Le Mans is R8

Newswheel staff :: 17 November 2005 :: Filed under Mid / rear engine sportscar, Audi, Audi Le Mans, Audi R8, Europe & UK, US

[Click on an image to view]

Audi’s mid-engine supercar gets a name

Audi’s Le Mans concept has already been confirmed for production. And now Audi has announced that the storming mid-engined sportscar will be called the R8 when it hits the road in 2007. But with no official technical details available, fisticuffs are brewing over what engine will power the new car.

Conventional wisdom, including German motoring tome Auto Motor und Sport, suggests the production R8 will not only share its name with Audi’s Le Mans winning racing car (known as the, er, R8) but also carry over its twin-turbo, 5.0-litre V10. Hence, Auto Motor und Sport are quoting precisely the same 610bhp figure for the road-going R8 as its racecar sibling produces.

However, we’ve also heard whispers that the R8 will be powered by a 450bhp naturally aspirated version of Audi’s direct injection V10, as found in the recently unveiled Audi S8 (another version of this same V10, but without direct injection, produces 520bhp in the Lamborghini Gallardo). For what it’s worth, The Car Connection agrees with that view and adds that a V8 entry-level model sporting the same 414bhp bent eight screamer as the current RS4 will also be available. If the 600bhp+ twin turbo mill does make the grade, here’s hoping Audi doesn’t use the plentiful power on offer as an excuse to let the R8 grow fat and complacent. We’d much rather see a light and lithesome R8 powered by a small and responsive engine than a another turboed-up, two-ton uber car like the VW Group’s own Bugatti Veyron. And using a less powerful engine would also make it easier for Audi to position the R8 below the Gallardo.

The R8 will be built at Audi’s Neckarslum facility, which incorporates the company’s Aluminium Centre and specialises in lightweight manufacturing technologies. Production starts in late 2006 with first deliveries in early 2007.

Those Audi-Lambo powerplants in full:

From the top: The Gallardo’s 520bhp 5-litre V10, the 450bhp V10 à la Audi S8 and the RS4’s 424bhp V8.

Linkage:
Auto Motor und Sport
The Car Connection
Germans to build Le Mans (internal)