Our India exclusive road test of the sharpest, fastest and most performance-oriented Audi yet
We’re at the winding hill roads just outside Pune for an India exclusive road test. The weather is gloomy and it’s well past dawn, but the light still isn’t perfect for photography. However, we’re excited and everyone’s beaming. Maybe, it has something to do with the bewitching metallic-matt-blue body coloured Audi at hand. This is the new flagship Audi R8 V10 Plus, where the ‘Plus’ in Audispeak means more of everything!
As we wait for the sun to become stronger, a group of village kids, waiting for their school bus, flock around and peer into the windows, trying to identify this ‘extra-terrestrial’ vehicle. Tempted, I engage the ‘Sport’ mode and crank up the Plus, playfully tapping the throttle a couple of times. And she comes to life with a loud howl. Startled, the kids scream and scare a bunch of birds from the tree to flutter into the horizon. Slotting the gear-stick into ‘Drive’, I plunge towards the inviting roads of the hill.
Over the years Audi’s high-performance form has been proven time and time again, from the world rally scene to the S and RS road cars and, more recently, at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. And in no more than six years, since the introduction of its mid-engined super-coupé R8, the company has become an eminent member of the ultra elite sports car club.
The new R8 V10 Plus Coupé has been tailored for the track and is more performance-focused than any of its predecessors. Its mid-life revision gives the sports car the Audi-family face with signature LED headlights, large hexagon front grille and dynamic turn signals that don’t flash, but flow along the bottom of the rear lights. But apart from the subtle exterior upgrades, a huge amount of work has been put under the skin to make the Plus faster, lighter and sharper than ever before.
The interior of this car is extremely well executed. The minute you slide in, you are surrounded by luxury; in fact, the quality of the interior makes it feel more like a luxury car than a sports car. The bucket seats come with adjustable side and thigh support to hold you firmly in place, but they aren’t as comfortable as 
the standard ones in the V10. The whole dashboard layout is sporty and focused towards the driver. The chrome gear selector and accents are a contrast to the black nappa interior and work well. However, the overall design isn’t as breathtaking as some of its competition. But the emphasis of the Plus is more than skin-deep.
Fitted with a re-mapped V10 5.2 FSI engine, derived from the Lamborghini Gallardo, the Plus now produces a hefty 550 PS, 25 PS over the regular R8 V10 Coupé. And now the entire range of R8 gets the newly developed seven-speed twin-clutch S-tronic transmission, which spreads the car’s power through all four wheels using the quattro system. To make the Plus more potent the Ingolstadt engineers have taken away about 50 kg, thanks to lighter alloy wheels, 
ceramic brakes, FRP bucket-seats and the insulating material in the bulkhead between the engine compartment and the cabin. Giving it the futuristic look is the exuberant use of lightweight carbon-fibre parts on the front spoiler, rear diffuser and even on the side-blades. Most importantly, the forged aluminium wishbone not only makes the suspension lighter, but also reduces vital unsprung weight. The other characteristic difference is the Plus-specific suspension with revised spring and damper rates, which is firmer and non-adjustable.
The Audi R8 V10 Plus is magnificent to drive, to say the least. The direct injected petrol motor merrily revs all the way to 8,000 revolutions per minute and has a wide powerband, supplying strong surge throughout. The alert S-tronic is an ideal combination as it spontaneously reacts to the lightest tap of my right foot. In the ‘Auto’ mode the dual-clutch transmission is smooth and makes it hard to intercept the gear changes, so I could cruise within the city effortlessly. In the ‘Sport’ setting she uses lower gears and holds on to them longer. Flick the gear stick to ‘Manual’ and this car gets transformed completely, giving me control over everything via larger wheel-mounted paddles, because, unlike some other systems, the ‘box won’t shift up till the redline, until you command it to. Bury the accelerator and it gives back-breaking performance along with an enchanting soundtrack through the dual exhausts. The split-second upshifts pin me into the bucket seat, while the aggressive down changes rock me forward. I’m going ecstatic with joy.
