Audi donates two chrome R8 Spyders to raise $1 million for Elton John AIDS Foundation

One was Mercedes-Benz, the other Auto Union. The former has been known to revive the honorific from time to time, but with Horch, DKW and Wanderer all long gone, the only one of the four Auto Union brands that's still around is Audi.

The Ingolstadt-based automaker has, as much as it Stuttgart-based rival, become a favorite among modifiers who chrome-dip every panel of their cars. Even the automaker itself showed off a chromed R8 5.2 at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 2009, and has now created a special chrome R8 Spyder for no less glitzy a celebrity than Elton John.

In fact, Audi made two of these R8s, both donated for auction to benefit the Elton John AIDS Foundation at its annual White Tie & Tiara benefit at Sir Elton's home. The first was sold for £250,000 (about $400,000). The second was sold for a similar amount, then donated back to the foundation and re-sold again, the two cars raising a total of £620,000 between them – that's nearly a cool million in American greenbacks.