That sounds crazy, you can get really nice Wingbacks or Sportsters for 6K or less installed. Saves a bunch of weight too and looks way better than the North American couch seats

 

Yea I didn’t believe that it sounded right, but I knew that you guys were much more experienced. I appreciate your input and I’ll be searching for some of the seats that you suggested!

Please don’t hesitate to post any suggested locations to purchase some from if you know of any sites!

 

I priced out my seats at a local shop here in so cal and they were asking $2500 per seat. That’s alcantara centers and suede sides.

 

Wow…. I have to see if I can find any local shops in Jersey

 

Here is a pic of the quote that I received. Just an fyi….

The listed travel fee would be for the manufacturer to come up from FL to do the job

 

Seats - £600 from a breakers yard.
Retrim in leather and alcantara from a local auto trimmer - £1000
Plastic sections repainted in matching Brilliant Red from a local body shop - £200
New connectors to wire to the R8 - less than £20
Installation - DIY - £0

Total cost - £1820 (2400 USD)

Find local businesses that you can trust from recommendations on FB and Instagram etc. Paying 1500USD just to get someone to travel to you is nuts.

 

WHOA…those are gorgeous! I’ll start trying to put the pieces together now…. Thank you very much

 

here’s another point of view….
good work isn’t cheap and cheap work isn’t good.

The only pricing I object to on the breakdown above is the travel fee.
North America isn’t quite the same as UK/Europe for fancy seats at wrecking yards.

Sure, there is some selection but we don’t get the same choices.

I tried to get an upholstery shop within an 8 hour driving radius of me to recover my wingbacks with nobody wanting to do the work.
the good guys have a cue a mile long, and the guys who can do it right away….. well, let’s just think about that for a moment.

Not saying that it can’t be done cheaper.
but the collabBro insta/social donkies are gonna charge premium money.

 

Good day guys,

I planned on getting the seats redone — alcantara & leather, black with red stitching, Audi logo on the seat and an R8 logo on the headrest — along with a custom steering wheel. The initial cost was estimated between $5-6K. Seats are being made in Florida and I’m in the northeast. To have them removed, sent down to FL, completed, shipped back to me, and installed…it’s almost $9K.

Of course pricing is always subjective, but am I wrong by thinking that this is truly overpriced? I’m not sure if I should invest almost $9K on seats and a wheel on a 2011 R8 with 30K miles. After doing the math, the seats alone (no removal, shipping or reinstallation) would be $6K. Am I being ripped off here? Would you A) get everything for $9K (B) just get seats for $6K or (C) wave this entire thing off if you believe that the pricing is ridiculous?

That's far too much money. We can supply the factory spec seat covers for a lot less - countless customers here have been supplied by us.
To install 2x seat covers at a local upholstery shop is 3 hours labor.

Any good local upholstery shop can install. There are no Audi-specific tools required, nor Audi specific knowledge necessary.

We can also supply the steering wheel ready to install. This takes 15 mins to install and can be done by a layperson.

Will send you a PM.

 

Wow... I see that you also provided another lucky member on here with some Gen 1 R8 Wingbacks! I have a 2011 R8 V10 Spyder and I would love some of those seats as well. PM?

 

I plan on getting my seats redone with a very similar plan to what you're looking for (alcantara, red stitching, etc) and the quote I received a local central Illinois shop is around $3,000 for it all. I'll do the removal and reinstall and just bring it to them.

 

Here is breakdown for a set of brand new RECARO's for your R8. My information is below if you have any questions!

RECARO Sportster CS - Highline Autos - Your source for distinguished automobiles

<p>The highlight of the RECARO sports seat range. The RECARO Sportster CS is the perfect combination of comfortable sports seat and pure racing shell. The innovative lightweight shell boasts an exclusive slim design, plus outstanding lateral and shoulder support</p><p>Have a question? Contact...

www.highline-autos.com

RECARO Sportster CS Black Vinyl / Red Suede - $1,295 ea.
RECARO Sportster CS Slider kit- $145 ea.
RECARO Sportster Audi R8 Adapter- $200 ea.
Retail: $3,280
R8 Talk 5% Discount: $164
Total: $3,166

Tax: 5.6%
Shipping: $330

TOTAL: $3,654.30

Installation/airbag code from an INDY, approx. $650

Trenton O. Gibson
tgibson@highline-autos.com
Highline Autos
Direct: 602.909.9216
Office: 480.348.0777

 

See..I like the dark charcoal gray of my exterior and I currently have an all black interior, but I was looking at adding a BIT of red to fit the R8 logo. Preferably having the R8 logo placed in the headrest. The original seat design that we were preparing also had red stitching. Those are very nice seats, but the red may be a bit too overpowering. I see the gray option as well, but it’s tough to tell how close it’d be to my exterior (take a look at my car’s pics).