To ensure that fun never stops, Audi have thrown a launch control mode into the mix. So, just stick the gearbox in ‘Sport’, switch off the ESP, hold the brake with your left foot and put your right foot on the gas. In a second or two she’ll rev up to the 5,000-RPM mark and that’s when you release the brake. You’re forced back in the seat, while the scenery turns into a beautiful blur around you. I must admit that the performance runs were quite demanding on the body as I tried to cope with the massive G-force generated while trying to get the best acceleration and braking timings. The sporty suspension setup and low-profile (295/30ZR19) tyres added to it. But that’s part of the bargain and something you’ll choose to ignore once you discover the shattering 0-100 km/h sprint time of 3.62 seconds, to 160 km/h in 8.13 seconds and all the way to 200 in just 12.85 seconds! Equally stunning is the quarter mile run in an outstanding 10.32 seconds at a true speed of 192.25 km/h.
Once I was done with the acceleration fun, the Plus’ standard ceramic brakes came handy to stop the fast R8 pretty effectively and with good feel. Though they are an option on regular R8s, but with the Plus’ blistering performance, the ceramics are definitely a must. Besides being quieter, ceramic brake pads handle extremely high temperatures with little fade, allowing them to recover quickly and cause less damage to the rotors. Moreover, they last longer than conventional ones, albeit a bit more expensive. But the Plus is not a compromise model so you get them all. Using its phenomenal braking power it brings the R8 from 80 km/h to standstill in just 2.25 seconds.
The rest of the R8’s recipe remains as superb as ever. Despite going berserk with acceleration and brake tests, the R8 never loses composure and the credit for this goes to its 43:57 front/rear weight distribution. Being a mid-engined super-coupé it has excellent centre of gravity. Though it is an all-aluminium super-light V10, the engine remains by far the biggest chunk of weight the R8 carries. By positioning it between the super car’s wheels, the engineers have managed to keep that weight low and centred, which translates into better stability and balance, especially at high speed.
Even the double-wishbone suspension has been given a tweak and is a fraction firmer than the standard R8’s. This not only erases body-roll, but also makes the drive more dynamic. Though the fixed-rated suspension may not have the fluidity of magnetic system of the regular R8, in no way is the Plus uncomfortable or harsh even while cruising within the city. Only the sharp undulations can be felt in the cabin, which is a given in most sports cars, but none that would puncture your appendix. What is really surprising is that the R8 hardly ever scraped the floor, despite the toll taken by the heavy rain on our roads, making it a very usable car. While the steering is more direct than the ‘lesser’ V10 and weighs up nicely as you go faster, with great feedback from the front wheels, so you can put the car where you want. The handling is very sharp and the steering is not heavy and, at the same time, it gives excellent feedback. It’s just cut out to be on the race track.
It’s sublimely balanced, as all four wheels are driven to ensure maximum grip at all times, but with a rear-biased torque split, so it never feels like all four tyres are being driven. The quattro is intelligent and comes handy not only in adverse weather conditions, but also during regular driving. It shifts power to the wheels that need it through the curves. So when approaching a turn, I didn’t have to shift down or tap on the brakes too often. In fact, I could feed in the gas way sooner as the front wheels pulled me out of the corner. There’s no fear of erratic over-steering, which needs to be checked, and you automatically become cleaner on turns and in doing so you get faster too. Honestly, with the excellent combination of the weight distribution and quattro, it feels that the ESP (electronic stability-control programme) has very little work to do. The R8 is so confidence-inspiring that even lesser experienced drivers can approach and exit corners much faster than they would have dared to do in rear-wheel-drive cars. A word of warning, though: when you get out of the R8 and are about to drive a regular RWD car, please remember to switch off the quattro from your mind, otherwise you just might become the next YouTube sensation, immediately after the first turn.
Story: Sarmad Kadiri
Photography: Sanjay Raikar
