So it’s official: Lamborghini’s Huracan successor will lose a couple of cylinders, but gain a brace of turbos and a whole trio of electric motors. Furthermore, Audi is sweetening the deal with a 10,000rpm redline and peak power of 800hp just 1,000rpm shy of it. But of course it does mean that the V10 howl you so often hear bouncing off the buildings in central London won’t be quite as omnipresent as it has been for the last decade or so - especially as the Huracan wasn’t the only car producing that inimitable noise.
While there’s still no word on what the R8 successor will look like - nor whether it might pinch Lambo’s new hybrid V8 or go fully electric - the writing has been on the wall for Audi's V10 supercar for quite some time. Confirmation of its axing came just a couple of months ago when its maker announced that the final model had been built, although we knew production was drawing to a close about 18 months ago when it unveiled the car we have here: the R8 GT RWD.
From the outside, it looks like a facelifted version of the hyper rare ‘Performance Parts’, which itself was the closest Audi came to building a GT3-style R8. That’s because it comes with the same aero appendages as the Performance Parts model, including the swan neck rear wing that looks like a scaled-down version of the GT3 race car’s, plus a deeper splitter, skirts and canards front and rear. It even carried over the same 20-inch forged wheels and received the obligatory Alcantara trim around the steering wheel and dash.
As the name suggests, the Performance Parts edition was essentially Audi throwing a smattering of track-focused hardware at the R8 V10 and calling it a day. For the GT RWD, it took a more holistic approach. The run-out model featured adjustable KW coilovers and carbon ceramic disks, and carbon fibre was used for the front anti-roll bar and bucket seats to help shed 20kg. While these weren’t exclusive to the GT, the new Torque Rear drive mode certainly was. The system modulated the interference of the traction control to allow for a degree of rear-slip, proving right at the dying end that the R8 did indeed have a sense of humour.
Topping it all off was the 5.2-litre naturally aspirated V10, delivering 620hp where previously there had been 562hp from the RWD. Other changes included the seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox from the pre-particulate filter R8s, which had shorter ratios, while tweaks to the software shortened shift times to even tinier fractions of a second and downshifted at higher revs for a better response on track. The results? Well, as we said in our review: “more power and two fewer wheels to transmit it through, plus a more responsive chassis and a stupid but sublime drift mode, [is] indeed a fitting way to say goodbye.”
The most focused R8 (shy of ABT’s GT2-based XGT) R8 in existence doesn’t come cheap, nor does it help that only 15 right-hand drive examples came to the UK and that this particular car only has 341 miles on the clock. You’ll need to fork out £249,990 for this one, which does sting a little when this 2023 model with half the mileage can be had for a 50 per cent discount. Or how about one of the original R8s with a V8 and manual gearbox? This 2008 car with the glossy carbon blades could be yours for £34,500. So, what’ll it be then? The final chapter in the R8 story? Or the car that launched one of the finest dynasties of the 21st century? Over to you…
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