speed dual-clutch transmission.
Too bad Audi decided to let go of this wonderful machine, at least in the current V10 form. Whether the R8 will return as an EV, later on, is up to the boffins in Neckarsulm, Germany.
The job was done at the request of one of their customers in Dallas, Texas, who also ordered UR’s twin-turbo setup. The result was a marvelous 2020 Audi R8 with 1,500-horsepower under the hood and a manual transmission replacing the 7-speed dual-clutch transmission. Thanks to Underground Racing expertise, R8’s center console looks like it’s coming from Audi.
The tuning house fitted the car with a street clutch for factory-like drivability but kept the factory all-wheel-drive system in place. The manual transmission came from a first-generation Audi R8 but needed some work to seamlessly integrate with the powerful engine. The car also got a Performante center-lock wheel conversion, complete with custom-finished Performante wheels.
This is, for now, a one-time job, but Underground Racing confirmed it will soon develop into a regular entry in their catalog. We must say it isn’t cheap, as the transmission swap will only be offered to those that also pay for the twin-turbo kit.
We don’t know the price yet, but the tuning kit starts at $49,000 installed, with prices as high as $175,000 for the most powerful configurations. So you’d probably need to thoroughly ponder whether you want a stick-shift Audi R8 or you can do with the seven-speed dual-clutch transmission.
Too bad Audi decided to let go of this wonderful machine, at least in the current V10 form. Whether the R8 will return as an EV, later on, is up to the boffins in Neckarsulm, Germany.
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