Imagine it’s 2005, you’re just eight years old, and your best friend just introduced to Need For Speed: Most Wanted on the PlayStation 2, featuring the iconic orange Lamborghini Gallardo. You’re ripping down the streets of Rockfort, dodging the five-oh while the hottest tracks of the mid-2000s play, making you wish your CRT had better speakers.

Sound familiar? It’s likely that an experience similar to that ignited your passion for cars. When someone asks you why you dedicated a year to reviving that rusty Datsun 620, you jump into a metaphorical time machine and tell them of days past while your eyes glaze over with memories.

Evan is one such enthusiast, whose own need for speed started on the PS2 and materialized in high school behind the wheel of a Z.

“My first car was a 2017 Nissan 370Z with a 6-speed manual transmission,” Evan told me. “Whilst all my friends in high school were getting their first cars at 16, I waited and saved up enough money so that I could buy a sports car. At 19 I had saved up $25K and bought the 370Z in cash!”

Despite being a self-proclaimed “die-hard Lamborghini fan”, the prospect of a low-spec first gen Huracan didn’t quite appeal to him. Though a low-mile, high-spec EVO would be more his speed (pun intended), their values on the second-hand market remained too steep for his budget.

The solution? Opting for the Huracan’s German cousin: a 2020 Audi R8 Coupe Performance Edition with a mere 5,100 miles and a single previous owner. Powered by the same V10 engine as the Huracan and priced $60-90k lower, it was the perfect, “not in-your-face flashy” car to use as a daily driver.

Spec-wise, this R8 was ordered in the uncommon combination of Ibis white over a full red interior, making his R8 stand out in a sea of black-interior R8s. Evan has kept it stock for now, but plans include HRE wheels on it as well as a full titanium Ryft exhaust.

“Other than that, I don’t think it really needs anything else. Now that it has been discontinued and I plan on keeping it forever, it would be pretty special to maintain its originality for the most part!”

All great cars, however, need stable mates, and Evan has some potentials lined up already. He is currently in the process of ordering a 2024 Porsche Macan GTS. and aim to purchase another supercar sometime in the next 4-5 years. Ideally, it will be whatever the “SV” version of the Revuelto is, unless Lamborghini unveils another V12, non-hybrid, successor to the Aventador.

As for daily-driving R8s, this is the first one I’ve seen and frankly I’m all for it. Cars are made to be driven, and unless the car is so rare that parts have to be custom-made in case of a breakdown, there’s no excuse not to extensively enjoy even a Pagani Zonda. Speaking of which, I think I hear my next article calling!