We live in a time where supercar makers are shying away from building big bulky engines and switching over to eco-friendlier smaller engines with fewer cylinders and electric systems to make up for it. Gone are the days when enthusiasts expected numbers such as V10s or V12s every time an automaker announces a performance car. The strict government regulations are why cars these days sound less exciting, and cars from earlier years sound raw and beautiful. Sure, automakers can’t bring back these big engines and the absurdly loud music that comes with them. However, that does not mean these cars don’t exist at all. We still see these cars from 2008 to 2011 on the streets and even today they never fail to impress.

However, the development of the modern-day supercar has made us see these older cars as ‘outdated’ because of their design and technology. While these cars die down for their values due to being perceived as ‘outdated’ our world is blessed with automotive tuning and customization companies that try their level best to help keep these cars up with the modern-day supercar. One such company is Motormind, and today we’ll be looking at one of their best works, the STAR-8.

Before getting into the details, let’s think about that name for a second. A styling kit for the R8 being named the “STAR-8”, ring any bells? The name gives a hint of how the old generation R8 was known as “The Iron-man Audi”, as you know, Iron-man was known as Tony Stark. The name itself signifies what a legend this car was back in its day and reminds us of its former glory.

The goal of Motormind was to maintain the same level of passion and emotion the enthusiast felt when the car was first shown to the world. To think about it, it sure is quite a challenge to take an older generation car and rejuvenate it for what it was by changing it up here and there. And this is where Motormind drew their inspiration for the design from nature. The man behind Motormind, Mr. Shahid Haq was a born designer. While others aspired to own supercar, this gentleman aspired to design, modify and tastefully restyle cars. With Motormind Automotive Designs, his aim was to create designs to bridge the gap between what people wanted and what was available on the market. He began with designing styling kits for everyday cars and made them available at relatively affordable prices without any compromise on the designs or execution. Personally, the biggest highlight from Motormind has been the Hyperion 1. The Hyperion 1 is a fully indigenously made top-less race car inspired road going machine which will soon hit the markets. More on that later! 
Obviously, any supercar owner would like to make a statement since the car you drive speaks a lot about you. In order to do so, Motormind has tried its best to enhance every emotion felt by the owner when looking at the car, the same way they felt when the first laid eyes on it. The designing inspirations for the car came from the company’s mission to innovate and create cars that “Give hopes to many dreams”. The Star-8 kit doesn't intend to change the way the R8 looks but aims at accentuating the existing design while drawing inspiration from the graceful waves and lines of nature and incorporating the same into their kit. The inspiration for this kit was derived from the Manta ray, it takes a cue from the ray's streamlined shape and translates the same into the R8. The whole idea was to refresh the R8 while maintaining the right balance between its existing design and what is to be added to it to give it that extra oomph that it needs to make a powerful statement.

The first eye-catching detail is the spoiler. Well, at least it looks like one. Why you may ask? Well, because this so-called spoiler is more of a design element rather than a performance element. It adds no downforce or stability, rather, it is a whole new innovation of the spoiler, unlike anything you have ever seen before. It is basically 2 rods that look like extensions from the roof and run the full length till the end of the car. The end of the rods each features red LED lighting to make the car seem like a speedy spaceship in the dark. The LED lighting is also complimented on the diffuser of the car with F1 style LED lighting in the middle, and red trims running along the length of the diffuser. While this ‘so-called’ spoiler might look odd, it is surely what we would call ‘innovation and creativity’ as is the goal for Motormind. The rear side of the car also features fins on the side of the cars giving a ‘slammed’ look. Moreover, there is an extra addition of matte finished vents to the vent under the tail-lamps, giving it a more futuristic look.

To bring out the emotion of a smooth sailing beast from the front, Motormind has giving the R8 and aggressive, yet, simplistic update. There is now an extra layer of a matte-finish slat that runs above the full length of the grill, complementing the addition of vents below the tail-lamps on the rear, finished in red trims. Viewing from the front, the side air vents are overlapped by wing-like elements that creates a floating illusion. This makes for a subtly aggressive front end. To add to it, the front grille surround is designed as such to look like an extension of the hood falling downwards. Further in congruence with this, the bumper has a chin that runs across the bottom of the bumper running from one extreme to another. This further adds on to the ‘slammed’ look of the car without any compromise on the ground clearance. The front splitter, like the rear, is finished in all carbon with red accents.

Some other details are dual-tone stripes, black and red respectively running down the roof, till halfway across the hood and along the skirts of the car. Overall, the STAR-8 surely does rejuvenate the R8, it would certainly be an amazing sight to watch this beast fly-by, hopefully, Motormind will come up with many more styling kits for other older generation cars. To be made in limited numbers, Mr. Haq has truly made a commendable effort to put India on the world map or supercar restyling with his extremely passionate approach towards styling and we hope to see the kit grace cars across the country and beyond borders as well! Godspeed!