German Car Zone

Bartek Sikorski · 02-24-2009, 08:39 AM

Quote:

If you don't remember the SR-71 Blackbird, maybe you missed an important part of your youth. It should be filed somewhere in "badass" portion of your brain, right between the Shelby Cobra and your first Big Wheel. I had a poster of one plastered on my wall and another on display with my collection of toy cars. It was so menacing, I'd wake up in the morning and swear all the other toys had retreated a few inches from where the Blackbird was sitting.

In case you need a quick refresher, The Blackbird was a titanium-constructed monster of a stealth jet with a look that blended elements from the Batmobile, a cobra snake, and a scorpion, all smashed together into a shape that would make Freud cry. Low, sleek, and dark, it slipped through the air mostly unseen. When it was spotted and targeted, the SR-71 was so fast that its primary evasive technique was simply more throttle.

It's fitting then, that the owner of this R8 (a man who fits the stealth-jet image by preferring to be left anonymous) dubbed his project the R8 Blackbird. It too has a dark and sexy demeanor, complicated built-in defense systems, and enough speed to outrun its troubles.

While the Blackbird of aviation fame was created in a deep corner of Lockheed-Martin's Advanced Development Programs Department, the wings-clipped Audi version is a product of Ai Design in Tuckahoe, New York. Matt Figliola and his Ai team are some of the most detail-oriented customizers in the business, and the shop's resume also features one specific bullet point that's especially notable in explaining why the owner trusted these guys for the work--this is the shop that outfitted both of Alex Roy's famous Team Polizei E39 M5 sedans.

Naturally, the work done for Roy served as a standard to which the R8 had to meet. However, while the famous M5 makes its many screens and systems known, almost comically so, the stealth theme of the Audi carries on throughout the small cabin. OEM-looking materials were used for a roof-mounted center console that houses a CB radio, many switches, and the controls for the Passport 9500ci radar system. The Passport isn't your typical stick-on-the-windshield system, either. The 9500ci both detects and, er, "shifts" laser signals, sending an error message back to the source laser gun. It also has a library of red light and speed camera locations built in. For the Blackbird application, the controls are in the overhead console but the display itself is hidden in the glass of the rearview mirror. The system has over 100 parts in all, so it's rather difficult to squeeze everything cleanly into the car. For the GPS antenna, for example, the rear decklid was disassembled and rebuilt with the antenna hidden inside. Two Garmin navigation units are hard-wired in and mounted on the windshield, while a built-in iPhone monitors speed trap reporting websites. When necessary, a master on/off switch hidden on the emergency brake handle allows the light orgy to go dark in seconds.

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German Car Zone

Feature Car: Audi R8 Blackbird