Audi R8 V10 GT RWD review – the R8 bows out in spectacular style
The Audi R8 has never been more exciting, raw or engaging. Audi Sport has saved the best for last.
We seem to be doing a lot of these lately. Farewells, that is. Be it to some of our favourite sporting models, or the engines that power them. In the case of the R8, it's both; Audi has ceased production of its mid-engined supercar and the scintillating, howling 5.2-litre V10 that powers it. It's not all bad news, though, because in last-of-the-line GT RWD form, the R8 is more exciting, more focused and more spectacular than ever.
The GT RWD is Audi Sport’s last hurrah for the R8. Limited to 333 individually numbered units worldwide (15 for the UK market) and priced at c£200,000, it's lighter and more powerful with track-honed options aimed at elevating the R8 driving experience to a whole new level. It sounds like a similar recipe to that used by Porsche’s GT department, and we'll find out whether it brings 911 GT3 levels of enjoyment to the package.
For now, the basic stats and hardware changes. For the first time, Audi has given the rear-wheel-drive R8 the same power as the all-wheel-drive version: 611bhp at 8000rpm to be precise. There’s slightly less torque (411lb ft, down from 428lb ft), but it arrives 200rpm earlier and holds until 7000rpm. There are shorter ratios for the seven-speed DSG gearbox, which clip 6mph from the top speed (now 199mph) but promise to keep the V10 fires stoked for maximum in-gear punch.
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Chassis-wise there’s a choice of standard-fit passive dampers or an optional manually adjustable coilover set-up, the latter allowing you to play with ride height and compression and rebound settings. There’s also ‘Torque Rear’, a standard seven-stage adjustable traction control that allows varying degrees of slip, which sounds like fun. Weight savings depend on which model you compare with the GT RWD, but Audi claims 20kg saved over the Performance RWD. Forged wheels, a carbonfibre front anti-roll bar and standard-fit carbon-ceramic brakes all help here.
The GT RWD certainly looks the part, dressed in an array of exposed carbon aero parts – including front splitter and dive planes, larger sills, more extensive rear diffuser and prominent rear wing suspended from gooseneck supports – that lend it a look that’d be perfectly at home in a racetrack pitlane. The new forged 20-inch wheels in particular have a real motorsport vibe, especially with their small red ‘Audi Sport’ flashes on each rim. Behind the ten gloss-black spokes sit massive red brake calipers gripping 380mm front and 356mm rear carbon-ceramic discs. Another nice touch is the black crackle-finish cam covers for the GT’s V10.
Track testing comes first, in a car with the optional Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres and coilover kit for the full GT experience. Powering out of the pitlane is both a reminder of how special the V10 is and immediate evidence that the revised gear ratios are noticeably punchier and – just as welcome – snappier and more positive in terms of shift speed and positivity.
The R8’s – and indeed all VW Group – paddle-shifters have always been rather apologetic, with an anticlimactic button-like feel. Not for them the meaty, obsessed-over haptics so successfully deployed by McLaren. While the actual paddles are unchanged in the GT, the way the gearshifts feel is much more satisfying.
It takes just the first full-blooded sprint through the gears, a hard haul on the carbon-ceramics and a dive into the first apex to understand that the GT RWD is a major step on from the Performance RWD. The steering remains calm – always an R8 hallmark – and while this means the GT doesn’t have the energised feel and instant agility of, say, a GT3, Ferrari 296 GTB or Huracán Tecnica, it now has more immediate front-end bite and a stronger appetite for slicing into the heart of a corner.
It would have been nice to experience an R8 with more direct steering, but perhaps Audi knows this would make the tail harder to tame. Even quattro R8s can feel quite tail-happy when driven to extremes. The RWD tends to break away a little more sharply than the all-wheel-drive models and takes more finesse to balance because you don’t have the front wheels helping to check the slide.
