Photo: Mircea Panait
Audi made sure their presence at the Auto Shanghai 2015 would be remembered by the Chinese audience, so it was only natural for the new Audi R8 to make an appearance.
The first thing that strikes you upon seeing the R8 in the metal is how good it looks in real life, compared to what official photos had to offer when the Ingolstadt supercar was officially unveiled.
However, the glossy black plastic bits on the honeycomb grille have a cheap air for some reason, and that's quite a disappointment given the car's impressive overall styling.
Stepping into the cabin will confirm that there's more legroom than in the previous R8, but the dashboard's quality - and by that I mean plastics - is a bit dodgy and less polished than we expected. In fact, it's what you would have on an Audi A4, not on the mighty R8.
As you will see in the live pictures set, this particular R8 received its fair share of goodies from Audi Exclusive. So don't act surprised by the substantial amount of carbon fiber and Alcantara painted across the cabin. If that's enough, there's plenty of carbon fiber decorating the R8's exterior as well, so onlookers will know right from the start what they're dealing with.
The R8 we got to examine is a V10 Plus, a more hardcore version of the supercar. It features the same 5.2-liter V10 FSI engine, but engineers substracted 610 HP and a maximum torque of 560 Nm (413 lb-ft) out of its belly. That's enough to power the CFRP and aluminum-boned R8 from 0 to 100 km/h in (62 mph) in 3.2 seconds and a top speed of 330 km/h (205 mph).
Such figures were attainable after Audi discarded the manual gearbox and equipped the R8 exclusively with a 7-speed S-Tronic transmission working hand in hand with a new permanent Quattro all-wheel drive system.
However, the glossy black plastic bits on the honeycomb grille have a cheap air for some reason, and that's quite a disappointment given the car's impressive overall styling.
Stepping into the cabin will confirm that there's more legroom than in the previous R8, but the dashboard's quality - and by that I mean plastics - is a bit dodgy and less polished than we expected. In fact, it's what you would have on an Audi A4, not on the mighty R8.
As you will see in the live pictures set, this particular R8 received its fair share of goodies from Audi Exclusive. So don't act surprised by the substantial amount of carbon fiber and Alcantara painted across the cabin. If that's enough, there's plenty of carbon fiber decorating the R8's exterior as well, so onlookers will know right from the start what they're dealing with.
The R8 we got to examine is a V10 Plus, a more hardcore version of the supercar. It features the same 5.2-liter V10 FSI engine, but engineers substracted 610 HP and a maximum torque of 560 Nm (413 lb-ft) out of its belly. That's enough to power the CFRP and aluminum-boned R8 from 0 to 100 km/h in (62 mph) in 3.2 seconds and a top speed of 330 km/h (205 mph).
Such figures were attainable after Audi discarded the manual gearbox and equipped the R8 exclusively with a 7-speed S-Tronic transmission working hand in hand with a new permanent Quattro all-wheel drive system.
Google News