2019 Audi R8 comes with higher power and better tech

MANILA: It is known to the world that there isn’t going to be a successor to Audi’s flagship sports car, the R8. Peter Mertens, Audi R&D Boss, made it clear earlier that the R8 won’t have any replacement once its life cycle is over. But with the new iterations coming in the R8 life cycle seems to be longer than we thought.

And here comes the 2019 Audi R8. The latest-generation R8 is now much powerful than before with a lot more horses packed in. The torque also is far higher, and the sports car get whole new technologies too. The Audi R8 V10 Plus now gets a new name, the V10 Performance Quattro. On the design front, both the exterior and the interior get updated looks.

Oliver Hoffmann, the Technical Managing Director of Audi Sport GmbH said, “It's now even more powerful and faster. Motorsport is part of our DNA. With around 50 percent shared parts with the R8 LMS GT3, no other automobile is so close to motor racing as the R8”.

 

The 2019 R8 features a single frame grill along with a restyled bumper and lower air intakes at the front. Enhancing the sporty look of the car is a redesigned centrally mounted diffuser. Sitting below the tail lights at the rear are the bigger than before cooling ducts. And the circular exhausts are actually, huge!

A 12.3-inch digital cockpit display, aluminium pedals, carbon fibre finish elements, along with a 3-spoke steering wheel and leather upholstery are the similar interior features as seen on the last-generation R8.

Now coming to the best part, the rebooted R8 is powered by a naturally aspirated 5.2-litre FSI V10 engine. This is the same engine that featured on the previous R8. However, the new configurations and some retunings have resulted in the production of 570 PS (540 previously) of power and 550 Nm (540 previously) of peak torque. Give the new R8 some space, and the Coupe can do a 0-100 kmph run in 3.4 seconds, with the Spyder not so behind at 3.5 seconds. 324 kmph and 322 kmph are the respective top speeds for the Coupe and the Spyder.

Looking for some more thrill? Put your hands on the V10 Performance Quattro, and you are presented with 620 PS of power and 580 Nm of peak torque. With top speeds of 331 kmph and 329 kmph respectively, the Coupe and the Spyder can do the 0-100 kmph drags in 3.1 seconds and 3.2 seconds with the much powerful V10 Performance Quattro.

The Audi R8 now gets a front stabiliser made out of carbon-fibre-reinforced-polymer (CFRP). The suspension and the power steering are also re-tuned for better stability and sharper cornering abilities. There are also new driving modes included, namely dry, wet, and snow.

The braking performance of the 2019 R8 is astonishing. There are steel discs with callipers dipped in red on the standard R8 and carbon ceramic rotors with either grey or red painted callipers on the V10 Performance Quattro. The updated sports car can come from 100 kmph to a stationary position in a mere 1.5 metres. Coming from 200 kmph to a standstill won’t take more than 5 metres either. Interested buyers can get their hands on the 2019 Audi R8 from the first quarter of 2019.