Audi R8 Coupe V10: Last but not least

SOMEDAY, our precocious grandchildren will ask us how we ever thought it was a good idea to burn fossil fuels just to get around, lousing up the climate in the process, as if we had a choice about it.

The correct reply is to point out that one snotty grandkid is worse for the planet than any car could ever be. But a more dignified response would be to point at the Audi R8 and say, “There’s your answer, squirt.”

By itself, this snarling thing is exhilarating enough to explain how the petrol party kept us high for a good century. A car of extremes, the R8 does everything in anger: acceleration, cornering, braking are all done as if it bears a serious grudge against Isaac Newton, and would break his fingers given half the chance.

It feels like a living thing more than a machine. It doesn’t boot up like a computer the way an electric car does, or crank into action like a regular petrol car. Instead, jabbing its start button feels like poking a sleeping lion with a stick, whereupon it springs to life and bellows for bloody payback.

The V10 Performance RWD variant provides a swansong for the R8, at least in Singapore. It serves up 570 horsepower and leaves out the extra traction that usually comes with Audi’s “quattro” four-wheel drive system.

That makes for an interesting car, especially when it’s wet out there, because things can get wiggly in a hurry. Come to think of it, even in the dry the R8 demands a firm, steady hand. It doesn’t attack corners so much as divebomb them, and it’s super sensitive at the steering wheel and accelerator pedal; centimetres of input on either seem to deflect the R8 by metres.

That being so, the Audi feels twitchy in the wrong hands, and I’d be the first to admit that I haven’t got the finesse to get the best from it. It may be rear wheel drive, but there’s plenty of traction from the huge rear tyres, and if you can hold a lurid, smoky powerslide in this, you are to driving what The Rock is to action movies.

In some ways, though, the R8 feels like a fantastic engine that comes with a car attached. The music it makes is like straight out of death metal, with the V10 layout providing a thrummy burble that crescendos into the most delicious howl as the revs climb.

The R8’s V10 predates today’s hard-slugging electric motors as well as the turbo era, so it actually doesn’t hit as hard as many modern cars, but it makes its power the old fashioned way, so the faster it spins the more intense it feels. The acceleration, revs and noise all build like a snowball of excitement. Back off, and the exhaust pops and crackles like war has broken out behind you.

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For all the rush you get from wringing the R8’s engine, it’s always been a terrific car for the day-to-day stuff. It feels wide but it’s easy to see out of, and the cabin is built like an Audi’s, meaning everything is laid out well and none of the switches feel like they would come off in your hand.

OK, it’s hopeless for airport runs, but you can fit a weekend’s luggage behind the seats, and the boot would hold a week’s groceries (though I wouldn’t carry eggs in there, given how hard the suspension is).

There’s not a touchscreen in sight in the cabin, which might befuddle someone in their 20s but is probably in keeping with the R8’s overall spirit of being a thing for pure driving enthusiasts.

Yet, the R8 doesn’t have a problem about how good it is, but how good its rivals are. Stretch financially and you could aim for a Lamborghini Huracan Evo, which is the Audi’s happening sister. Then there’s the Maserati MC20, which has a brawny turbo engine, impossibly sweet handling and the glamour of scissor doors, to say nothing of its glitzy brand name.

You might as well consider Audi’s own RS e-tron GT, too. In a straight line it feels faster, and it’s the kind of electric car that any real driving fiend could respect.

More to the point, there is the fact that the R8 in its current form has been around since 2018. Surely anyone who wanted one would have pulled the trigger by now?

But like the combustion era itself, the R8 is now in its twilight, so it’s basically now or never, not just for this particular car, but this particular kind of car: revvy, boisterous and just so exciting on so many levels. Though it was built for fast laptimes, the R8 is now about preserving a certain moment in time, when fossil fuel was fun.

Audi R8 Coupe V10 Performance RWD

Engine 5,204 cc, V10

Power 570 hp at 8,000 rpm

Torque 550 Nm at 6,400 rpm

Gearbox 7-speed dual-clutch 

0-100km/h 3.7 seconds 

Top Speed 329 km/h

Fuel Efficiency 13.5 L/100 km

Agent Premium Automobiles

Price S$771,036 with COE

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