You know that excuse people use to justify buying a sports car? They say that you can't have both performance and practicality in one car, so you need to expand your garage and buy a second. And when it comes to sports cars, you can do a lot worse than the Audi R8 V10 Spyder, which is basically a supercar.
Hearing this argument from somebody owning an Audi would be weird since the Germans were the ones who made the idea of a super-fast station wagon popular with the RS6 model. Still, we suspect those who drive R8s tend to feel closer to the cars made by Lamborghini than to any of the other models wearing the four interlocked rings on their very similar noses.
The first Audi supercar comes packed with a 5.2-liter V10 engine that develops 540 hp and the same amount of metric-system torques (or 398 lb-ft). Unlike the Model X's rivals so far, it too has got all-wheel-drive and a seven-speed automatic cog-shifter to make the most of the engine. Its 3.6 seconds 0-62 mph acceleration time, however, isn't enough to match Tesla's lightning-fast off-the-line speed, despite all four wheels putting in the effort. The extra low-range kick provided by a turbocharger would have come in handy, but Audi decided against it.
The Tesla Model X is the same deep-blue P90D with Ludicrous Mode we've seen in the previous two videos where it smashed a Ferrari F430 and lost comfortably to a McLaren 650S. So, will it be able to make it two-out-of-three against these very different supercars? Well, if you've read the title, you already know the answer, but the manner in which it wins is impressive nevertheless.
It has to be said that on the first run, it looks like the Model X jumps the light for a short fraction of a second. If you lower the playback speed, you'll see the driver anticipated the lights turning green and let go a split moment too soon. He timed so well, though, that the car didn't actually move until it was green, but by that time it was well dug into the track's asphalt.
However, the ticket says the Tesla had a 0.106 seconds reaction time, compared to 0.647 for the Audi. With the final difference being 0.171 seconds, that could explain the electric SUV's success. Time for another run. This time, the Tesla driver is instructed to wait until the R8 sets off.
He doesn't, but at least they accelerate simultaneously. The result isn't much different, though, with the Tesla winning comfortably. It's those initial two seconds that make all the difference.
"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie) Full profile
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