Two years on from the end of R8 production, Audi has revealed its successor, and it arrives as the most powerful supercar the four rings have ever built.
The Audi Nuvolari made its debut this week at the Hotel Du Cap Eden Roc in Antibes, along the French Riviera, unveiled at a special event ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix with Formula 1 drivers Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoletto flanking the car as the covers came off.
Named after Tazio Nuvolari, the Italian racing driver who steered for Auto Union, Audi’s predecessor, through the 1930s, the Nuvolari is a 736kW hybrid supercar limited to 499 examples worldwide and is the most powerful and fastest production car in the company’s history.
The numbers are difficult to argue with. A 4.0-litre twin-turbocharged V8 produces 588kW on its own, revving out to 10,000rpm. Three axial-flux electric motors add another 110kW each, two driving the front axle and one sitting between the engine and transmission, bringing the combined system output to 736kW. Zero to 100km/h takes 2.6 seconds, two hundred arrives in 6.8 seconds and top speed exceeds a whopping 350km/h. As expected for a supercar of this calibre, the starting price will be north of 600,000, higher than that of the R8 as it was finishing up with production.
The platform is shared with the Lamborghini Temerario, the Huracan’s replacement, though the Nuvolari runs a larger 7.3kWh battery compared to the Temerario’s 3.8kWh unit, which accounts for its edge in combined output. It is also the first all-wheel-drive Audi road car without a mechanical connection between the front and rear axles, with torque distributed electronically through what Audi calls “quattro predictive ride.” The system reads steering angle, vehicle rotation and grip levels in real time, feeding a central computer that decides where the power goes.
Five driving modes cover everything from silent electric running to full track deployment. In Track mode, stability control can be set for wet or dry conditions, or switched off entirely. A DRS button on the steering wheel flattens the rear spoiler at high speed, borrowed directly from Audi’s Formula 1 programme. The F1 connection runs deeper than that, with Audi’s race drivers reportedly feeding back on the active aerodynamics during development, which was completed in just 14 months.
The body is largely carbon-fibre reinforced polymer, built around a lightweight space frame chassis. Up front, an S-duct reduces lift at speed. Brakes are carbon-ceramic, 420mm ten-piston at the front, 410mm four-piston at the rear, though much of the stopping in normal driving is handled by regenerative braking from the electric motors. Forged centre-lock wheels feature for the first time on a road-legal Audi. The signature Titanium paint, first seen on the Concept C and the current F1 car, is available across the range.
Inside, carbon-fibre seats, two large digital displays and a flat-bottomed steering wheel draped in Alcantara keep things focused without going full stripped-out racer. It is not a track-only proposition. It is a road car that can be pressed into genuine supercar territory when the moment calls for it.
Deliveries begin in the first half of 2027. All 499 will almost certainly be spoken for well before then.