Audi R8 V10 RWD and R8 RWD Performance (2020 - 2024) review – Audi's 911 GT3 fighters

Apart from the Audi R8 RWD and R8 RWD Performance, Audi has no precedence with rear-driven cars. On the contrary, it's the marque’s Quattro-branded all-wheel drive that was once central to the premium potency of the brand. But almost as central is the R8, its halo supercar, which is also by far its most driver-focused model. So it stands to reason that this would be the model unique in Audi’s range and recent history at large, to be offered with power going exclusively to the rear wheels. It was the Audi R8 RWD and RWD Performance that were the true pretenders to the sporting, engaging supremacy of the Porsche 911 and even the McLaren 570S.

They of course followed in the footsteps of the limited-run Audi R8 RWS, which ahead of the R8’s 2019 facelift, introduced the notion of power going to the rear wheels exclusively in an R8. Being a limited car with just 999 examples made and with the R8 facelift on the horizon, the R8 RWS was a beta test for the production RWDs to come. After the facelifted R8 arrived in 2019, the full production R8 RWD followed and eventually, the R8 RWD Performance that, south of the angrier R8 GT, is about as focused as R8s get.

Compared with the quattro model the R8 RWD is 65kg lighter, thanks mostly to the deletion of drive to the front wheels: the centre diff, propshaft, front differential and driveshafts. It was also cheaper and identifiable by the body-coloured side blades all RWDs came with as standard. The RWD also got its own ten-spoke 19-inch wheels as standard.

While the R8 RWD Performance got more power at greater expense, it didn’t get an upgrade to adaptive magnetorheological dampers, which could well have hampered its chances of eCoty 2022 honours. Opt for ‘Edition’ specification and you got 20-inch wheels, carbon sideblades, black detailing, upgraded upholstery and a Bang & Olufsen sound system. 

Audi R8 RWD performance, engine and powertrain

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The 5.2-litre V10 was the only engine available in the second-generation R8 and the R8 RWD and RWD Performance are no exceptions. The R8 V10 RWD used the same 533bhp version of the 5.2-litre V10 found in the R8 RWS. A few tweaks to the ECU mapping have liberated an additional 29bhp and 9lb ft of torque over the previous rear-wheel-drive R8, seeing power climb to 562bhp and torque peak at 406lb ft – some way off the R8 Performance quattro’s 611bhp and the rear-drive Huracán’s 602bhp. Likewise both RWDs are coupled with the seven-speed dual-clutch, S-tronic gearbox.

Less power plays less weight than an equivalent quattro, resulting in almost the same power-to-weight ratio, but it’s slower from a standing start because those deleted mechanicals help deliver the traction to deploy all of the V10’s performance off the line. 

The RWD and RWD Performance are still rapid of course, taking just 3.7sec to get to 62mph, though they are a few tenths of a second down by comparison to AWD R8s of the same vintage. Once you’re rolling, there should be very little between any of them. 

Flat out the RWD gets to 199mph, while the AWD’s extra horsepower gives it the bragging rights because it pushes it to 201mph. The RWD Performance, however, pushes beyond, to 204mph.

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Numbers are not the point with these cars, though. It’s about the theatre of an engine we now sorely miss. It’s old-school – a magnificent way to be propelled along any road at any speed. 

The fireworks that accompany the V10 over the last 1500rpm don’t rise so high when there’s only one driven axle, but as you approach the 8000rpm peak the soundtrack is as intoxicating and spine-tingling as you’d expect of an engine that’s been designed without compromise and hand assembled. 

The unique characteristics of a V10 – the instantaneous flare of revs as if there’s next-to-no flywheel, the melodic range of its tone that draws you in and floods your senses – are unforgettable. It’s a motor that would enliven pretty much any car it was installed in.

When it comes to the gearbox, only the VW Group’s pathetic paddles let the side down, otherwise the seven-speed double-clutch unit is as quick to change up or down as the tacho needle is to race around the rev counter. Although, like many of its ilk, it’s better when used as a manual than when left in auto, where it can be slow to downshift and too eager to upshift.

Audi R8 RWD handling

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When you start with a mid-engined car with a naturally aspirated, 5.2-litre lump in the back and then remove the drivetrain to the front wheels, that’s only going to concentrate more of the weight over the rear axle. In the R8 RWD it’s now 40:60 front/rear, so as you’d expect, the R8 RWD comes with its own ‘sports’ suspension set-up. This is a fixed damper arrangement and there isn’t the option to specify adaptive damping. There is a limited-slip differential and a selectable ‘drift’ mode. Braking is by steel discs all round.

