With this project Audi opens up a new chapter in product placement. Previously, the brand with the four rings has always supplied volume-production cars to movie productions. In individual cases, such as “Mission: Impossible II,” these cars were even used in movies before their market launch. With „I, ROBOT“ and the systematic development of a “car of the future,” Audi goes far beyond its previous product placement activities.

Audi has been participating as an automobile partner in major movie productions for several years. In addition to John Frankenheimer’s action classic “Ronin” with Jean Reno and Robert de Niro (1998), the brand with the four rings played the automobile lead in “The Insider” (1999) featuring Academy Award Winner Russell Crowe, “Mission Impossible II” (starring Tom Cruise, 2000), “The Mothman Prophecies” (starring Richard Gere, 2002), “About a Boy” (starring Hugh Grant, 2002) and Reese Witherspoon’s “Legally Blonde 2“ (2003).

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Here’s what their website says about it:

In Dubai the mtm Audi A8 polished was the eye-catcher. The car was analyzed and in many studies the enamel varnish of the aluminum car body was removed. Furthermore the car was cleaned. After that, the car body was polished with fine abrasive paper as well as special polishes to high gloss. The blank dress must not have any defects, because of the fact that retouching was not possible. Finally the car was protected with special clear varnish against environmental impacts.Because of the fact that it is impossible to polish plastic parts like front and rear spoilers, mirror house, side sillboard or also fuel tank cap, they were enameled in a complex way to get a chrome effect. Finally they were polished with clear varnish.

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Audi has incorporated the name and the genes of the five-time Le Mans winner, the Audi R8, into a spectacular sports car. Three years after the unveiling of the Audi Le Mans quattro concept car, the production version will be making its debut at the Paris Motor Show in the guise of the new Audi R8 mid-engined sports model. It is a fascinating driving machine and the sporty pinnacle of the Audi brand. The mid-mounted 420 bhp V8 FSI engine, quattro permanent four-wheel drive and Audi Space Frame aluminium body form the basis for truly outstanding driving dynamics. The Audi R8 will be available to order from 28 September 2006; first deliveries will be made in the first half of 2007.

As the first Audi mid-engined sports car, the R8 combines Audi’s experience gained from numerous motorsport triumphs with groundbreaking design and the acknowledged technological expertise of the brand. This expertise has led to the slogan ‘Vorsprung durch Technik’ becoming a byword for leading-edge technology both on the race track and on the road.

Audi has recorded countless motorsport victories on race tracks all over the world. Following the rally successes of the Ingolstadt brand in the 1980s, and its triumphs on the touring car circuit, the world of long-distance motor racing was without a doubt the biggest challenge yet faced by Audi’s motorsport engineers.

And they mastered this challenge in style too: the Audi R8 won the prestigious Le Mans 24 Hours five times – from 2000 to 2002 and in 2004 and 2005 – and on two occasions even took the first three places.

Le Mans is without doubt the toughest challenge to the Audi Sport Team’s engineers because it calls for a level of engineering going far beyond the need merely to keep all the systems focussed on a short, sharp sprint. Alongside the essential virtues of top performance and optimised driving dynamics, the key requirements in long-distance racing are endurance and reliability, allied with optimum ergonomic design.

These are genes which are eminently transferable to a road-going sports car too, and which, allied to its exciting design, make the Audi R8 truly unmistakeable.

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