Audi's R8 changed the sports car landscape and is, quite simply, brilliant. The V-10 powered Audi R8 5.2 FSI Quattro in particular is a rocket. It's perhaps the finest car in its class, and has snatched the everyday supercar crown away from the Porsche 911. But the R8 could have been faster, harder, and tougher if Lamborghini wasn't in the way, and if Audi was more brazen Italian hussy than conservative German. But that's what tuners are for...

We've seen some truly immense R8s in recent months, but this one might be the maddest of the lot. This is the PPI Razor GTR 10, and it looks like it rolled off the set of the new Batman film. This 599-horsepower monster is that extreme -- and more.

PPI is a relative newcomer to the Audi tuning fold. U.S. heart surgeon and wannabe car designer Benjamin Abraham hooked up with engineer-turned-kite-surfing-instructor Ronald Heubach to create the firm, which initially specialized in styling kits for lesser Volkswagen Group products. But when the R8 hit the market, Abraham bit the bullet and bought a development car. The firm is fast moving into the upper echelons of Audi tuning, and recently celebrated its fifth birthday with this $430,000 R8 V10 monster, along with an equally impressive Q7 it also developed. (A V-8 version of the R8 is also available.)

But it's the Razor that has garnered most of the headlines, and with good reason. It's mighty impressive.

Every panel, bar the doors and roof, has been replaced with lightweight carbon fiber, and the interior has been stripped out and re-dressed with PPI's lightweight Alcantara. Race seats have also been re-trimmed in house in an effort to shed even more pounds.

The end result is a simply epic 500-pound weight savings, about twice as much as any other tuner has managed. That brings the Razor's weight almost in line with the Lamborghini LP560-4. And with 599 horsepower courtesy of a new air intake, ECU remap, and exhaust, it has way more power. For a relatively minor power boost, there's a hell of a lot of cooling work going on, too, from the roof scoops that blast air into the engine bay, to the cut plastic rear screen that helps reduce the temperatures by 40 degrees, to the engorged side intakes that help force cold air into the engine.

There's big science going on here. It's no surprise that PPI is looking into more power, and a supercharged V-10 could be on the way.

But even as it is now, this is no longer a machine that even compares to the Porsche 911 Turbo. This car is more in line with the Enzos and Zondas of the world -- which is good, because PPI is asking hypercar money for the Razor. So can it possibly be worth it? Yes, it really is. This isn't just a tired old argument about exclusivity and individuality. You can feel every cent spent in every fiber of the car.

Working with such limited numbers of cars, PPI could afford the extravagance of pulling apart each Brembo brake set on the base car, drilling it out 2 millimeters, and increasing the performance by 20 percent. That's the attention to detail that's going on here.

And how does it feel? Plain violent. There's no way to prepare for the raw acceleration of this car. It blasts through the 60-mph landmark in 3.5 seconds and hits the 206 mph mark even with the additional drag of the aero parts, according to PPI. The reduced weight is obvious here, as the car piles on revs and scorches through the gears so fast there's barely time to register the outrageous number on the speedo. It doesn't even feel related to the R8 on a hard charge, and with the sound-deadening material cast aside, every rev ricochets through the cabin like a bullet in a prison cell.

The suspension has been thrown away and replaced with a set that drops the nose dangerously close to the deck to help the aero changes take effect -- there's almost no room for air under the car. There's a 60-millimeter lifter kit for around town driving and speed humps, but dropped down there's almost no travel in the suspension, and it feels racing-car stiff in the bends. Of course there's a payoff. The ride quality isn't Audi-like at all, but then the owner wanted a super sports car, and that's all part of the package.

The steering is now telepathic. And with aggressive Michelin Pilot Sport tires, the intrinsic strength of the R8's mid-engine set-up, and arguably the best rear-balanced four-wheel drive set-up in the world, you can swing it into bends, safe in the knowledge that the car will pull through.

There are a lot of tuned R8s out there, but this is one of the finest examples we've ever seen. That huge weight savings, the attention to engineering detail, and the aero package combine to create a monster of a car that we suspect could show a clean pair of heels to pretty much anything this side of a Veyron.

PPI has helped the R8 shake off its shackles of German conservatism and created a car at the razor's edge and then some. With a supercharger, it might take PPI to greatness, and the already superb R8 to a whole new dimension. The elegant R8 has become a blatant hussy in PPI's hands, but, then, dirty fun can be the very best kind.





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