The Audi R8 V10 performance: They won’t make them like this much longer

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  This is the facelifted Audi R8 V10 performance Coupe quattro. You can tell it apart from the pre-facelift R8 by those three vents above the grille, as well as the shape of the air intakes below the headlights. [credit: Jonathan Gitlin ]

2020's been a crappy year, but even amongst the domestic political turmoil and global pandemic-related disruption to normal life there have been the occasional bright spots. Like the long weekend I spent with a $195,900 Audi R8 V10 performance Coupe quattro. Any day I get to drive something mid-engined is a good day, after all. Particularly when it's with the kind of car that might not be with us that much longer.

Our first taste of the second-generation Audi supercar was back in 2017. Mechanically, the R8 V10 performance Coupe quattro is much like we found the R8 V10 plus back then. Its centerpiece is that naturally aspirated 5.2L V10, shared (as with much else under the skin) with the Lamborghini Huracán. (Audi bought Lamborghini back in 1998.) Hand-built in Hungary, the V10 generates 602hp (449kW) at a heady 8,100rpm, with a peak torque figure of 413lb-ft (560Nm) arriving at 6,700rpm. That gets sent to all four wheels via a seven-speed dual clutch transmission, and in the case of the rear axle, via clutch-based torque-vectoring that takes the place of a traditional differential.

Externally, the R8 has had a slight facelift. There are a few more vents that allow cooling air to enter the car and a few more that help it on its way out the back, but the tweaks are subtle.

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