Audi R8 2015 Review

Turbocharged engines make you lazy. Why chase revs when an entire generation of drivers is about to be convinced that family hatches should give their best at 1250rpm?

Today’s emissions-driven engineering has seen us convert to short shifting our commuter cars, for the very simple reason that turbocharged engines do their best work below 4000rpm.

It’s no different in the cars engineered purely and simply to make us feel good when we drive them – the ones that make us internally ogle and cheer whenever one goes past, regardless of whether it’s pinned to its peaky grip limits or cruising to find the movie-star park outside the cafe.

Porsche has been force-feeding sports cars forever, of course, with the 911 Turbo. Now that party’s been crashed by Ferrari’s California and 488 GTB, plus everything at McLaren and the Mercedes-AMG GT.

Suddenly, and very conspicuously, the new Audi R8 and its spec sheet look like they were conceived in an earlier generation and somehow missed the memo.

The only other holdouts are Aston Martin, which lacks the resources to develop its own turbo motor, and Lamborghini’s Huracan, which is, oddly enough, the same core car as the R8.

Even though it said “nein” to turbocharging, Audi’s all-new R8 Plus doesn’t lack for power. It pumps out 449kW of the stuff, enough to comfortably claim a place in the junior supercar stratosphere.

Where its differs immensely in character from the cross-shopping options around it is that it won’t give you its most convincing offensive muscle until you’ve swung the tacho needle up to 6000rpm, then stretches to 8250rpm for its peak power. It keeps going, smashing into its rev-limiter at 8700rpm, when the pistons are moving at a tick under 27 metres a second.

Having a turbo doesn’t necessarily kill revs (the 488 GTB peaks at a very Ferrari-esque 8000rpm). What turbochargers in supercars do in reality is kill the necessity for revs.
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Here’s the nub of it: The R8 V10 Plus delivers 560Nm of torque – not an astounding number in this day and age, but even to extract that you have to crank it up to 6500rpm. The 911 Turbo is nearing the limiter by then, having already ambushed you with torque and ready to move on to bash you again in another gear.

The Ferrari not only makes 760Nm of torque (about 35 per cent more than the R8), but it delivers it at only 3000rpm. It’s the same with the AMG GT, which delivers 650Nm.

Those key rivals are offering cars that can rev high when the mood strikes you, but don’t need to rev high to be fast. What Audi’s offering is an R8 that can rev high and has no choice but to.

There are pros and cons here, of course. One big tick is that the R8 Plus gives you pure, unadulterated, unmodified, un-artificial, un-synthesised, un-diaphragmed sound, full of huge gulps of induction air every time you stab the throttle, deep, rumbling exertion as you ask it to climb the torque curve, howling, masculine screaming at the limiter and saturatingly absorbing theatrics on every downshift and lift off.

Sure, the turbo tearaways pop and bang on the overrun as well, but it somehow sounds more uneven, more natural and more convincing in the R8.

Then there’s the throttle response. Ferrari talks in highly technical terms about how the 488 GTB loses nothing in throttle response mid-corner in the transition from an atmo V8, but as brilliant as it is, it’s got nothing on the R8 Plus. The engine understands exactly if you want 7250rpm or 7251 on the way out of a corner and delivers it even before you know you’ve asked for it.

And, when it’s focused and concentrated and it has time to gather its thoughts (and revs), it’s every bit as quick as it needs to be.

Not many cars can blast to 100km/h in 3.2 seconds and where the Ferrari and Porsche use their turbochargers to boost their way faster than that, Audi uses its all-wheel drive to give it what can only be described as a savage launch off the line.

Its launch control only lets you build up the revs it can use, then you step off the brake pedal and its revs dip a scant 100rpm or so before it loudly and belligerently attacks the distance.

However it’s done, it ranks amongst the very best in urgency.

It’s right up there in handling, too, with the entire chassis, suspension and steering combination looking far more contemporary, even on paper, than the choice of powerplant.

There’s the same combination of an aluminium space-frame with carbon-fibre reinforcing for the transmission tunnel and the rear bulkhead of the cabin, making things lighter and 45 per cent stiffer than before.

Double-wishbone suspension set-ups bolt on to each corner of it, along with magnetically variable adaptive dampers, which can change their viscosity (and therefore their stiffness) in milliseconds to maintain contact with the road without causing in-cabin ickyness.

They’re attached to the R8’s version of Audi’s Drive Select system, so you have the choice of setting the suspension (plus the engine response, the gearshift and the skid- and traction-control systems) across Comfort, Automatic, Dynamic and (the customizable) Individual modes. These are now switchable via a push-button on the steering wheel, as are most of the car’s changeable bits.

