With all the praise and adulation being heaped on the Porsche 918 Spyder, you know it’s only a matter of time before Audi->ke14 got into the picture. After all, rumors of the R10 halo supercar have grown in recent years. Nothing has come out of it, at least not yet. But Automotorsport.com begs to differ because it’s reporting that Audi management has given the green light to the R10->ke1923 with an eye on 2016 for the start of production.

Granted, nothing has been made official but sources close to Automotorsport.com indicate that the R10 is a go and will sit above the R8->ke1440 as Audi’s new flagship exotic. It’s expected to receive a 6.0-liter, twin-turbo, V-10 engine that will pack as much as 850 horsepower.

That’s not even counting the addition of electric motors should Audi decide to take the hybrid->ke147 route, similar to what Porsche,->ke1 Ferrari,->ke252 and McLaren->ke284 have done with their million-dollar exotics. A pair of electric motors in the R10 could tack on another 150 horsepower to give it as much as 1,000 horsepower.

The same sources also said that the R10 will be heavily inspired by Audi’s Le Mans race cars->ke1591 as far as technological advancements are concerned. Should that be the case, that’s going to give the R10 a real racing pedigree, and a highly successful one at that.

Look for Audi to pull a surprise on all of us and launch a prototype version of the R10 soon, possibly at an auto show later this year. Who knows, that might even be at the 2014 Paris Motor Show->ke227 this week. I’m not holding onto hope that it happens, but I won’t be shocked if it did.

Automotorsport.com

Click past the jump to read more about the future Audi R10.0}

If there's one thing the Porsche 918 Spyder, the Ferrari LaFerrari, and the McLaren P1 have taught us, it's that there's definitely a market for multi-million dollar hybrid supercars.

Now, other automakers are taking similar steps and from the looks of things, Audi's next in line. I'm not going to pretend to hide my excitement about the prospect of finally seeing the R10 out on the road.

Rumors of the car have gone on long enough. Now that Audi management has reportedly given the green light on the vehicle, it may be finally time to put all those rumors to bed.

Why it maters

What do we really know about the R10 other than the recently supplied information? Not a whole lot, really. At one point, the car was supposedly going to be called the R20 and would essentially be a street-legal version of the R18, Audi's multi-awarded Le Mans race car. There were also rumors that Audi was going to fit the car with gullwing doors, a single-frame grille, stacked LED headlights, and an adjustable rear spoiler.

While there's still a possibility that we'll see at least some of those design features, it's highly unlikely that all of them would show up on the production R10. I'm most skeptical about those gullwing doors because of Lamborghini's history with these style of doors.

What does seem clear at this point is that Audi will only build a limited number of R10 models. There's no telling what that number is, but I don't see it being more than the 499 LaFerrari units Ferrari has built.

We've waited a long time for the Audi R10. Hopefully, we'll get to see the actual thing sooner than later. The time has arrived, Audi.