Photo: Newspress USA
Roughly for years after its debut, the Audi R8 received a mid-life makeover. Today, this makes an official debut in America, its largest single market, and we think the cosmetic changes are great.
Looking at the R8 facelift is a bittersweet experience. Yes, the Germans have fixed the original design, but these changes probably arrived too late to reverse the fate of the naturally aspirated V10 supercar. But don't be too sad, perhaps the electric supercar they will replace this will be good. And at the end of the day, we still have about four years left to change their minds.
Regardless, the 2020 R8 features a new front end, with three hood slits that pay tribute to the Ur-Quattro, as well as a new hexagonal grille and revised side air intakes. The sad thing is that all the cool aero is actually fake, but the carbon fiber trim you see isn't. Audi always liked to play with this exotic material, and there's a lot of it sprinkled around this performance edition model: chin spoiler, side skirts, air scoops, the rear wing, and diffuser.
As usual, there's a variety of configurations you can have, costing increasing amounts of money. The 2020 range starts at $169,900 for the R8 V10 Coupe and $182,100 for the Spyder. The performance variants start for $195,900 and $208,100, respectively, while the Decennium special edition that you see here costs a whopping $215,000.
The power increases aren't as drastic as you'd expect. The normal version of the 5.2-liter V10 is rated at 562-horsepower and 406 lb-ft (550 Nm) of torque, which is enough to get you to 60 in 3.4 seconds and hit a top speed of 201 mph (323 km/h). The hot version is rated at 602-hp in America, 9 less than in Europe, with the 413 lb-ft (559 Nm) of torque also being down. Still, it's enough to shave two-tenths of a second off the sprint time.
Regardless, the 2020 R8 features a new front end, with three hood slits that pay tribute to the Ur-Quattro, as well as a new hexagonal grille and revised side air intakes. The sad thing is that all the cool aero is actually fake, but the carbon fiber trim you see isn't. Audi always liked to play with this exotic material, and there's a lot of it sprinkled around this performance edition model: chin spoiler, side skirts, air scoops, the rear wing, and diffuser.
As usual, there's a variety of configurations you can have, costing increasing amounts of money. The 2020 range starts at $169,900 for the R8 V10 Coupe and $182,100 for the Spyder. The performance variants start for $195,900 and $208,100, respectively, while the Decennium special edition that you see here costs a whopping $215,000.
The power increases aren't as drastic as you'd expect. The normal version of the 5.2-liter V10 is rated at 562-horsepower and 406 lb-ft (550 Nm) of torque, which is enough to get you to 60 in 3.4 seconds and hit a top speed of 201 mph (323 km/h). The hot version is rated at 602-hp in America, 9 less than in Europe, with the 413 lb-ft (559 Nm) of torque also being down. Still, it's enough to shave two-tenths of a second off the sprint time.
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