You do, however, have the Torque Rear system. Adjusted via a neat rotary switch on the steering wheel, you have the choice of seven stages of intervention. None of these completely disables DSC, but once you get beyond the first few clicks it’s clear there’s enough freedom to have, if not a full spin, then at least a fall into a clumsy half-spin if you’re too greedy with the throttle and too slow with your steering inputs.
As with all these systems, it takes a few minutes to feel your way, but once you’ve broken traction it’s amazing how subtle and responsive Torque Rear feels. The trick is not to play too much with the throttle, instead finding a happy medium of steering correction and throttle opening that has the R8 balanced. By the time you get to stage 7 you really wouldn’t know there’s any assistance at all, such are the angles you can reach and the throttle you can apply. Fundamentally it’s you controlling the car, though it’s definitely working quietly away in the background to round off any rough-edged inputs.
On laps driven in the mid-to-final stages of Torque Rear followed by full DSC Off, the GT is hugely enjoyable and readily exploitable. There’s plenty of grip, both when you make your initial direction change and as you work the front end into the apex. Through quicker corners you can work the balance of the chassis so that the tail just begins to slide through momentum, with the fabulous V10 offering precise response and ample torque to smoothly prolong the slide. The best moments aren’t when you’re fully lit, but when the car is carrying maximum speed, you’re smoothly balancing the throttle against available grip and the tail is sliding and wheels over-rotating just enough to require a quarter of a turn of opposite lock. You can do this with the help of Torque Rear, but it won’t save you from yourself or the laws of physics.
On the road, the GT isn’t as intense or rippingly exciting as a Huracán Tecnica, but not much is. With dialled back noise and responses compared to the Lamborghini the R8 has softer edges, but in some ways that makes it easier to settle into. The steering, for example, is much slower than the Tecnica's, requiring more deliberate inputs to guide the nose into corners. In some ways the speed of the rack doesn’t quite match the R8’s sense of purpose elsewhere (the tautness and connection of the chassis, the sublime gearbox, the all-consuming V10), but it does give the GT an appealing sense of calm aggression.
It’s wonderfully exploitable on the road, too. The engine’s noise and reach is addictive, and with the ESC switched off you can precisely modulate the power to keep the rear tyres lit. Go beyond this and it remains progressive and gradual in how it relinquishes grip, more so than the Huracán.
The GT RWD is a formidable farewell to the big-banger R8. While it’s far from the kind of headbanger extremes Porsche delivers with its RS models, it’s usefully, meaningfully and enjoyably more aggressive than the stock R8. It stretches the performance envelope but remains true to the model’s core values and character. At a time when ever-more-extreme iterations of track-focused road cars are having their usability compromised, there’s something rather nice about Audi Sport’s restrained approach. They really have saved the best until last.
Prices and rivals
Price-wise the R8 range exists in a strange hinterland, somewhere above mid-engined sportscars like the Lotus Emira, on a par with upper echelon 911s, but well below supercars such as the Ferrari 296 GTB and McLaren Artura. The circa-£200k GT RWD pushes closer to true exotica territory, but Audi DNA means it’s a bit straight-laced and – ironically – the old-school V10 doesn’t feel like a natural rival for the hybrid powertrains in newer supercars.
In terms of objectives and capability the GT RWD’s closest rival is Porsche’s 911 GT3 (the GT3 RS is closer in price but a more serious track tool). Both remain committed to naturally-aspirated engines and shun hybrid tech, just as they are clearly intended for drivers who appreciate road cars with a connection to motorsport and an aptitude for track use.
The R8’s V10 lacks the steely intensity of the GT3's flat-six, while its chassis falls short of the Porsche’s surgical precision. As such the GT RWD might lack a little in terms of out-and-out pace, but it’s hardly short of capability or thrills, and is just as rich in character.
The Huracán Tecnica, meanwhile, generates more excitement from similar ingredients to the R8, but it too has come to the end of its life, having been replaced by the hybrid V8 Temerario.
