Audi 'building a mid-engined R6 sports car'

Audi is rumoured to be working on a new mid-engined sports car to bridge the gap between its TT models and its flagship R8 supercar.

Motoring journalists have picked up a report from German magazine Auto Bild and rounded on the prospect of an Audi-badged equivalent of the Porsche Boxster.

According to Motor 1, it's a rumour that has been circulated "plenty of times", so should be taken with a grain of salt, regardless of the legitimacy of the source.

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The site adds that Auto Bild expects the car to be developed in co-operation with Volkswagen group stablemate Porsche and that it will eventually form part of a new "R" family of Audi high-performance cars.

As for the name, the German mag expects it to take on the R6 moniker, logically placing it underneath the firm's R8. It's currently known within Audi circles under the internal codename PO455.

No exact technical details are provided, but it's thought the sports car will be based on the next-generation Boxster, although with different power units and an Audi all-wheel drive system.

While this all seems plausible from a technical point of view, Jalopnik isn't convinced Audi will find good reason to introduce a rival to the Porsche car.

First and foremost, the website proclaims the Volkswagen group is the "king of vaporware sports cars" that never seem to come to fruition thanks to a dwindling worldwide market for such models.

Autobild sees it differently, though, and rather than introducing an unnecessary car, an Audi model spawned from a Boxster platform would help spread the costs of developing the next 718 Boxster's platform around. It adds that both a soft-top and fixed roof Cayman equivalent will be made.

Nevertheless, Jalopnik also warns caution over the rumours, as "desirable as this sports car would be it's hard to imagine the increasingly cash-strapped VW Group going for it over yet another crossover".

The reports appear to be separate from calls late last year that the firm's R8 supercar will downsize and use a twin-turbocharged V6 engine from 2018.