Audi R8 Transformed into ‘LaFerrari’
Yup, lots of work went into this Audi R8/La Ferrari mashup. But eagle-eyed enthusiasts won’t be fooled.
The Audi R8 is a wicked performance car that’d be a dream machine for many enthusiasts. In fact, some folks have even gone the fake-it-till-you-make-it route. But as cool as Ingolstadt’s supercar is? The LaFerrari is on another level entirely. Purchasing one of those beasts was an invitation-only affair, and with less that 500 made, only top-tier Ferrari collectors got the opportunity. While it’s currently possible to pick one up on the secondary market, at north of $3M a pop, that’s a big lift. Which might explain why someone had this R8 I stumbled across on Facebook Marketplace modified to resemble Modena’s former flagship. Kind of.
Now, regardless of what you think about the finished product, this project must have cost a decent chunk of change. For starters, the donor R8 couldn’t have been cheap, and there doesn’t seem to be a single panel here that hasn’t been modified. Making things even more complicated is the fact that according to the listing, this car began life as a Spyder version. Which means that the entire roof structure — which features upward opening doors — had to be completely fabricated.
That said, from some angles, particularly dead on from the front, the car doesn’t look too bad. On the other hand, while the sculpted hindquarters look decent, it only takes viewing the car in profile for the illusion to completely fall apart. The proportions are all wrong, and any Ferrari fan worth their salt will be able to tell this car isn’t real from a football field away. And that’s to say nothing of the interior, where the general architecture and beveled metal gear shift clearly betrays the car’s German heritage.
The most interesting thing about this vehicle might just be the fact that the brains and bucks behind the build appears to have unloaded it, as the R8/LaFerrari mashup is currently marked as sold. But given that it was listed (after converting from South African rand) at $42k and change, the amount of money lost in this endeavor must be truly gruesome. Because a stock Audi R8, even with 40k kilometers on the clock, would fetch far more that. So I don’t think it’s unreasonable to think that donor car was more expensive than the final product…
Photos: Facebook Marketplace