Rear-wheel-drive Audi R8 here to stay

So permanent in fact that the R8 V10 RWD doesn’t just lose the front driveshafts (saving 65 kg) but it gets the latest R8 look, as already seen on the R8 quattro. It’s a look shared by the new LMS GT4 customer race car, also previewed today.

At the centre of the redesign is the latest, broader version of Audi’s “Singleframe” grille with redesigned air inlets, front splitter and new aero blades in gloss black. There are updates inside too and “RWD” logos.

If a 5.2-litre naturally-aspirated V10 engine with 540 PS (533bhp) going to the rear wheels in a car weighing 1595kg sounds good, this new R8 is the machine for you. It’s 30bhp down on the quattro R8 but it can still knock off 0-62mph in a handy 3.7 seconds. And you can get it either as a coupe or as convertible spyder.

Rear drive endows the R8 with a “puristic kind of driving pleasure” says Audi – for that read a handling attitude up to and including drifting, always difficult when all the wheels are driven. In the RWD, all you have to do to light up the rear tyres is select sport mode and go for it, with the Electronic Stabilization Control keeping a watchful eye on things. As before the near-200mph car gets a seven-speed S tronic gearbox and mechanical locking differential.

No price for the UK has thus far been confirmed; the RWD special series of 2018 started at  around  £110,000, but the new one is likely to push that nearer the €144,000 (equivalent to £124,000) that the coupe will cost in Germany.

The latest-generation R8 and LMS race  car were developed alongside each and are said to share about 60 per cent parts, although without the quattro drive the new RWD road car is even closer to the race  car. That also gets the new look in GT4 form, along with options Audi says will make the car more competitive than ever, including precision-adjustable ABS and traction control for the first time. To tailor the car to the track and conditions all the driver has to do is select from eight different brake and traction settings via rotary switches on the new (GT2) steering wheel.

Since 2018, the R8 LMS GT4 has clinched 17 titles in racing in America, Asia, Australia, Europe and South Africa, often competing in fields of 40 cars.