There’s finally a manual Audi R8

Weirdly, twin-turbocharged 1,000PS+ Audi R8s aren’t front-page news. A second-generation car thusly equipped also featuring a manual gearbox swap – the first of its kind – is a bit more like it. 

Needless to say, achieving over 1,500PS from an engine sold stock with 600 requires a little more than a couple of snails bolted on in order to be reliable. Much of the engine’s guts have been swapped or strengthened. Even the visible bits are entirely custom.

Back in the day, manual Gallardos were more popular for high power builds due to the strength of the transmission over the tepid E-gear single-clutcher. The twin-clutch DSGs of today are a little more up to it but this Audi-sourced manual box – presumably intended for fitment to a last-generation car – is a nice callback to those heady days. 

Completing the look on this black Decennium is a set of centre-lock wheels from a Lamborghini Huracan Performante. Neat. Speaking of the R8’s Sant’ Agatan sibling, the bods at Underground encourage anyone who’s keen for a stick swap to send their R8s and indeed their Huracans down. Single-file, please…