Audi R8 RWS
A hot Audi without all-wheel drive? They said it couldn’t be done, but it’s turned out great. By CJ Hubbard
No quattro, no lack of thrills
WHO’D HAVE THOUGHT the Quattro GmbH name hung so heavily around the neck of Audi’s performance division? Within mere moments, it seems, of ditching the literal association with four-wheel drive and being rebranded Audi Sport, the little tinkers have produced a rear-wheel-drive model – the first in the entire history of the Audi brand.
You can tell they haven’t had much practice at this: the Audi R8 variant in question has been labelled RWS – which to every other gearhead on planet Earth stands for rear-wheel steering. This R8 does not have rear-wheel steering, at least not in any technical fashion. Perhaps it’s Audi Sport’s idea of a joke: ‘An entire 533bhp 5.2-litre V10 directed exclusively at the back axle, of course it’s got rear-wheel steering, ha ha.’
RWS actually stands for Rear Wheel Series, the series signifying a limited run of 999. Audi is hoping that by surgically extracting all the front axle gubbins, prop shaft etc to save 50kg, and restricting the numbers available, this car will appeal to both ‘purists’ and collectors. You can have a Coupe or a Spyder, but most are expected to go for the former – because it’s purer, and because the convertible isn’t available with the natty red graphics pack, which includes the Audi Sport rhombus on the roof, incidentally.
All this talk of Audi Sport, rearwheel drive and purity is probably painting a picture in your head. Let me throw some fuel on the fire. The RWS comes in a focused spec – specifically stiffened passive damping, thicker front anti-roll bar, standard-fit limited-slip diff and new software for the fixedratio steering. So no dynamic suspension and no dynamic steering, and the brakes are wavy floating steel discs rather than carbon-ceramics. The only sporty option is a louder exhaust. You can go crazy with Audi Exclusive colours and trims if you want, but out of the packet the exterior detailing is all black or – in the case of the lower side blade – body-coloured. Finished in simple white with black wheels and the daft red stripe it looks proper. GT3 911 sort of proper. Coo. Now let me chuck a bucket of water over that whole scenario.
If you were hankering after a hardcore, fighty, mad-as-a-boxof-psychotropic-frogs R8 with more power than sense and a nose for cambers like an Alfa 4C with a grown-up engine, this is resolutely not it. What it is instead is a really rather lovely entry point into R8 ownership that leaves you questioning whether the rest of the range is even necessary. Fourwheel drive is for suckers, it would appear – especially given the tens of thousands extra you have to
shell out to get it over this model’s surprisingly modest £112k asking price.
I didn’t like the steering at first. I missed the reassuring tug of the front driveshafts as the forward axle hooked up to the surface, unequivocally pronouncing There Is Grip and helping to drag/slingshot you out of the corners, regardless of what the back of the car was up to. And let’s not forget, four-wheel-drive R8s aren’t exactly shy about lurid angles. In the RWS version it’s just you and the stability control system – which maybe suggests four-wheel drive is intended for people who plan to use their R8 for year-round, all-weather transport in the UK.
But as it turns out, the traction generated by those rear wheels alone is outstanding. You’ll have to be trying seriously bloody hard to upset it in the dry, no matter what Audi says about the Sport ESC setting allowing controlled drifts. What’s more, give the steering a chance and it’s delightful – still not exactly electric with feel (if you’ll pardon the pun) but the software recalibration combined with the shaft extraction and the chunkier anti-roll bar makes it much more positive on initial turn-in. Audi Sport has successfully sucked out the slack while retaining the R8’s easy-going nature.
The conventional damping, a little jiggilypiggily at lower speeds on nasty tarmac, gets progressively better as you go faster, and if the RWS isn’t as rigidly roll-resistant as the dynamically damped alternatives, if anything it’s got better composure.
The engine – hardly hamstrung in its lower state of tune, hitting 0-62mph in 3.7sec and 198mph flat out – remains a masterpiece of naturally aspirated obstinacy in a realm otherwise resigned to turbocharged artifice. It has an immediacy and a zing no other motor in this class can match, with a soundtrack and depth to its flexibility that is almost achingly sublime. Not that you need rely on such elasticity when the S-tronic gearbox works so well now you can play it like the world’s most soulful banjo.
So though the RWS might not be the GT3 fighter some of us were hoping for, it surely is the most appealing R8 in the current line-up, cranking the involvement by just enough to not erode its fundamental friendliness. Rivals remain more frantic, but as long as this Audi has that engine, I’ll want one.