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By EWAN
KENNEDY
17 August 2009
For those folks to whom 420 horsepower simply isn't enough,
Audi now provides a new version of its R8 supercar – with 520
horsepower. That stunning power comes from a V10 engine displacing
5.2 litres and producing peak power at a racecar-like 8000 rpm. It
also has a very handy 530 Newton metres of torque, although this
may not appear until the tacho needle points to 6500 revs, but
there's decent grunt from the engine from a ridiculously low 2000
rpm.
What a blast to drive. We did some hot laps at Queensland's
Lakeside Raceway - where else to try a race-bred supercar like
this? That was in a six-speed, fully-gated, manual R8 5.2 V10.
The double-clutch R Tronic sequential-manual transmission probably
makes more sense, both from the point of view of speed and
convenience, but there's nothing quite like a full-manual gearbox
that gives you a feeling of complete control.
This Audi supercar is stunning at the track. The engine note is to
die for, a screaming metallic sound that varies virtually
instantaneously as the direct-injection engine responds to the
slightest touch of the accelerator pedal. The push in the back as
you wind off the steering and come fully onto the loud pedal is
seductive and you just want to keep going on the track forever.
Then there's the push in the sides – because this semi-race
machine can generate lateral g-forces of up to 1.2. This is enough
to make your mind start to wonder if you're not going dangerously
hard when, in fact, you are still a long way short of the car’s
capabilities.
Braking is stunning. There's a feeling that a giant hand has just
reached down from the sky, grasped the Audi and forced it to
travel at much slower speeds than it was at a few moments
beforehand. No matter how hard we tried at Lakeside there was no
sign of the brakes fading or overheating.
Acceleration, handling and braking are all significantly enhanced
by the use of Audi's quattro all-wheel-drive system.
We didn’t get a chance to experience this hot Audi R8 in normal
driving conditions. But in the interests of some form of reality
we forced ourselves to do some mundane trundling around the car
park to get a feel for it at low revs. There it proved as docile
in the engine and transmission as the smallest of underpowered
hatchbacks. We see no reason why you could not use this supercar
as a daily driver. But perhaps not as a holiday cruiser, because
luggage space is strictly limited, there's some space behind the
rear seat, and a small ‘boot’ under the front bonnet.
We may be able to borrow a car for an extended road test in real
world conditions later, if so we will come back to you asap on its
day-to-day practicality.
From an appearance point of view you have to be a car spotter to
pick the subtle styling differences between the R8 with a V8 and
the new variant. Apart from V10 badges on the guards, the biggest
visual differences are the scooped sideblades (those different
coloured panels immediately behind the doors). The front grilles
are slightly different in detail and colour, the side sills
protrude more and there are two large oval exhaust outlets instead
of the four round ones on the V8. There are minor changes but you
really need to see the two side by side to appreciate them.
The Audi R8 with the V8 powerplant will continue to be imported,
but the general feeling is that anyone with $277,000 to spare for
a supercar won't find it hard to come up with the extra $73,800
for the R8 V10. Indeed, in this rarefied class of car buying
there's a strong tendency for people to automatically purchase the
best that's on offer irrespective of price. So we wouldn’t be
surprised to see the V8 disappear from the price list in the not
too distant future.
The complete Audi R8 range with prices, excluding dealer and
government charges, is:
R8 4.2 FSI quattro: $277,200 (manual), $293,100 (automatic)
R8 5.2 FSI quattro: $351,000 (manual), $366,900 (automatic)
© Copyright
Marque Publishing Company
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