Prior Design Audi R8 PD GT850 is a GT3 Racer for the Road

on September 26, 2012 at 11:23 am

If you want to start your own professional sports car racing team (or just want a big-dollar badass track day toy), there are many, many worse ways to spend your money than buying an Audi R8 LMS. This turn-key GT racer, whether in standard FIA GT3 specification or slightly modified Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series GT spec, is fast, sexy and user-friendly. It’s a pity you can’t use one on the street.

If we didn’t know any better, we’d say Prior Design was upset by this fact. Unlike us, though, Prior Design is in a position to do something to fix that. What you see before you is how the company plans to do that.

It’s called the PD GT850, and the aero package is most definitely an homage to that of Audi‘s gentleman racer. The reshaped front bumper is accompanied by a splitter, and topped by a vented front trunk cover. The front and rear fenders are widened, and carbon fiber side skirt extensions are fitted. Out back, there’s a new rear bumper with an aggressive diffuser, and a tall, competition inspired rear wing, plus a carbon fiber scoop on the roof. The standard wheels and tires are replaced by three-piece ADV.1 Concave wheels measuring 20″ across and wrapped in Continental Tires.

Pop the hood, and you’ll see the 4.2L V8 (rather than the R8 LMS’s 5.2L V10) has been fitted with a carbon fiber airbox, a sport exhaust system with bypass valves and other upgrades that boost the output from 420hp to 475hp. If that’s not enough, Prior Design will install a supercharger that gooses the V8 up to 565hp. That should be plenty of pep to provide performance reminiscent of the racing R8.

As for pricing, the body kit retails for about $32,000, plus the cost of paint and installation. The wheels and tires are about $12,700, $3,500 for the exhaust system, and $7,600 for the 55 horsepower upgrade kit. Check all the boxes and you’ll have an Audi R8 V8 with well over $50,000 in upgrades, which is a lot of coin, but how else do you plan on giving a street R8 a GT racer vibe? And no, cardboard, an X-Acto knife and duct tape is not an acceptable answer.