This Is Officially It: The New 205mph Audi R8

Well, that didn’t take long. Following on from the leaked official image - which looks to have first emerged yesterday - Audi has dropped all the details and pictures of its new supercar.

Now, to swiftly deal with the big elephant in the room: yes, on the face of it, it doesn’t look awfully different to the outgoing model. The front and rear are now much more angular (the front bears a resemblance to the new TT), with slimmer lights and a smaller, sharper front grille.

The circular exhausts of the old R8 have been swapped for trapezoidal items, but they’re still integrated into the rear bumper. There’s a retractable spoiler on the standard V10 model, and a fixed version similar to the one found on the 2014 R8 LMX if you opt for the ‘V10 Plus’. But, despite all the changes, the overall shape is a very familiar one.

On the inside, the differences are a little more noticeable. Gone is the dated dash of the old R8, replaced with a gloriously minimalist setup. Like the new TT, the navigation and infotainment systems have been integrated into a single 12.3-inch TFT screen which makes up the instrument binnacle. Yes, there are smatterings of carbonfibre, but for once, they don’t look that naff.

The shiny new stuff continues underneath, too, and much of it is also used in the Lamborghini Huracan. It has the latest version of Audi’s Space Frame platform plus a lightweight central tunnel, which is made up of a 50kg single moulding of carbonfibre. The chassis is 40 per cent stiffer than the outgoing R8, while the track and wheelbase have also been increased. The weight figure now sits at 1555kg.

It’ll be an all-5.2-litre V10 line-up to start with, with 533bhp and 398 lb ft of torque in the standard model, and 602bhp and 413lb ft in the ‘V10 Plus’. In the Plus, 0-62mph will take just 3.2 seconds, and it’ll top out at 205mph.

Lower-powered versions will follow, but the engines that’ll power those cars are yet to be confirmed. The 4.2-litre V8 found in the outgoing car will probably be culled, replaced with perhaps the 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 found in the likes of the S6 and RS6, or even a turbo V6 if the rumours are to be believed.

The car will make its public debut at the Geneva motor show next week, before going on sale this summer.