There's A New RWD Audi R8, And This Time It's Not A Limited-Edition
The Audi R8 RWS is back! Well, not quite. The new rear-wheel drive version of the facelifted second-gen R8 has the much more straightforward name of ‘V10 RWD’, and it isn’t production limited. As a reminder, only 999 examples of the RWS were made available.
There is a small catch, though. Go for the RWD over a regular R8 V10, and you are going to have to accept a drop in power. While the entry-level R8 received a bump to 562bhp with its facelift, the RWD is no more powerful than the pre-update car. But still, 533bhp is - we’d argue - plenty. It’s enough to get the R8 RWD from 0-62 in 3.7 seconds, on to a top speed of 198mph.
As with the RWS, it’ll be hard to tell apart from its all-wheel drive brother. But look carefully, and there are some giveaways. The upper sideblade is gloss black, while the lower one is finished in body colour. The front splitter, side skirt inserts and rear diffuser are all painted in gloss black too.
Inside, there’s a more obvious clue, in the form of a big ‘RWD’ logo slapped on the dashboard in front of the passenger. Speaking of which, the R8 RWD gets two special Alcantara-clad sports seats.
Given that the RWD is missing a centre diff and some prop shafts, it is slightly lighter relative to the standard model. You’re looking at a weight drop of 65kg for the coupe, and 55kg for the Spyder. Each is still on the porky side though - the dry weights for the coupe and Spyder are 1595 and 1695kg respectively.
UK orders should open January 2020, with the first customer cars delivered in March. There’s no word on prices yet, but if it’s to follow in the footsteps of the RWS, it’ll become the cheapest version of the R8, sitting just under the £128,200 V10 model.
The RWD isn’t the only new R8 revealed by Audi today - it was unveiled alongside an updated version of the R8 GT4 customer racing car (above). This had us wondering - will any particularly well-heeled gentlemen racing drivers out there buy both?
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
I’ll be totally honest here: buying it makes no sense
Do you want a RWD R8? If yes, buy a Huracan 570-2.
It’s stupid IMO. Why buy a car that ignores it’s heritage, instead of car that follows its heritage and has RWD.
I really can’t see a point here.
Doubt many will sell. AWD is better for most non car guys, and doubt car guys will get it over the 570-2
To add to my point: why did Lamborghini and Audi make both 610-4 and Quattro R8 at the same time? Why not make the 570-2 an Quattro R8 exclusively?
Why make both at the same time is even more confusing for me.
All they need to do now is fix the front and rear bumper design
I’d disagree, the R8 looks stunning
Jeez I’m 90% of the comment section
I personally don’ t mind it but I think it look to sharp and aggressive. the audi r8 has always been kinda round look in the first gen and the gen 2
If and only if there was to be a manual shifter version of it coupled with the RWD setup. But we know that’s highly unlikely to happen 🙁
To be honest, I expected a greater weight reduction than that, knowing the entire AWD system got removed. Looks interesting, and for once there’s a mid-engine RWD supercar in the 100k-200k market share. The Huracan is more expensive if I recall anyway.
Still, would I have to get an R8, I’d get a regular AWD model, because it was designed to be AWD, and because there aren’t any tangible benefits to getting it RWD.
65kg is almost the weight of a person
those tips tho
Why get this when you could get a stickshift m2 CS that will be more practical, lighter, and just as fast in a straight line? Yes, the R8 will handle better but with 40k of mods on the M2 CS… i’m not so sure.
because the r8 is more exotic, and doesn’t look like a souped up 3 series. At this level of performance, who cares whats slightly faster. The R8 is going to get the panties more wet.
Lets just appreciate that Audi, a otherwise very sensible car company, is offering a naturally aspirated
500+bhp V10, RWD supercar in this day and age.
Who’s stupid idea was this?
1600kg dry???? My 1997 Volvo was lighter than that
Is nobody going to comment on how MASSIVE THOSE EXHAUSTS ARE!?!