2016 Audi R8 V10 First Drive Concept
A finger on the round red start button on the steering wheel of Audi's new R8 supercar, the 5.2-liter V10 awakes with a quick blip to 2500 rpm, producing a brief blast of sound that tells everyone within earshot that there's something here worthy of attention.
Motorists out on the road are treated either to the sight of a sharp new front end with its sculpted headlights and its new, better integrated single-frame grille and gaping air intakes, or to the wide tail with its new trapezoidal twin tailpipes and—on the up-level 610-horsepower V10 Plus—a low-slung carbon fiber spoiler. Many drivers will see both ends, since this car closes on normal road users like a hawk diving on a sparrow. Its extraordinary grip, braking potential and catapult acceleration making very high rates of travel seem not only normal for the public road, but entirely appropriate.
First tried the base car, good for 540 hp, and found it astonishingly capable, rocketing through each gear to the 8,500 rpm redline with alacrity, then snapping off upshifts in the fastest and most seamless fashion either of our two occupants had ever experienced. The seven-speed dual-clutch transmission is an all-new unit, and it's about the best of its kind despite the many design challenges it posed. Because the V10 is a low-slung, dry-sump monster, the transmission had to have a very low profile. This resulted in three separate oil levels being serviced by one mechanical oil pump, and, with the assistance of fast processors and clever software, in shifts that take just 120 milliseconds in normal use, and even less in the V10 Plus car's performance mode.
A sound of that V10 being used at race track speeds is a lot more inspiring than we remember of the previous generation V10. Perhaps it takes sustained high-rpm vocalizations for us to properly appreciate it. Critics have complained that the R8 has a less dramatic sound than its mechanical twin, the Lamborghini Huracan, but think of the benefits on a 400-mile trip. A quiet environment and a respectably smooth ride will give way to a more expressive exhaust note and a much firmer, more responsive demeanor when it's called for, but modern supercars have access to technology that provides the best of both worlds.
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