In what can be considered as one of the most unnerving car crashes we’ve seen in recent history, an Audi R8 was violently cut in half after a massive crash with a Volkswagen van in northern Italy near the Austrian border over the weekend. It’s unclear as to how the crash came about, but photos from the scene of the crash show a wet road, suggesting that the driver of the R8 may have lost control of the supercar before colliding with the Volkswagen van. Fortunately, both the driver of the R8 and the driver of the VW van escaped the ordeal without any major injuries.
Holy smokes. This Audi R8 met its maker sooner than it probably should’ve. It’s hard to imagine the kind of crash that would have resulted in this R8 literally breaking in half. Either the Volkswagen van collided with the R8’s side causing the break or the supercar hit something else right in where the two sides broke off. Either way, that kind of crash is of the point-of-no-return variety. The bottom half basically broke off from the rest of the body, taking the rear axle and the V-10 engine along with it.
Fortunately, the car broke off there and not in the cockpit because the latter scenario would have resulted in tragedy.
According to Suedtirol News, it took emergency response units roughly two hours to reopen the road to traffic.
It’s unclear if there are charges or lawsuits coming, but that’s beside the point of what’s really important here. This R8 broke in half for reasons that can be tied to reckless driving, fast driving, or a combination of the two. The driver of the R8 was lucky to have escaped it in one piece.
It’s a bummer, though, that we can’t say the same for the R8.
Further reading
Read our full review on the 2020 Audi R8.
Read our full review on the 2017 Audi R8.
Read our full review on the 2017 Audi R8 Spyder.
Read our full review on the 2011 Audi R8 GT.