The car, designed by Michael Pfadenhauer and Wolfgang Appel[1] and built by Dallara, featured an Audi 3.6-litre twin-turbo V8 engine.

A longer tail was prominent, with the wheel arches more subtly curved into the side pods, instead of an abrupt hard-edge design.

Run by Joest Racing of Germany, the R8Rs showed some initial difficulties in qualifying, managing to set merely the 11th and 12th fastest times.

The Audis showed their pace by taking the 8th and 11th fastest lap times over the test, beating competitors such as Mercedes-Benz and Nissan.

However, although the R8 made its debut at the 12 Hours of Sebring in 2000, the car was returned to Europe by Audi to conduct more testing for that year's Le Mans.

This left the older R8R to return to the American Le Mans Series to compete in the next two rounds of the season, the Grand Prix of Charlotte and Silverstone 500.

At Charlotte, R8R managed to 6th place behind the duo of BMWs and the improved Panoz, although the second R8R suffered mechanical woes and finished well down the order.

Following Silverstone, the R8Rs were retired permanently as the new R8s would race for the rest of the American Le Mans Series season.