Audi R8 with 10 cylinder engine

The last news I've read said that Audi has resumed testing the 10 cylinder version of the R8. It hinted that the "R8S" or "R10" or whatever they call it will likely be a 2009 model. Has anyone heard anything about that from a reliable source? Will Audi make it? What will it be called? When will the first US deliveries be? Also, has anyone taken delivery of the current R8? What are your impressions so far?

 

Rebodied Gallardo is what it sounds like to me.

 

V10 R8 > gallardo

 

The R8 is much different than the gallardo as far as I could tell. Its seems to be a much smaller looking vehicle in person..

For some reason I don't see the smaller appearing R8 even with the V10 to be much of a competitor for the wildly sharp edged Gallardo..

It might be of course due to the dollars they both cost....but for some reason I look at the two vehicles and see dramatically different character..

 

The 10 cyl is availble in the Audi 6 series now.

 

Maybe a V10 TDI or the 6.0 V12 TDI from the Q7

 

Thanks for all your thoughts on this. I think the plan is for the Gallardo to get an increase in power around the same time that the 10 cylinder R8 comes out so that the Gallardo will maintain a performance advantage.

 

There are real positive and negatives to company's sharing components and chassis.
On one hand Lambo has greatly increased reliability, but on the other hand Audi has a
performance ceiling it can not exceed. There has been talk that it will juts use a supercharged
V8 . Look at the new S4 - back down to a TT V6 from a V8 - so who knows.
I think Audi clearly realizes they wont have an issue selling these guys even at $150k -
current models are going for nearly $180k with premium.

 

Eyes can be deceptive mate, The R8 is actually a bigger car than the baby Lambo, by about half a foot or so if I remember aright.

 

Has anyone heard anything else about the R4 .... last I heard they wanted to do a mid-engine $50,000 car with smaller engine...

R4 300hp
R8 400hp
R8S 500hp

 

Come on dude thats like saying the solistic is much diffrent from the sky, they are practically the same thing, built on the same chassis only diffrent powerplants used and now they are transplanting the orginal donors brain into the clone in this case.

Body wise they even look almost a like its not much but the traits are there.

 

I have a friend employed at Quattro GMBH. He says they (Audi) are still testing V10 mules and supercharged V8 mules. Cooling is the biggest issue for the V10, followed by packaging and weight. Also, the current R-Tronic won't handle the V10 torque to their satisfaction (think reliability & warranties).

Pushing the R8 / R10 up the HP scale isn't too much of a problem as they can move the Gallardo up accordingly. Cost of the R10 may be an issue in the US, as people here are not yet accustomed to >$150K Audis.....and this is the single biggest market. Realistically, there is no rush for Audi to do either of these cars....IMHO, except for the crazies here and there, the R8 will be oversold/underdelivered for 2 more years. Also, he thinks there is likely an R8 Spyder in the pipeline sooner than either more cylinders or more air......

I'm very happy with my R8, so I want a couple of years before my dealer calls and says "your R10 is here" (we ordered it before we took delivery of the R8).

James

PS: Note to Pantera: I think you need to be a bit more discerning; so far as I can tell, after living with each one, the R8 and the Gallardo share absolutely no design/mechanical/stylistic components or attributes or driving experiences whatsoever!

 

+1

Obviously the vehicles will have a marginally shared heritage just by virtue of being brought to life by the same firm and having the same layout and scope... but saying they look alike? A classic example of the power of suggestion in action!

 

Latest reports here say that the V10 is due for launch in 2009, and they are in no hurry due to huge demand for the existing R8. Also that the V10 to be used in the car is a new engine and no relative to the current Gallardo V10.

 

So its a totally diffrent powerplant? All audi?.

This engine won't endup in the 09-10 to Gallardos won't it?.

 

It's not going ot be a gallardo engine, it will be totally different.

 

I believe the hugh demand for the r8 stems in part from only having released 200 in the US this year and 400 world wide...if i am wrong with these numbers, please correct me..to keep this number in perspective, ferrari sells 4000 F430s a year and porsche sells over 30,000 911s!!!!!

 

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As far as I know Audi are currently building at a rate of 21 cars per day or approx 6000 per year, and once some problems with carbonfiber panel production are overcome that rate is set to double, still small numbers though

 

Eventhough Audi's sold out its R8 doesn't mean than they can double the production and sell that as well. Much of this is hype. Same way when the NSX came. The first years it did okey, but then production went down after the hype calmed down.

Good for us though, I see a bargain perfomance car in the future.

 

You cant compare the market conditions in the early 90s when the NSX was intoduced to those of today. Also the NSX was not far off the price 15 years ago of an R8 now. I dont see the R8 dropping in value excessively, although it will depreciate given some time.

 

Wonder how much it will weigh? I was pretty shocked to find out that the 8 toked in at about 3700 pounds.

 

Good point, even at 6k cars a year world wide, the A8 is very low volume, esp for an Audi...the porsche sells over 30k 911 variants a year, at an average price of over 100k $....