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Industry / TDCN ORIGINAL

Audacious IV restomod pairs Ur Quattro bodywork with a 10,000 rpm V8, from £350,000

British firm Audacious Automotive caps production at 50 cars, offering a supercharged 750 hp V8 and a carbon-fibre bodyshell that needs no donor Quattro.

Image: Carscoops

British firm Audacious Automotive has revealed the finished Audacious IV, a restomod that wraps modernised Ur Quattro styling around running gear from the B7-generation Audi RS4. Production will be capped at no more than 50 units, with prices starting from £350,000.

The IV is the project Audacious first outlined six months ago, and the completed car is more extreme than that early preview suggested. Four V8 configurations are on offer, two of which rev to 10,000 rpm.

Two bodyshell routes, one RS4 base

Buyers can choose between two forms of the IV. The standard car keeps an original Audi Quattro's upper structure, roof and windows, then adds bespoke steel and aluminium bodywork. The alternative is an all-carbon-fibre version, which does not require an original Quattro source vehicle at all.

Underneath, the IV is not built from a Quattro. It shares its floor and lower body structure with the B7 Audi RS4, along with that car's braking, steering and electrical systems and its suspension geometry. That gives the project a more modern foundation than the donor-bodied route might imply, even though the visible shell is pure Ur Quattro in spirit.

The Audacious IV restomod wears Ur Quattro-inspired bodywork over an RS4 base, with a bold 'AUDACIOUS' grille and wide-track stance
The Audacious IV restomod wears Ur Quattro-inspired bodywork over an RS4 base, with a bold 'AUDACIOUS' grille and wide-track stance, Image: Carscoops

Four V8 options, two of them 10,000 rpm units

The engine range starts with the RS4's 4.2-litre V8 fitted with a supercharger, rated at 600 hp. An upgraded supercharged V8 takes output to 750 hp, which Audacious says is comfortably more than an original Audi R8.

The other two versions both rev to 10,000 rpm: one naturally aspirated and one supercharged. Audacious has not published power figures for either of those two.

Every IV comes with a six-speed manual gearbox and all-wheel drive. Audacious quotes a 0-62 mph (100 km/h) time as low as 3.4 seconds and a top speed of 200 mph (320 km/h).

Ur Quattro cues, entirely new cabin

The finished car's front end echoes the original Ur Quattro but modernised, with new LED headlights, a blacked-out grille, intakes and a prominent new splitter. The three vents on the bonnet have grown, and flared quarter panels give it the stance associated with Group B rally cars. Three-spoke star-shaped wheels and a large rear wing complete the look.

Inside, the IV departs from both the Ur Quattro and the RS4. It has a three-spoke leather and aluminium steering wheel, a custom instrument binnacle with traditional gauges and a spherical gear knob. The show car pairs tan and black leather on the dashboard, door panels and seats with tartan trim. Audacious says a near-limitless range of options and interior configurations will be available.

Price, availability and what is still open

Pricing starts at £350,000, and total output is limited to a maximum of 50 cars. Audacious has not announced a launch date, a build schedule or which markets will receive the IV, so buyers outside the UK will need to wait for those details.

The price puts the IV among the upper tier of restomods, but the specification explains part of it: a carbon-bodied option, a choice of four V8 tunes and a manual all-wheel-drive transmission are not typical of the breed. For a buyer weighing one against a rebuilt original Quattro, the IV's appeal rests on modern RS4 mechanicals under period-inspired bodywork rather than on originality.

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Electric / TDCN ORIGINAL

BYD Yangwang U9 Xtreme hypercar crashes during high-speed testing in China

The 2,977-hp electric record-holder was wrecked days before a planned attempt on 311 mph, though the driver reportedly escaped serious injury.

Image: Motor1

BYD's Yangwang U9 Xtreme, the 2,977-horsepower electric hypercar that holds the production EV speed record, crashed during high-speed testing in China, with images of the wrecked car circulating on Chinese social media from November 2. The crash came just days before the car was due to make another attempt at breaking 311 mph (500 km/h).

Video and photos of the damaged car, surfaced by CarNewsChina, show the U9 Xtreme appearing to lose control on a closed track before hitting a barrier hard enough to tear the rear axle assembly completely away from the vehicle. BYD has not said how fast the car was travelling at the moment of impact, nor exactly what caused the loss of control.

Driver escapes without serious injury

Despite the violence of the impact, the test driver reportedly walked away without serious injuries and was able to climb out of the wreckage unaided. Photos show heavy damage to both the front and rear bodywork, but the passenger compartment appears to have remained largely intact, and there were no immediate reports of a battery fire.

That outcome points to the strength of the car's carbon-fibre-intensive safety structure. BYD says the regular U9 uses a "Super Carbon-Fiber Cabin" built for high torsional rigidity and occupant protection in a crash, and the same approach underpins the Xtreme. For a car capable of close to 500 km/h, keeping the survival cell intact in a barrier strike is the whole point of the design.

An established record holder

The U9 Xtreme is the most extreme version of BYD's U9 electric supercar. In September 2025 it reached 308.3 mph (496.22 km/h), a run BYD officially confirmed as the world's fastest production EV.

Its powertrain pairs four electric motors producing a combined 2,977 horsepower with a 1,200-volt electrical architecture and an 80.0-kilowatt-hour battery pack. Track-focused semi-slick tyres and a heavily revised version of BYD's DiSus-X suspension system complete the package. The four-motor e4 platform allows torque at each wheel to be controlled independently, the same basic technology behind the regular U9's party tricks, including its ability to jump and "dance", but tuned here for high-speed driving and cornering.

The 500 km/h run is still on the agenda

BYD has already confirmed it will take the U9 Xtreme back out for another high-speed run in the United Arab Emirates, aiming to beat its existing 308-mph mark and finally crack the 311-mph (500 km/h) barrier. Whether this crash affects those plans has not been announced.

The timing is awkward: a car built to chase a record just days later needs to be rebuilt before it can chase anything. The reassuring part is that the damage, however dramatic in photographs, appears confined to the bodywork and rear axle rather than the structure that protects the driver.

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