With its debut in Formula One and the unveiling of the Nuvolari supercar, Audi is suddenly back in the conversation again.The car company that gave us modern classics like the TT and R8 — and shocked us with the giant Singleframe grille a few years back — had not delivered much to excite recently, especially in terms of design. With the TT and R8 discontinued, and the once-radical grille now a familiar feature in Audi’s increasingly homogenised range of cars and SUVs, the brand’s styling had become more predictable than provocative. Audi is aiming to change that with the Nuvolari, a striking new sports car that thrusts the German marque back into the design and high-performance spotlight. A spiritual successor to the R8, the limited-run plug-in hybrid supercar is a showcase for Audi’s future styling and technological direction.The Nuvolari's front fascia moves away from Audi's Singleframe grille used since 2004. Picture: (supplied) Instead of reviving the R8 badge, Audi chose the car’s name in honour of racing driver Tazio Nuvolari, who competed in the 1930s for Auto Union, one of Audi’s predecessor companies.The Nuvolari won’t appeal to everyone, but polarising cars get people talking, and this one certainly has the potential to do so. Audi’s new design chief, Massimo Frascella, unveiled the mid-engined two-seater as the first production model to embody his new “Radical Next” design philosophy of simplicity, monolithic structures, and the removal of unnecessary decoration.Frascella, the former head of design at Jaguar Land Rover who joined Audi in 2024, first introduced this less-is-more design direction in September 2025 with the Audi Concept C. It stood on four style pillars that will underpin the future brand expression: clarity, technicality, intelligence, and emotion. The clean, uncluttered surfaces of the Concept C and the Nuvolari are hallmarks of the original Audi TT, of which Frascella is a longtime admirer. “In 1998, when the first Audi TT arrived at a dealership in Turin, I took a day off work to just look at the car in peace,” he says. “I was there for hours, looking at [it] from every angle, touching every surface. The staff probably thought I was crazy. But for me, the TT was more than just a car. It was a message: you don’t need to shout to be heard. You don’t need excess to make a statement. You just need clarity. And, more importantly, the courage to follow it.”In the Nuvolari, every design element serves a clear purpose and contributes to the car’s overall logic, says Frascella. Most notably, the Concept C and Nuvolari move away from the single-frame grille, the wide trapezoidal design used on Audi’s production cars since 2004. In its place is an upright, vertical grille that pays homage to the 1936 Auto Union Type C. The exterior is painted in Audi’s new signature colour, Titanium, also used on the Concept C and the Audi Formula 1 race car.The rear of the Audi Nuvolari, badged in honour of 1930s racing driver Tazio Nuvolari. Picture: (supplied) The Nuvolari shares its basic architecture with the Lamborghini Temerario but receives significant Audi-specific development and Formula 1-inspired innovations.With lightweight construction and high torsional rigidity, the car combines proven Audi Space Frame technology with a carbon exterior, a first for Audi.The Nuvolari is powered by a plug-in hybrid drivetrain combining a mid-mounted 4.0l twin-turbo V8 with three electric motors. A total system output of 736kW is managed by a torque-vectoring four-wheel-drive system called Quattro Predictive Ride.Its track performance is enhanced by active aerodynamics with a drag-reduction system, F1-inspired energy deployment and regeneration strategies, and a carbon-ceramic braking system. With a quoted 0-100km/h sprint of 2.6 seconds and a top speed exceeding 350km/h, the Nuvolari takes on supercars from Ferrari, McLaren and Lamborghini.Audi will build only 499 Nuvolari units, with deliveries beginning in the first half of 2027. European pricing starts at about €600,000 (around R11.3m before taxes and duties).From the July issue of Wanted, 2026.