Won’t go quietly
£126,885
FOR Best-balanced V10 R8 ever. What a noise
AGAINST Erm... cheap and nasty gearshift paddles
Did you hear? Audi’s announced this car’s successor not ‘the new R ’ because it’s not necessarily recycling the name won’t keep this magnificent litre V Or a V or a V or even a two stroke lawnmower engine Audi’s next supercar will be all electric A wheeee tron
And that makes this latest addition to the R line up the entry level RWD version with more horsepower and minor handling tweaks something more than a quick buff up from the marketing department
To most people this looks like the same Audi R we’ve known since Smart purposeful and reasonably understated Avoid the matte red paint which makes it look like the sort of novelty eraser you’d get in the gift shop at an Audi museum
Audi nerds will tell you the Performance RWD gets the angular bumpers and prouder tailpipes that arrived on the facelifted R in and note the RWD doesn’t get the fixed wing tacked onto the quattro model which is more expensive
Time has not dulled that engine It’s world class packing more sense of occasion into a mere bhp than any twin turbo McLaren Ferrari BMW or Aston Martin make with or horsepower
If you just went about your business in the RWD at six and a half tenths you might never even notice the front wheels aren’t powered It’s a very stable friendly mid engined car it doesn’t have that Eurofighter style ‘only the computers are keeping us straight’ flightiness of a Ferrari
But it’s absolutely not boring I enjoyed it best in Performance Dry mode there are also Wet and Snow settings for brave people because here the stability control is backed right down but not fully switched off
It’ll slide so much you’ve got to properly catch it with the steering or the car might just spin out if you’re feathering the gas Get brutal on the very loud pedal and the ESC goes “oh you’re just being daft” and shuts down the slide So it rewards delicacy and ambition but won’t allow the talentless to crash
If you lie awake at night wondering what tread pattern will give the richest road reading texture the R can’t oblige like a GT
However if you’ve always fancied an R but thought its quattro all wheel drive was a fun sponge then give this one a look It’s that rarest of things¢ a fun Audi And it won’t be around much longer