Audi R8

When a plan comes together.

The Wörthersee event (which unofficially lasts for over 3 weeks) in the valley of the Austrian Alps, bringing European cars together from all over the globe, is a pretty big deal for most car people. And making an impact at this show is also typically a priority. We had always dreamed of shipping our own show-stopping build over, but it just wasn’t in the cards this particular year.

So with the show 2 weeks out, and only a plan to attend and document the trip with photos and video, we jumped at the opportunity Prior Design of Germany pitched us. They had recently developed a state of the art wide body for the first generation Audi R8, and contacted us to help spread the word. This is not your average wide body. This is an entire body swap. Basically you retain the doors and roof. That’s it. On top of having to outfit the Audi with custom forged wheels, we also learned that changing the appearance of the car’s exterior was also a possibility. With two weeks to dial in custom wheels and a graphic livery for a car we had very little information on, we would only need a miracle. Challenge accepted.

While our team began working around the clock brainstorming wheel and graphic concepts, it was decided that air suspension was imperative. Since there wasn’t a retail application developed for the R8, we had to get creative. We contracted our friends at HP Drivetech of Austria to make things happen, and did they ever.

With custom air suspension on the way, we decided to execute one of our favorite race liveries, from a BMW. The Hugo Boss sponsored M1 specifically. Deciding on a wheel design to pay homage to this nostalgic race car was our next challenge. We wanted something similar in the realm of a full faced wheel, but didn’t want the R8 to have a mistaken identity.

Enter the CCV. With clean lines and just the right amount of complexity, this wheel did the job of complimenting the original M1 livery.

Four days until lift off and we learned two things. We would now be driving the R8 to Wörthersee and the vinyl company was in route from Austria to Germany to apply our livery design. Airline tickets were rebooked to Dusseldorf, wheels were overnighted from California, and we’d see this project for the first time, in person in only a few days with zero room for error. Talk about last minute.