Video: this is a 2,000hp, twin-turbo Audi R8 that'll eat its own axles

A spin through Dallas, Texas (where we met the NASROD in episode 2) wouldn’t be complete without stopping in at T1 Race Development. A legend among the big-horsepower crowd, proprietor Tony Palo got his start tuning Hondas, but has made his name wringing neck-straining thrust from R35 Nissan GT-Rs.

His own GT-R, a test mule for development, produces somewhere in the range of 2,400 wheel horsepower - 235.6 mph in the half-mile. That’s Bugatti Divo territory (speed limited, but still). What’s more, the “Nightfury” GT-R Palo’s shop built for laser-show entrepreneur George Dodworth is the quickest in the world, at more than 3,000hp and a scorching quarter-mile time of 6.51 seconds at 230 mph.

Palo's work on Audi R8s may be lesser known, but on episode three in the new series of American Tuned, presenter Rob Dahm gets a few runs in T1’s latest four-rings test car. Palo bought the R8 V10 as a development platform after Motec released a plug-and-play ECU kit. Starting with 500 horsepower, it underwent a series of modifications, including 80mm turbos, which gave the ten-banger the potential for 2,500 horsepower, all while retaining the car’s all-wheel drive capability, drivability and, one might say, Audi-esque comportment.

As an ongoing development project, the R8 hasn’t hit its ultimate power number yet, although Palo’s plan is to push it to the limit and beyond. “There’s still so much potential in these cars," he says about the R8, “both from the power standpoint and getting them dialled in down the track. We’re still working on how best to launch them, and shift them.” Of course, expanding the tuning scope of modern sports cars is a complex calibration exercise, and the T1 team records 850 channels of data during each drag pass, which feed back into development.

Indeed, the R8's journey is not without challenges. “Some kind of a safety trip,” Palo calls out, during a drag pass at around 2,000 horsepower. Indeed, faults are all part of the development process. If you don’t break anything, Dahm says, you’ll never push yourself further.