Over the years, Vivid Racing has built a lot of awesome cars. From our early days with a Subaru WRX to our widebody CLA45. One of our latest company builds has been an Audi R8. For this particular project car, we had one immediate goal in mind: go wide. The project started in 2019 and has since completed.
With the project done, we’ve decided to move on to make room for more new projects. If you are interested in purchasing Vivid Racing’s Project R8, please visit the eBay listing here.
Going Wide
One of the first modifications to be installed on our R8 is a Prior Design PD800WB kit. This kit is a full widebody package that includes the hood, front lip, front and rear widenings, side skirts, rear diffuser, and bumper vent inserts. The kit was installed by a professional body shop since bodywork isn’t something we can do in-house.
It took some time, but once the widebody kit was installed our R8 looked amazing. Well, it didn’t look that great until we installed the Brixton HS1 Duo wheels, which helped fill in the new widened body panels and give the R8 a very exotic appearance.
For suspension, we actually kept the R8 completely stock, because the OEM ride height is already pretty low and with the lower front lip and rear diffuser of the Prior Design kit, we didn’t want to sacrifice drivability.
Increasing Power
One of the most popular modifications out there for any R8 owner is a Capristo exhaust system. This exhaust sounds incredible and it’s noticeably louder than stock. The build quality is superb, and thanks to clever engineering and lightweight materials, it’s also a very lightweight exhaust system. While this exhaust gave our R8 a nice power increase, we wanted more.
Realistically, getting more power from the R8’s 5.2L naturally aspirated V10 is a challenge, unless you introduce forced induction. To best suit the build and our goals, we opted for an ESS supercharger rather than a twin-turbo system. With the ESS supercharger, we have consistent boost pressure and tons of low-end torque.
The supercharger kit included everything we need to easily turn our R8 into an insanely powerful street machine. It’s all based on a 2.9L Gen 3 Whipple supercharger, with everything else needed to support the increased power.
