Building the Audi R8 V10 Plus

/DRIVE had the opportunity to take a tour of the Audi quattro GmbH factory where all Audi R8s come together. Beginning with the all-aluminum body – which is made up of extruded, cast, and sheet metal aluminum – the R8 begins to take shape. This is the same line that the R8 race cars come off of, with a few changes to the body such as adding structure for the pit lane jacks. The aluminum is welded together, mostly by hand by Audi’s craftsmen, with additional screwing and riveting done by robots. There is no glueing of any kind in the Audi body assembly.

From there, the vehicles proceed to the interior assembly and addition of the drive train. More than 5,200 components in total go into creating each R8. Before an R8 is complete, each spends time on the dynamometer and is road-tested on Audi’s test track to make sure everything is perfect. (Be sure to check out this video of a r8 V10 on the dynamometer with it’s back end removed.)

By the way, that matte blue R8 rolling off the line at the end of the video looks absolutely stunning.