Following the ‘Hey, that worked pretty well for Porsche!’ sales model, Audi introduced an amazing assortment of special models with the R8. I’ve covered several of them, but I feel as though every time I see another I’m baffled – granted, I was not in the market for an R8 when new a few years ago, but I just don’t remember so many special models – most of which just seem to be a neat color. But that’s not the case with this one.
RWS stands for Rear Wheel Series, and of course that means that Audi gave up their famous quattro all-wheel-drive system in this particular model. It is, in fact, the only rear-wheel-drive car to be marketed as an Audi since the pre-War 920 model, I’m pretty sure. In addition to lower weight, the RWS also dropped Audi’s magnetorheological dampers – but you did still get a 540 horsepower V10 behind the seats, a limited-slip differential, upgraded suspension, and a few other special bits unique to this car. Pricing was about $160,000 when new and Audi limited sales worldwide to only 999 units – and just 320 came here. One’s up for sale: