Why the Audi Nuvolari Is Limited to 499 CarsAudi (Audi)The Audi Nuvolari mid-engine supercar dropped Thursday, opening the door to a new world of performance at Audi while also making a seriously bold design statement. There are plenty of delightful surprises to be found in the announcement, but one of the biggest eyebrow-raisers, at least for us, was its planned limited production of only 499 examples.This short production run is the opposite treatment Audi applied to the R8, a supercar that was limited to as many as the company could sell. In fact, Audi made a total of 45,949 R8s for the world over its 17-year production run. That's a mighty high number for a supercar, and it only highlights how much of an about-face the Nuvolari is in strategy. Curious why Audi switched it up, we asked for an explanation."The limited-production underlines the characteristic of this car as the pinnacle of our product portfolio," an Audi spokesperson told Road & Track when asked about the Nuvolari's production plans. "It resonates with the sublime luxury and the excellence in performance engineering."Audi (Audi)If you're thinking to yourself that all of the above could also be applied to the R8 when it was being built, you wouldn't be wrong. We certainly would've considered the R8 to be the pinnacle of Audi's portfolio, and there's no doubt it was full of luxury and performance engineering. That said, the Nuvolari does take a notable step forward in all of the above if you were to directly compare it to the R8. In fact, it actually rises above and beyond the Lamborghini Temerario in some areas, which marks a hierarchical switch up compared to the R8–Huracán/Gallardo relationship; the Nuvolari is more powerful, costs more, and is far more limited than the Temerario, and even has unique performance features.Audi (Audi)One of those specific performance areas where Audi went beyond the Temerario are its brakes. Audi confirmed to Road & Track that it uses CCM-R brake technology, which is something you can't get on the Temerario. These brakes are not your typical carbon ceramic setup, and their use in production road cars has been extremely limited so far. The Lamborghini Huracan STO sported CCM-R brakes; so does the Pininfarina Battista; and you'll find an even more advanced version called CCM-R Plus brakes in the Ferrari F80. The list is short, and now the Nuvolari is on it.AdvertisementAdvertisementThese brakes use a hybrid of Formula 1's Carbon-Carbon tech (long-fiber carbon structure) and regular carbon ceramic brake tech (silicon carbide injection) to create a brake disc that's even better than any typical carbon ceramic brake rotor. Audi is rightfully quick to brag about the brakes, claiming the brakes are capable of handling "extreme deceleration loads on par with a current Formula 1 car."Audi (Audi)We asked Audi about these brakes, and its decision to use them. A spokesperson told R&T that their "availability demonstrates that the Nuvolari is definitely not only a variant of the Temeraro." In reality, it would be a tall (and expensive) task for Lamborghini to offer CCM-R brakes on the Temerario; Audi didn't explicitly say so, but it's very likely the reason it's able to offer CCM-R brakes is due to the low number of cars planned. The production process for these brakes is extremely time-consuming (and expensive), which would've made it difficult, cost-prohibitive, or simply impossible to offer them on a mass-produced supercar like the R8.That said, just because this Nuvolari is limited to 499 copies doesn't mean that's all we'll ever see from it. Top Gear spoke with Audi CEO Gernot Döllner at the reveal event, where he implied Audi would build a Spyder version of the car. When asked if there would also be 499 Spyders, he simply replied, "Not 499." In other words, there's likely a roofless version on the way that will be even more limited than the coupe.For all the details we know about the Nuvolari so far, make sure you check out our reveal post. And let us know what you think of Audi's new supercar in the comments.You Might Also LikeIf You Can Only Own One Car, Make It One of TheseThese Are the Most Popular Cars by State
+13 others
