Teamspeed Member Car Of The Month June 2013
 

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Teamspeed Member Car of the Month June 2013
Z356 and his ready-for-summer-cruisin' R8 Spyder

In this day and age where it seems all the new exotic drop tops only come affixed with flappy-paddle gearboxes, it's a nice treat to see a real mans car hit the streets, and our forum. This R8 Spyder owned by Eduardo, member z356, is simply stunning, and looks perfect as our our June 2013 cover car.

Eduardo has been with us for quite sometime now and has dedicated many hours to helping members with his vast automotive knowledge, and for that we say a big thank you!

Btw gang try not to drool to much over the baby blue beauty in the last pic!

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Beauty

Very nice.

Wow. That thing i gorgeous! I love it!

Congratulations! Now...get back to updating your posts on your Germany trip. ;)

Congrats both are beauties

Audi is pushing out eye candy / porn these days. Gorgeous car and spec! Well done!

Congrats!

+1; well said! Congrats to Z356!!!

Re: MY2011 Audi R8 Spyder
 

Thanks Darren and all the others for the nice comments!

I will. I have been slightly slowed down by a 'Total Shoulder Replacement' operation at The Steadman Clinic on May 15th, which was planned for months. But I am doing fine now and off the 'sling' tomorrow! Alin 2.5 is referring to my two most recent threads which detail my recent April 2013 tour of automotive factories & museums in Germany, Austria and Italy!

https://teamspeed.com/forums/perform...eckarsulm.html

https://teamspeed.com/forums/991-997...fenhausen.html

This particular MY2011 Audi R8 Spyder is 'Lava Gray', a color they only offered for two years or so. It was not ordered that much and they have discontinued it after MY2012. It is a lovely color in the Pearl Effect for which Audi is famous in producing so well! I think this color goes best with a bright 'red' interior...so I helped it reach its full potential visually!

As some of you might remember from a previous thread, it had a 'mousy' charcoal grey leather/alcantara seats and door panels from factory when I bought it last January (see first set of photos). An Audi dealer was trying to play it safe when he ordered this car on 'spec'. I found it after it was recently traded in on a new MB at the same dealer I had purchased by MB. I got a pretty good deal on this R8. I traded my '07 MB CL600 for it...plus cash! It had about one year of use and 3840 miles on the odo. Shortly after I bought the R8 Spyder, I was able to - against all odds - find someone selling a complete factory Nappa Leather 'Amulet Red' interior from a '11 R8 coupe which had been used for only 600 miles in Northern California! It just transformed this R8 and made it 'come alive'!

https://teamspeed.com/forums/perform...r8-spyder.html

Since then, I have added a few interior/exterior modifications to add some 'color' and texture to the interior! I am a big fan of 'alcantara', which Audi, Porsche, MB and other manufacturers associate with their most 'sporting' models. So I was able to locate in Europe an authentic Alcantara steering wheel (new) with deviating red stitching exclusive to the '12 R8 GT, a knee rest pad in Alcantara with deviating red stitching (also exclusive to a R8 GT), a red circle on the manual shifter (from the v10 R8) and the revised rear logo on back (from all '13/'14 R8's).

I am very particular about my interiors...and have been a long term proponent of customers customizing their orders via programs such as those provided by 'Porsche Exclusive' and 'Audi Exclusive'. However they do make it hard at times. For example, the alcantara pieces I added, with go so well with my Red interior, couldn't have been ordered from factory on my particular R8 model! So I decided to create this R8 as I would have wished I could have ordered it from new...in a perfect world!

I have driven less than 500 miles on this car since I acquired it. Soon after all these modifications, I took off for Europe and then for Colorado. The R8 is waiting for me to return in early August to Carmel, just in time for the Historics. A friend of mine is organizing the first ever 'Carmel Mission Concours' on August 14th (noon to 5 pm) inside the grounds of the that historic California Mission site and has asked me to put the R8 on display. Admissions is only $25 @ person and includes wine tasting. Hope to greet some of you at this event if you are visiting Carmel that week!

http://www.carmelmission.org/parish/...OSTER-MINI.jpg

More about the 'Crystal Blue' 1970 911E Targa and my memorabilia garage in Colorado on my next post here. Unlike this R8 Spyder which I have tinkered with, this Targa is an unmodified, original interior & exterior, 55K miles preservation 'queen'. It was selected at the 2012 PCA Parade in Salt Lake City for the 'Judges' Choice' Trophy by none other than Dr. Wolfgang Porsche, Hans Peter Porsche, Ferdinand Porsche (Wolfgang's son) and Detlev von Platen, CEO of PCNA. It doesn't get better than that for a vehicle such as mine!

Saludos,
Eduardo
Vail Valley, CO