It is a rare and lucky moment when I can have a real life encounter with an automotive fantasy.
Many, many years ago now, my first experience with an Audi R8 was in the defunct game caleed Need for Speed World. The version at the time, 4.2 FSI Quattro had developed (and, rightly earned) a reputation for being a very slow to accurate and terrible driving car. I found this out first hand through using the Frequency Edition, available at and for limited times through the use of a redeemable code.
Despite all of the negative characteristics, I purchased with ingame currency, the soon-to-vanish Royal Purple Edition of the Audi and proceeded to make it my own, off and on for the next four years.
I proudly wore this as my signature, showing the forum community I was going to make this car work for me.
Throughout the game's life-cycle, there would be other variants of the 4.2 FSI, ranging from a Shift Edition (homage to the Need for Speed title of the same name), a Darius Edition (from the Carbon title) and a Seacrest County special (from Most Wanted). Nothing spectacular or any real improvement over the ingame model, just reselling the same car with a new livery package.
About a year after I started playing, the 5.2 FSI Quattro was introduced. I read and heard that it was a vast improvement over the Royal Purple model I was using, but it cost real world dollars (4600 Speedboost was around $10.00 to 20.00 USD, I think. I really can't remember and finding how much it was exactly is rather difficult these days). I just continued to make do with my "free" version.
Then, Electronic Arts brought in the ultimate Audi R8, the LMS Ultra.
In the real world, this race modified version would place first, second and fifth at the 24 Hours of Nürburgring in 2012.
In Need for Speed World, this car would be a further improvement of the 5.2 FSI model already ingame. Coming in at 6800 SpeedBoost (talikng about $50.00 to $60.00 real world dollars here), I never parked one in my garage.
Not that long ago now, they pulled the plug on Need for Speed World and I would have to go elsewhere to feed my R8 appetite.
I would acquire R8's in the portable Real Racing 3....
....next, I would park a few in Forza 6 Apex....
....and become the second car I owned when I received a copy of GRID Autosport.
In the real world, whenever I was presented with the opportunity to snap a picture of one, I would, like a tourist in some strange land.
However, thanks in part to my slowly improving video editing skills, I was able to put together a project I have been wanting to do for some time, racing on Circuit de Spa Francorchamps (by far, my favorite track in a proper racing game) across three titles in an R8....
Finally, curiosity got the better of me, after all these years and I decided to have a look at just how much owning this dream would cost in the real world....
....it would seem that this dream will remain as it is, a dream.
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