For most situations, either the Auto or Individual modes are the way to go, especially when you can set the suspension to Auto and everything else to Dynamic.

But it’s not just the new, stiffer chassis and the more accurate suspension layout that make the R8 more fun to drive. The seat base is 12mm lower than it was on the old car, which makes a far bigger difference than you’d think.

You always feel as though the R8 is wrapped tautly around you and that everything, every single mechanical component, is there to serve you and you alone. And they do it together, largely as one.

That’s why you feel immediately comfortable enough to whip it into corners at ludicrously fast pace, trusting the car will bite and keep biting. It’s why you know you’ll be able to adjust its stance or attitude, even if you arrive at a tightening radius or bumpy bend you’ve never seen before.

At one extreme, it’s so ridiculously comfortable in both the Comfort and Automatic settings that you could easily see yourself knocking over 1000km in a day in the thing, no matter how bad the roads were. It soaks stuff up with aplomb that would worry pretty good premium sedans and it can be quiet when you want it to be, too.

At the other extreme, it is more than capable of turning a passenger’s hair white in a single corner, such is the breadth of the chassis’ ability.

Its steering is now a lot faster than it was and a lot more accurate, too, which helps on the road and on the track in different ways. It’s still comfortable enough that it doesn’t dart around over bumps and undulations, but it’s still quick enough to catch just about any slide. And it’s nuanced enough to deliver just the right amount of feedback without getting too chatty.

It’s a deliciously absorbing combination of going and stopping abilities, though you do find yourself, without really thinking about it, short-shifting on winding roads and not tapping its upper reaches.

The R8 Plus does its best work after 6000 revs, but it’s too frantic and too bellicose to tap with any frequency. It drives out of corners better, with fewer intrusions from the skid-control system, when it’s working in the meat of its torque curve anyway.

It’s a different story on the track, though, where the R8 Plus is a jet that eventually falls foul of the traditional Audi understeer curse, though only if you try to drive it traditionally. The beauty of the R8 is that it’s so ridiculously adjustable mid-corner that it feels like it’s tap dancing.

It’s so adjustable that you can kick it into corners to arrive at the apex with half a turn of opposite lock on, then you can pick up the throttle so quickly that it holds it there until the road straightens up again. It’s almost like you can never get into a corner too hot, because the hotter you come in, the more you get to make the chassis slide and buck to gather it all in again. And you’d have to misjudge something very, very badly to fall off the road in it.

When you force it to break loose at the back by running beyond the prodigious longitudinal grip threshold of the all-wheel drive system or by taking the corner just too fast, it’s absurdly easy to manage and control the drifts. All very progressive stuff.

And the carbon-ceramic brakes are astonishingly powerful, even if the progression is a little odd to get used to. They seem to bite very hard, very early when you push the pedal, then the power they deploy isn’t massively linear after that. But they do stop, quickly, and they don’t fade. The pedal stays in exactly the same position, lap after lap.

But the gearbox stars, giving you a gentle beast most of the time, but one that can crack through gears with a tiny, but perceptible longitudinal kick in almost no time at all. The shifter itself looks a little clunky, but you’ll use the paddles most of the time anyway.

The R8 V10 is an absorbing, engaging machine, and one that feels like it’s got spirit in every bolt. And it’s two cars: the one that you’ll live with beneath 6000rpm most of the time and the other beast that arrives beyond that point.

But there’s more to the car. For the passenger, the view is a bit bland, frankly. There are three HVAC controls in the middle of the dash, but not much else. Even the traditional glovebox is tiny, less than half the size of the one in the 488 GTB.

The driver, perhaps unsurprisingly in such a driver-focused chassis, is better catered for. There’s the TT-style digital dash, which carries everything in it. Tacho, fuel gauge, speedo, driving modes, navigation, sound system. Everything.

The steering wheel is also busy, with the controls for the drive modes and a handy one-push button to put all the systems in maximum attack. And there’s a button to make the exhaust louder. Just the thing for passing through sleepy villages in Portugal, we found.

While there is a pair of cup-holders hidden beneath a cover, it’s right where you’re elbows need to be, and the door pockets are far too small to house drinks or much else. And the luggage area in the nose of the car is tiny, at 112 litres, though you can shove another 226 litres of specifically-shaped stuff behind the seats.

2015 Audi R8 V10 Plus pricing and specifications:
On Sale: Q2 2016
Price: Less than the old one
Engine: Naturally aspirated 5.2-litre V10
Output: 449kW/560Nm
Transmission: Seven-speed dual-clutch
Fuel: 12.3L/100km
CO2: 287g/km
Safety rating: TBA