Jaw-dropping GT2-based ABT XGT touches down
"Road handling, steering behaviour and acceleration cannot be compared with any road car"
The notion of a roadgoing Audi R8 GT2 seemed too good to be true when those images of a wild test mule emerged at the Nurburgring a few weeks back. Yes, it would be an awesome way to sign off Audi’s icon, but there was no way something like that would be made. Turns out there is a way: say hello to the Abt XGT, a 640hp, 1,400kg, €600,000 ‘road-legal racing car’.
Normally that sort of line is used to describe a car with new stickers and wheels, but the XGT is something rather more serious than that. Abt has apparently spent two years making a GT2 car road eligible, rather than trying to make a street R8 feel like a racer; that has meant 40 separate type approvals for certain features, then putting in a regular fuelling system, a handbrake, central locking, that sort of thing. Crash testing it. This isn’t fabric door pulls and a titanium exhaust.
To that end, the XGT keeps the race car’s control panel inside, with adjustments to road use, and it retains a very serious-looking steering wheel. No one will be clenching the top of the rim trying to look cool here, thanks very much. The interior is a fascinating juxtaposition of worlds, in fact, with a button for the heated screen above those labelled ‘Spare 1’ and ‘Spare 2’, and a dash display bursting with data alongside regular Audi indicator stalks.
Nothing, however, compares with how extreme the XGT is outside. Abt says that this car ‘differs only marginally’ in appearance from an LMS GT racer, and was a central goal for the project; presumably getting this incredible aesthetic to be street-legal is where a lot of the development time has gone. To think that an Audi R8 with bodywork like this will be fit for use on the public road is hugely exciting. Abt says it was ‘not easy to get the GT2 racing car on the road’, which is probably an understatement. Now the vision of Abt MD Thomas Biermaier and his equivalent at Scherer Sport (who will sell the car) Ernst Christian Scherer, is a 99-unit reality.
That Nurburgring session wasn’t just for show, either. The XGT has been tested for thousands of kilometres on the Nordschleife as well as the Sachsenring and Hockenheim by Kelvin van der Linde, Ricardo Feller, Martin Tomczyk and Frank Stippler, which is quite some boy band of hot shoes. The unanimous verdict was effusive: “The road handling, steering behaviour and acceleration cannot be compared with any road car.”
The spec of the Abt XGT will make you gawp almost as much as the exterior. Not for outright power - 640hp is only 20hp more than an R8 GT - but for details like the weight: 1,400kg DIN is 170kg less than the stripped-out, rear-drive special edition. Combine that with ‘dual adjustable suspension’, bespoke springs, Pirelli P Zero Trofeo R tyres, forged springs and the aero possibilities on offer and it’s clear this will be a phenomenal track car. That can also be driven there.
Abt suggests this XGT represents the ‘quintessence of our heritage’, the most extreme car it’s ever made with a warranty that fuses together its expertise in both race and road cars. Quite some claim given what’s been created by the Abt family over the years, and not one to doubt given the look of this thing. The 99 Abt XGTs will be sold and serviced exclusively at Scherer Sport, which has the experience of dealing with competition-spec R8s.
The lucky few will be offered four different colour concepts (all white, as seen here, does seem very appropriate), though customisation is possible ‘thanks to the handcrafted implementation’. That’ll make the final price even more than the standard €598,000 (£520,000), but it’ll all be worth it to see the looks of bewilderment from everyone in GT3 RSes and GT Black Series. Best hope that exhaust passes the noise test…
£520k seems steep. I'm sure it'd be great to drive, but for a track car I think I'd rather something else, and for a road car I suspect, in the UK at least, they'd be better options. Glad it exists though.
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