New Audi R8: just a facelift?

So, Audi just gives the R8 a facelift to help it shift some more units, right? Wrong! The car you see here is almost completely new, with a new tub and structure. Despite most of the frame remaining as aluminium, there are quite a few panels that have been replaced by carbon fibre ones. This helps the weight to be reduced to only 1555kg, which isn't much considering the V10 and the Quattro system. Another thing that has changed is the absence of a V8 option, which is because the majority of the last R8's were sold as either V10's or V10 plus's. For this reason, this new car is available as either a V10 (with 533BHP) or a V10 plus (with 603BHP), with a V8 version probably coming later. 

The engine, a 5.2 litre naturally aspirated V10, also has one of the best soundtracks. It is certainly a wake up call to some other cars with forced injection (*cough* Ferrari 488 *cough*). However, without the aid of forced injection this is a car that needs to be kept in a certain band for maximum thrust. And all the reworked aero on the cars means that it boasts figures that are definitely supercar-y. For the V10 plus, 0-62MPH is achieved in 3.2 seconds and it will go on to top out at 205MPH.

And obviously, this being an Audi, inside is everything you would expect from a typical German product. So, in conclusion, this is still very much the everyday supercar. Just vastly improved.

Nev