Audi’s Dynamic Steering is standard fit across the range, but in the rear-driver you need to turn in earlier than you are possibly expecting, and with less pace, to get the nose tucked in to avoid a period of mid-corner vagueness that will require more lock to be added when your brain is saying you should be winding it off and applying some throttle.

Once hooked on line, however, the R8 RWD drives out of the corner with a delicate balance, the rear digging in as the nose rises and the road straightens out. Leave the systems switched on and you’re led to believe the rear Michelin Pilot Sport 4S rubber is operating at its limit. Yet when you slacken the ESP off and wind up the driver modes you discover that the manic flickering of a skidding car graphic in the instrument display is, in reality, indication of a rear axle and a mechanical limited-slip diff working with a seamless precision to ensure not a millimetre of throttle travel is lost to broken traction. 

With confidence comes a small twist of corrective lock as the R8 RWD Performance digs in and fires you to the next braking zone. There are moments when it feels like a car half its size that’s lost 500kg from its 1595kg kerb weight. 

Where the Performance slightly falters, however, is at the finest levels of body control and ride from the steel springs and passive dampers, with no option to specify Audi’s Magnetic Ride hardware. As confirmed on some of the more challenging roads of the Pennines during 2022's evo Car of the Year test, the car feels unsettled more often than not, with a spring rate that feels too soft (despite Audi’s claim it’s been stiffened) and a set of dampers that feel too stiff and unforgiving and lacking in bandwidth. At low to medium speeds the car doesn’t settle and has a ride quality that’s nowhere near compliant enough to be useful on UK roads. 

Odd to be worse by comparison to the less potent and still passively suspended R8 RWD it replaced. In many ways, the standard R8 RWD feels just like its all-wheel-drive counterpart but it still suffers for the lack of adaptive suspension.

An R8 has always been an appealing machine. Bereft of the flash and grandeur of traditional supercars, it matches their depth of engineering and quality of controls. But in taking away drive to the front axle, Audi Sport has also removed more of the R8’s inherent dynamic attributes rather than adding to them. Not a lot separates the Audi R8 RWD and the R8 RWD Performance that replaced it, bar the 29bhp and 9lb ft bumps in oomph.

Used Audi R8 RWD and RWD Performance running costs, price and rivals

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At a little short of £115k when new, the R8 RWD coupe was a useful £15k less expensive than the quattro version. The RWD gives you most of the thrills and sensations of the AWD, though ultimately it’s not as capable, so you are getting what you pay for. Being low-slung and mid-engined, it feels more intrinsically exotic than 2020 contemporaries like the Aston Martin Vantage (£120k at the time). The solid throttle response of the high-revving V10 is a rare treat these days too, so while the McLaren 540C (£128k at the time) is a sharper tool dynamically, it’s less aurally compelling.

Prices for the R8 RWD Performance started at £132,805 for the base car and rose to £143,805 for the Edition. The R8 RWD Performance targeted largely the same cars and same market as the R8 RWD it replaced, though by the time the RWD Performance was out, the McLaren Artura and Maserati MC20 had arrived as alternatives, albeit for folding money more from new. There was also the 992.1 Porsche 911 GT3 which, while not as powerful and not a supercar in the traditional sense, bested the R8 as an outright thriller and matched it on price.

Audi R8 RWDs are the rarest of the production R8s, in spite of going more mainstream than the pre-facelift Audi R8 RWS they replaced. You’d hope they might therefore have held a bit more value but alas, no. The earliest examples with upwards of 15,000 miles are in the £80-£90k range (as of January 2025). The most expensive R8 RWD Performance examples with tiny miles, or that are remaining dealer stock, will set you back up to £130k.

As if it needed to be said, the GT3 used market is the healthiest of the rivals mentioned above. Residual values for R8s have never been as strong as equivalent Porsches or indeed more exotic rivals and these are no exception. That said, the scarcity of the rear-driven cars ought to bode well for them in the distant future. 

In terms of maintaining them, while consumables like tyres and brakes and the cost of servicing of that magnificent engine won’t be cheap, RWDs being a driven axle, are also down a key service area and failure point of R8s that goes back to the original V8. Audi’s dealer network is more substantial than most other supercar marques and specialists aren’t in short supply.

Audi R8 V10 RWD and R8 RWD Performance specs