According to spy shooter Hans Lehmann, the snapper who provided us with these unorthodox spy shots, this morbid hunk of a test car is actually an Audi RS8. We’ll leave the brief telling of this sob story to Hans:

“With just hours to go on the last test day, the worst thing happened to the Audi test team. Just coming into the part Brünnchen at the Nürburgring, this million euro expensive Audi RS8 prototype caught fire and burned up totally. There is not much left of this super fast super car with a V10 engine. The only thing revealing that it was the RS8 are the wheels and the mid-engine layout…

(Click through to the jump for more details and shots of this tragedy)

…The fire really took it all; nothing is left from the beautiful aluminium body. Just the roll bar survived the fire making the remainders of the car look like a skeleton.

The fire was probably started by an oil or gasoline leak. But most important, the driver didn’t get hurt, according to our information.”

Link: http://news.windingroad.com/safety/rip-rs8...on-nurburgring/

wow... talk about a huge loss for Audi/VW. The expensive car, plus a lot of information that comes with testing a prototype. I'm sure it's well documented, though... hopefully for them. Still, best that whatever caused this be caught & fixed now, rather then see two or three of these go up in flames later on in customers' hands...

Old news.

What's left looks like it started off as a cheap Toyota MR2 based kit car.

Forgive me if I chuckle. The pictures are kind of funny.

Yeah- I don't know what it is specifically, but it made me grin too.

I've seen plenty of roll cages- that one from this distance sure looks cheesy.

Styling was better than most in this class, tho I'd hope they would change out the plastic gridwork up front to anything more upscale looking. Wonder if they are going to abandon the project or build another. This was the only one, no?

Yeah- I don't know what it is specifically, but it made me grin too.

I've seen plenty of roll cages- that one from this distance sure looks cheesy.

Styling was better than most in this class, tho I'd hope they would change out the plastic gridwork up front to anything more upscale looking. Wonder if they are going to abandon the project or build another. This was the only one, no?

What? It's arriving here this fall.