A “mini R8” with a mid-mounted 265Hp 2.0TFSI motor priced significantly lower than rival sports cars like the Porsche Cayman? Sounds like music to our ears. However, before you start checking out your bank account let us state that we’re talking about pure speculations here that sprung to life last year no thanks to the German auto press whose tendency of creating “pipe-dream” stories is renown. To our knowledge, Audi is planning several surprise debuts over the next few years, but there’s no (official or unofficial) confirmation of an Audi R4.

In any case, this well-done rendering comes to us from top Car which states that the R4 will go on sale in late 2009 and it’ll be based on a brand new platform with the transmission, steering and brakes coming from Audi’s existing parts bin. TopCar also suggest that there’ll be a top spec RS version with a 2.5-litre in-line five turbocharged producing around 354Hp. Via: wheels24

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