Audi R8 | PH Auction Block

The death knell tolled at Audi’s Böllinger Höfe plant last week, as the very last R8 was made. A Vegas Yellow Performance quattro Edition, it’ll take pride of place in the Audi museum and brings to an end 17 years of superb mid-engined Audi sports cars. Which still feels very strange to write. No direct replacement is planned and anything similar that does follow will be electric. We can only hope that any future flagship model will redefine our expectations of the brand like the original R8 did – but we’re not holding our breath. 

It remains no exaggeration to say that the first car turned our opinion of Audi upside down. Plenty have said it before, plenty will say it again, but before the R8 everyone expected even expensive Audis to be pretty pants to drive. Once it had arrived, once the world learned that inspirational four-wheel-drive Audis could – and did – exist, much less seemed so disappointing. The B7 RS4 was hugely encouraging, though felt like it might be the exception. The R8 demonstrated beyond any doubt that Audis didn’t have to blunder; they could be brilliant. Nothing perhaps save the original quattro quite transformed what people thought an Audi could be like the 2007 original. 

For any car maker to have produced a mid-engined car of such quality – with lucid steering, deft damping and wonderful balance – would have been a turn up. For the R8 to have come from Audi felt borderline miraculous. Still does, in fact. Whatever rival it was lined up against, it could compete: the concept car design was so much more interesting to look at than a 911, the manual gearbox was more cooperative than a Vantage’s, the handling far more incisive than a Maserati GranTurismo’s. At its first attempt, Audi made one of the most complete senior sports cars of the 21st century. So perhaps it can pull a low-slung, electrified rabbit from the hat as well. 

For some, the original was very much the best for the R8. The 5.2-litre V10 brought another 105hp over the 4.2-litre V8 (525hp against 420), but some extra weight as well. The early paddleshift autos were crap. It was only at the end of the first car’s life that the rubbish R Tronic became the much better S Tronic dual-clutch, but nothing could compare to the open-gated manual for evocative feel. 

Despite the plaudits that have been heaped on the R8 since launch, and despite the appeal of an 8,000rpm manual V8 growing by the day, they continue to get cheaper. It was believed that they wouldn’t drop meaningfully below £40k, then £35,000… and now we have this PH Auctions R8. Its guide price is £29,000-£31,000. That’s less than a new MX-5. 

This isn’t some high mileage, scabby example owned by the world and their wife, either. This 2008 car shows just 51,000 miles and four previous owners; the clutch was replaced in 2022, the wheels recently refurbished and the Bose stereo has been upgraded with Bluetooth compatibility. It’s been used and enjoyed, just as intended, and looks fit for many more miles yet. 

The MOT history is superb, with seven of the last eight tests showing not a single advisory. Last year’s sheet showed up some misting on the rear Magneride dampers, though it’s hardly unreasonable to be thinking about replacement dampers at a decade and a half old. Employing the best kind of man maths logic, replacement means there’s scope for upgrading, and this could become the start of the manual R8 GT build Audi never made…

It could be anything the next owner wanted, really, which was always the genius of the first R8. It could be used regularly, because it works with the slickness of a mid-2000s Audi; or it could be saved for the weekend, because that engine and gearbox combo is divine; or it could be added to the collection and admired, a landmark sports car in a smart spec. Expect plenty of interest come next week, then – bidding opens on Wednesday.