Audi has settled a hot debate once and for all revolving around the company looking into offering a cheaper, V6-powered variant of the R8 sports car, saying that it will only be offered in a V10 variant.
Way back in February 2016, an image had surfaced on the internet depicting Audi's product lineup roadmap. Fast forward to the present, almost all the cars and SUVs shrouded under a cover for model year 2018 are out on the roads. That includes the RS5 Coupe, C-BEV (now the e-Tron), Q8, A6, A7, and A8. All except for one.
The R8 V6 which makes an appearance at the bottom of the 2018 lineup in the roadmap is missing, with Audi supposedly launching it by the end of 2018. Since there is no word on its launch, with the company having already debuted the facelifted R8 earlier this year, we take it to mean that the V6 R8 is no longer in the making. This is heartening speculation indeed.
Or it was, until Audi confirmed that it will indeed not be making the cheaper version of the sports car that sits at the top of the firm's range. At one point of time, a turbocharged 2.9-litre V6 was planned to power the R8, but that is no longer the case. The project manager for the sports car declared in an interview with Car Throttle that the marque has finally decided that the R8 would carry a V10 behind the seats for its life. "It's the best engine for the car... We'll stick to the V10," he said.
Time will tell whether the Audi R8 will survive beyond the second generation it's in, but as long as it is still in production, it will be powered by the Lamborghini-sourced naturally-aspirated 5.2-litre V10 engine that makes 610hp and 560Nm. And since the RWS variant was quite successful, Audi could again introduce a rear-wheel-driven R8 to complement its Quattro-driven sibling. Production of the RWS was limited to 999 units, but a new production run based on the facelifted R8 is "something we are looking into," said Audi Sport marketing manager a couple of months ago.
Roadmap Image Credit: Motor1