Has Audi Missed the Boat With the R8 GT? A Supercar That Can't Hold Its Own in a Drag Race

The movies were nicknamed spaghetti westerns because most of them were directed, produced, or both by Italians, and the filming was set in Europe, for the most part. A Spanish journalist coined the phrase, but other expressions, like Italo-Westerns (in Germany, for example), are also used.

And now we’ve finally come full circle to our current story that involves Italians, Germans, and a bit of good-old fashion shootout most commonly associated by pop culture with the Wild West of 19th century America.

It’s a drag race, ladies, gentlemen, gearheads, and movie critics, a three-way race between three gun-slinging brothers of the House of the Four Rings. Better known as Audi to the majority of present-day citizens of Planet Speed, the staple of German engineering received a healthy dose of Italian exuberance when Volkswagen (Audi’s parent group) adopted the Lamborghini Raging Bull as its high-performance supercar spearhead.

The joining of forces led to the birth of the R8, a mid-engine, no-nonsense thriller on wheels that prefers to be the misfit of the pack. It’s so akin to its Teutonic roots that it even attends tea parties dressed formally, let alone bare-knuckle fistfights over the quarter mile, like this carwow-staged event here.

Surely enough, everyone has noticed Audi’s preference for self-contained, dignified temperance – as far as design goes. Frankly, the most outrageous thing an R8 has ever done was putting on the GT garment and attending the family reunion. However, in Audi’s long-established tradition, “flamboyance” is a rear wing (a very discrete one), some fancy carbon fiber canards, and a front lip.

But the self-contained R8 only adheres to the dress code to honor the blazon of its forefathers because under all the tailored demeanor is a jacked-up streetfighter with a diploma in high-class manners. The German body is home to a very Italian heart – a roaring naturally-aspirated V10.

5.2 liters, ten cylinders, and a great many horsepower, torque, and fast passes at the drag strip. Remember, this is a supercar of the purest breed, with a V10, no electric cheats – read that as “aids,” if you will – and no fancy aerodynamics. The engine is already scheduled for extinction, and the R8 GT is the last of its breed to sport the venerable powerplant.

Naturally, the GT is RWD, has a relatively low body-mass index of 1,57 tons, and its launch control system is fitted on a no-question-asked policy. The output of the free-breathing ten-piston missile launcher is a sturdy 620 PS and a respectable 565 Nm. The stats would translate into 612 hp and 417 lb-ft for the imperialistically-measuring gearheads.

The GT is the gym freak of the family. Still, its twin cousin (no, not brother), the R8 Performance Quattro Spyder, isn’t that easily impressed. Although it packs the same muscular V10 behind the cockpit, the all-wheel-driven roofless R8 carries more torque under its two-button suit. Audi’s engineers have kicked up the crank-spin to 580 Nm (428 lb-ft) for four-wheel traction purposes while leaving the horsepower rating intact.

To make the Spyder tuxedo drape properly around the R8’s waste at any speed, the wrench turners from Ingolstadt put the car on a high-protein, calorie-rich diet fit for an athlete. Correspondingly, the R8 Performance Quattro Spyder tips the scale at just under 1.7 tons.

These two performers are certainly Audi's pride, but a third beloved prodigal son raises the banner of the Four Rings high above its hood. The R8 Performance RWD is the coupe from which both the GT and Spyder Quattro draw their lineages.

However, unlike its fitness-aware relative, the standard R8 Performance RWD carries a diminished firepower of 570 PS and 550 Nm. That’s some 562 hp and 406 lb-ft – not even in the same range as the other two. And, with weight slightly shadowing the GT (1.59 tons), this Audi is here to play second fiddle.

Remember the movie reference I made at the beginning because it found a high-fidelity remake in this drag race: the unassuming sleeper takes the win, the loud-mouthed attention-seeker falls short, and the out-of-place marauder can’t find its pace.

If you’ve seen the movie, you can easily identify the three characters in the cars bearing the audi seal of high performance. The fat Spyder – also dragged down by its ‘roof-down’ lack of air-splitting determination – is last. The grumpy-looking GT is slow on the get-go and can’t draw quick enough for a clean win, and the taciturn, plain-looking coupe sees its chance and takes it.

In all fairness, the finish line drama is about as intense as Hollywood could dream it: all three Audis cross the line in the 11.3-second range (carwow doesn’t use the second decimal), with around half a car separating the winner from last place.

The rolling start stage is an all-GT affair: the aero fittings and low weight work to its advantage (precisely the opposite of what the Spyder Quattro has going). That's not the consolation the GT was looking for, but it will have to do, as the limited-edition R8 (333 of which will be made) also loses the 100-0 mph (160 kph) emergency brake test.