Through unrelated marketing materials, Audi inadvertently released an early design buck of the facelifted R8, sources are reporting.
Although we'd usually chalk this up to rumor and speculation, this design buck looks relatively complete and according to Fourtitude, the production of the facelifted R8 begins relatively soon. This would place an updated R8 in the European market as of this fall.
This implies another debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show, which is just around the corner.
However, we also have to keep in mind that automotive manufacturers have thousands of designs and create tons of design bucks to experiment with and show off its skills.
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Today we've stumbled across this photo released by Audi in some seemingly unrelated materials... perhaps inadvertently, but then again Audi never does things inadvertently. Pardon the pixelation, but we blew it up and pulled some shadows out of that grille to get a better view.
Meant to show off Audi's LED design prowess, we're 99% certain the design buck shown in the shot also reveals next year's planned R8 facelift. When we first glanced at the small photo, all we saw was the headlight. Taking a second look, the photo really grabbed our attention....
...We're told by someone who's seen production plans that production of the S-tronic begins as early as week 39. If that's so, then it's possible that the R8 product improvement (facelift) will be on at least the European market by this fall... which may mean the new R8 will bow at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September. Week 39 is the last week in September and there's no other auto show event at which to show the car during that time unless Audi goes for a stand alone event. If this proves true, times to watch for coverage here likely either at the Volkswagen Group reveal the night of September 12 (afternoon in the States) or on Media Day 1 on September 13.
Like we said, Audi doesn't slip photos by mistake. That we stumbled across this in materials provided to us makes us think the photo was cleared because the R8 product improvement is close... very close. If so, we'll see it at Frankfurt. If not, well, chalk it up to wishful thinking. It still remains possible that this is just a design buck of an alternative design that didn't get approved. That also happens. Still, we believe the chances are very high that this is the facelift...
[Source: Fourtitude]
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