Remember Auditography, the YouTube channel that has put the spotlight on some of the best Audis ever made? Well, they recently took a trip to Malmo, Sweden, to explore the R8 RWS.
The German supercar was unveiled four years ago, with rear-wheel drive and a very sonorous version of the naturally aspirated 5.2-liter V10 mounted in the middle.
If insane amounts of power get your heart racing, then the R8 RWS, with its suffix standing for Rear Wheel Series, is not the perfect ride for you. That’s because the FSI unit develops 532 hp (540 ps / 397 kW) and 398 lb-ft (540 Nm) of torque, and let’s be frank, not many people are impressed by a ride with over 500 hp anymore.
On the other hand, it makes do without the quattro all-wheel drive system and doesn’t feature a propshaft, center differential, and multi-plate clutch anymore. Thus, it is 110 lbs (50 kg) lighter than the standard model, weighing 3,505 lbs (1,590 kg). The 0 to 62 mph (0-100 kph) sprint was dealt with in 3.7 seconds, according to the official spec sheet, three tenths of a second behind the R8 V10 Quattro, and it could keep going up to 198 mph (319 kph) in the Coupe variant. The Spyder was 0.1 seconds slower to 62 mph and topped out at 197 mph (317 kph).
Production of the R8 RWS was limited to 999 units, and pricing kicked off at £110,000 in the United Kingdom or around $150,000 at the current exchange rates. But that wasn’t the end of it, because almost two years ago, Audi presented the R8 RWD (Rear Wheel Drive). The output and torque were identical to the R8 RWS, so it was just as fast. Moreover, the automaker claimed that in the Sport mode with the ESC on, controlled drifting was possible.
Now that we reminded ourselves what makes the R8 RWS, as well as the RWD variant, so cool, it’s time to move on to the actual video, which claims that the RWS could be the best-sounding R8 ever. Do you agree?
After a series of unfortunate events put an end to Cristian's dream of entering a custom built & tuned old-school Dacia into a rally competition, he moved on to drive press cars and write for a living. He's worked for several automotive online journals and now he's back at autoevolution after his first tour in the mid-2000s. Full profile
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