Do you guys think I should go all black leather, aim to get the R8 logo in the headrest, and call it quits? Or are there any other suggestions of different layouts that you’re thinking of or have seen?

 

Osman provided my steering wheel and seats.
you cannot go wrong.

 

and my seats and a whole bunch of parts and I second the motion. Also unlike singshot my steering is on the correct side of the car (flame suit on!) 🤣

 

I have some nice wingbacks (retrofitted with passenger occupancy sensor and airbag resistors) for sale now. Check the classifieds, I can give you a deal on them if you're semi-local:

https://www.r8talk.com/threads/b8-style-wingback-seats.184212/?post_id=1719370#post-1719370

 

5-6k for heavy stock seats to be reconditioned is wild. I'd be contacting AMX and getting custom Sportsters in that price range.

 

Morning everyone…

So I was lucky enough to catch Osman’s attention yesterday and he has certainly been everything that everyone says that he is…thank you Stuff!

Look at these bad boys. Alacantra/Leather with a gloss black shell in the back. That R8 in the headrest is simply an edit to see try to see how it’d look if I got it. I’ve seen leather get the embossed logo, but I haven’t seen it on Alacantra. Would you go the stitching route our get it embossed? If stitching, what are your thoughts on red vs Daytona gray like my exterior?

 

you need to go with what speaks to you.
it's your car.

 

100%, but I never saw opinions/input from others as a bad thing. Of course I'd make the final decision, but I figured I'd throw the question out there to get some of our R8 community's feedback. Apologies if it pissed anyone off for some reason. I'll keep brainstorming. Thanks

 

Glad to see you got in touch with Osman.

I am biased towards pops of red - so my vote would be red stitching and then get your calipers painted Brembo red. But as singshot said, do what speaks to you.

 

As a person who keeps all their stock parts and returns their vehicles to stock when sold, I try and keep custom stuff neutral. As in, I’d leave the R8 stitching off to have a larger resale market.

Thats just how my brain thinks though. Looks great! But the amount of seats I see sitting on the M forums because they had AMX stitch “M Performance” in the head rest makes them market specific forever.

 

Thank you for the feedback gentlemen.

 

My opinion. You don’t really need a logo on the headrests. It’s just extra dressing. The car has the right amount of prominent R8 logos as it is.

But go with your heart. If you think you might end up always wondering what the seats would have been like with the emblem, then just go with it. I would go with an invisible stitched emblem personally. Only the GT had colored stitched seat logos.

 

You won't know if you are getting ripped off until the first blemish or wear or God forbid crack and tear appears. Seriously. That's a Ton of money. I have had some bad experience with seat recovering of Porsche seats. The material was paper thin. looked like new for a few months .in the Florida sun they turned to crap.. You should get material samples shipped to You for inspection at that price. compare to factory materials. Get a warranty? From experience the real pros are older guys from up north. Who moved to Florida . . the young guys were looking for a quick buck get some references first shop around. There MUST be an old pro around you. Even dealerships will try to go cheap on repairs to save money unless you are a really good customer. Good luck! And get references. Nino

 

Where are you in NJ? @Lionhartzero I’m in Northern NJ and have wingbacks if you need to sit in a set to see if you’d like to go forward with purchasing from @R8-Stuff. (Which I would recommend.)

He is one of the most trusted vendors here. There is also a shop in Northern NJ that can install them for you and do the coding. (No affiliation, just giving you the heads up on it.) Feel free to PM me if you like for further details.

 

That what I'm talking about. Bravo!

 

No embossing/stitching on my headrests and I'm pretty happy with the look.

 

No embossing/stitching on my headrests and I'm pretty happy with the look.

View attachment 303652

But the steering wheel is still on the wrong side!

 

Steering wheel on the wrong side is why mine was 50k less than those on the other side of the pond.