Thanks to a certain oppo member..

"AM3R shamefully returns " (am3rshamefullyreturns)
06/11/2015 at 08:57 • Filed to: R8

I’ll be spending all my free time looking at manual R8’s for sale. Someone (Rusto) has made me aware that a RWD conversion is extremely easy on the R8. Even easier than the 996C4s or 996TT. To make it worse R8’s are known to be good daily drivers.. And pretty reliable. How much is a good kidney going for these days?

DISCUSSION (10)

pip bip - choose Corrour > AM3R shamefully returns
06/11/2015 at 09:09

won’t get enough with one kidney.

sell both as a matching pair and you’ll be in business.

MLGCarGuy > AM3R shamefully returns
06/11/2015 at 09:51

I heard China or North Korea can hook you up.

The trouble with North Korea is that there are no flights in or out.

Jayhawk Jake > AM3R shamefully returns
06/11/2015 at 10:04

Why would you do a RWD conversion?

AM3R shamefully returns > Jayhawk Jake
06/11/2015 at 10:13

If the results are anything like those on a 996TT, lighter and faster.

904 GTS > AM3R shamefully returns
06/11/2015 at 15:54

Since lighter = faster, I have no doubt.

To find out which is better way to go (if indeed “extremely easy” to convert the R8), why not to try first as Audi engineers intended? Than make it RWD only. Since equally easy to convert back, one ought to have a perfect idea by the experiment’s end, which is the owner’s prefered set up. Then go with that. A BGO, no doubt... BGO = a Brilliant Glimpse of the Obvious,eh? ;- )

AM3R shamefully returns > 904 GTS
06/11/2015 at 17:07

Great point, I like your thinking! I remember reading a rennlist post long ago where someone wanted to convert their 911 to RWD just for a track day, assuming it would be just as easy to get it back to AWD after converting to RWD, so I believe it's been done. And I doubt the R8 is a slouch in stock form either ;)

904 GTS > AM3R shamefully returns
06/11/2015 at 17:45

Interestingly, the Ford RS200 engineers thought their new Gp B rallye car ought to have ALL drive possibilities: FW, AW and RW, at the flip of the selector near the shifter.

Similarly as Lancia S4, they too placed the RS200 gear box over the front axle. Thus the front diff, built into the gear box, supplied the propulsion when in FWD mode. Split drive shaft from that gear box went back around the engine to drive the rear, mounted in front of the engine facing rearwards, quite obviously. After testing, the AWD was deemed superior to those other possibilities. Thus at the end, Ford Motorsport disconnected the selector entirely.

In those days, being intimately familar with Ur as well as Sport Quattros, those experiments were easy as everything was mechanical. Not being familiar with 996TT but just the fact of being a later issued car by many years, I would imagine, with sensors and computers everywhere, it may not have been as easy as just disconnecting the front drive of a 964C4, where a small couplerer could be slid in the torque tube away, from engaging it.

AM3R shamefully returns > 904 GTS
06/12/2015 at 16:18

Fascinating, are you a big rally fan?

And on the 996, I know it's very DIY-friendly to do the conversion if you're willing to spend the time in the garage. I can get some more info later, currently on mobile so it's a pain typing up long posts.

904 GTS > AM3R shamefully returns
06/13/2015 at 02:24

Sports cars - prototypes and GT cars are my passion, PORSCHE being #1 in my book. But rallye cars are right up there too, Group B especially. Definitely way before Formula and Indy cars.

904 GTS > AM3R shamefully returns
06/13/2015 at 13:40

Not a professionall rallye but NASCAR-like destruction in just one corner on some amateur rallye, no doubt. Somewhat funny, though...

http://oppositelock.kinja.com/behold-the-ral…