Audi News Audi quattro Spyder Promotional Video Shows R8's Spiritual Successor
By text: Foutitude Staff, photos: Audi AG, video: Audi AG via YouTube
Jul 28, 2009, 10:41
The early 1990s were a tumultuous time at Audi. Ingolstadt was on the ropes and the German brand was on the precipice of evacuating from the American market entirely. Then, as the idea of the modern concept car began to seriously take hold in building brand image and even segwaying into production cars, there came two exotic Audi sportscars. The first, the polished silver Avus, showed off the upcoming W12 engine and introduced aluminum Audi Space Frame technology in a voluptuous Silver Arrow-inspired body penned by none other than J. Mays. The concept-only Avus shared the spotlight with the more production-viable mid-engine Audi quattro Spyder - a car that helped give current Audi brand design boss Stefan Sielaff his own start at Audi.
The Spyder, unlike the Avus, showed its production potential from the outset. By pairing lightweight aluminum space frame construction with Audi's then-new 2.8-liter V6, Ingolstadt was able to project some impressive performance numbers. Audi went so far as to build a second green car for the show circuit and a rampant rumor among the press at the time was that Ingolstadt was seriously considering a production run.
Considering the technology at the time, you have to wonder what may have been. Who wouldn't like to have seen an Audi quattro Spyder RS with 2.7T mill?
Alas, it was not to be. Further rumors suggested heavy lobbying of then Audi chief Ferdinand Piech by his family to shelve the car due to the Porsche brand's own tenuous state at the time were rampant if uncorroborated in the media. Whether these were actually true or not remains to be seen, but Audi mothballed the idea of a mid-engine car until years later when, after acquiring Automobile Lamborghini, Ingolstadt would help build a business case for its new Gallardo model around the Audi R8.
Today we've just found a promotional video of the Audi quattro Spyder that must have been used during the car's tour on the show circuit. There's no dialogue here, just a short story filmed with a hint of 90s era campiness of a woman carrying caged pigeons to a dock in order to set them free. Symbolism perhaps? Audi once set the idea aside in hopes it would come home to roost and that it most certainly has in the form of the R8 road car.
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