The car is exclusively designed, developed, and manufactured by Audi AG's private subsidiary company manufacturing high performance automotive parts, Audi Sport GmbH (formerly quattro GmbH),[5] and is based on the Lamborghini Gallardo and presently the Lamborghini Huracán platform.[6] The fundamental construction of the audir8 is based on the Audi Space Frame,[2] and uses an aluminium monocoque which is built using space frame principles. The car is built by Audi Sport GmbH in a newly renovated factory at Audi's 'aluminium site' at Neckarsulm in Germany.[2]
The audir8
, based on the Audi Le Mans quattro concept car (designed by Frank Lamberty and Julian Hoenig) first appeared at the 2003 International Geneva Motor Show and the 2003 Frankfurt International Motor Show. The audir8 development program began in 2004 with Lamberty's design being approved and frozen for production. In 2005, Audi announced that the name of the successful audir8 race car would be used for a new road car in 2007. Production body prototypes began field testing in January 2006. The audir8 road car was officially launched at the Paris Auto Show on 30 September 2006. There was some confusion with the name, which the car shares with the 24 Hours of Le Mans winning audir8 Le Mans Prototype (LMP). 6-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Jacky Ickx described the audir8 as "the best handling road car today".
