Not content with the absence of a mid-engined super car in BMW's lineup since the M1 of 1978, an Audi R8 owner took matters into his own hands, re-badging an Audi R8 as a BMW.

Posted on the French car blog Autoboost with helpful annotations, and distributed across the internets with due haste, the implications of such blatant intra-Bavarian treachery raise interesting questions we haven't yet been able to formulate — until now.

Is this car owned by a man who craves performance yet is ashamed of Audis? So in love with the BMW 850i, that lovely V12-ed stealth tourer of the 90’s, that he simply cannot let go? Trying to stand out from a crowd of V8-engined R8-owners but not wanting to pony up the cash for an R8 V10, let alone the just-announced R8 Spider?

Only he knows.

Source: Autoboost

Send an email to Peter Orosz, the author of this post, at peter@jalopnik.com.