Tuesday, 9 February 2016

AUDI R8 V10


Oh Audi, what have you done? The new Audi R8 doesn’t so much arrive with a bang as a carpet-bombing – while we all sort of knew the original was a cut-price Lamborghini Gallardo, presenting it as a V8 initially established such clean air between them that the later introduction of increasingly focused V10 variants never really threatened the established hegemony. Not this time.
Imagine being a fly on the wall when Ingolstadt told Sant’Agata that it would be launching the R8 MkII with the same 602bhp output as the Huracan, charging less for it and including more tech. Publically we’re sure Lamborghini will say the image gulf between the two brands is so vast as to make the situation utterly irrelevant, and perhaps that’s true. But the point is that the R8 V10 Plus is not really a 911 rival any more – if it ever really was.

Audi hasn’t exactly gone to town on the styling, has it?

From the outside, it’s best described as ‘evolutionary’ – hardly a surprise, and hardly something that’s ever done the 911 any harm. Some may complain that the form isn’t as pure as the original, but the taut lines and exaggerated width (really only 11mm greater than before) do amp up its rear view mirror presence. The new R8 is more aggressive, more serious somehow, and from the driver’s seat the way the shoulder lines now divide the ‘side blade’ air intakes to flow uninterrupted until they reach the rear-wheel arches looks sensationally purposeful in the door mirrors.
Under the skin the hand-welded aluminium spaceframe is now enhanced with a carbonfibre centre tunnel, firewall and B-pillars, making it 40% stiffer but 15% lighter. You can feel the difference in the way the car responds to both your own inputs and the road surface. Audi also says the road car shares 50% of its components with the new R8 LMS racing car; the two were developed in parallel this time around. Proof of capability came with victory in the LMS’s inaugural assault on the Nürburgring 24 hours in May 2015.

How do you tell the difference between the regular R8 V10 and the V10 Plus?

Oh, that’s easy – look for the fixed carbonfibre rear wing, which replaces the pop-up aerofoil on the regular V10. The Plus also gets matching carbonfibre door mirrors, side blades and diffuser, and once closer you’ll spot the standard carbon-ceramic brakes.
Together with forged rather than cast 19-inch alloy wheels (the 20s are optional) and shell-backed bucket seats, these bits help make the Plus 40kg lighter while further justifying the price difference. £15k for all this, some extra kit, closer gear ratios and that additional 69bhp? No-brainer, surely.

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