Facelifted Audi R8 - details and pricing

Update: pricing for revised R8 range now confirmed, starts at £91K for V8, £124K for new V10 Plus

As facelifts go the one applied to the R8 range isn’t what you’d call the most dramatic. Go on, without looking at the pics or reading any further name three possible updates to the car…

Round exhaust trims for all models now

If you said “revised headlights, slight tweaks to the front and rear bumpers and a small cut in CO2” you obviously know the way these things work. Oh, not forgetting the inevitable price premium too of course. That’s not been confirmed for the UK yet but German prices have and when the revised R8 reaches European customers by the end of the year they’ll be paying an additional 2,500 euros on the V8 coupe and 7,500 euros on the V10. Expect comparable increases on UK cars. (See below for UK pricing, now confirmed - Ed.)

What do you get for the extra money? Well, revised headlights, slight tweaks to the front and rear bumpers and- oh, we already said that didn’t we! Mechanical alterations are minor, bar one significant change.

R8 V10 Plus brings 550hp and extra carbon

It’s a belated and not especially fond farewell to the R tronic automated manual and long-awaited, and not especially surprising, adoption of a seven-speed S tronic dual-clutch unit if you don’t want the clickety-clack gated manual six-speed. The latter is standard on V8s and optional on V10s, which get the dual-clutch as standard.

As significant as the move from Tiptronic to PDK on 911s, this now makes two-pedal R8s an acceptable choice.

As well as (hopefully) shifting within 30 seconds of when you might actually want it to the new S tronic transmission improves acceleration times by a not inconsiderable three tenths on the V8, 0-62mph now 4.3 seconds while the manual remains at 4.6 seconds. And it’s the same on the V10, the manual staying at 3.9 seconds and S tronic now 3.6 seconds. Manuals remain a fraction faster at the top end though.

New LED headlights standard on all models

Spec sheet braggarts will, however, be even more impressed with the new R8 V10 Plus which gains all the fancy carbon trimmings Quattro GmbH can throw at it, a power hike to 550hp and 398lb ft from the 525hp and 390lb ft of standard V10s and weighs just 10kg more (1,570kg) than a base V8 manual coupe. 0-62mph comes up in 3.6 seconds and it'll hit 196mph, the manual 3.8 seconds and 198mph.

In Germany it’ll cost 173,200 euros, 18,600 euros more than a standard V10 coupe. It’s not available as a Spider and though it comes with S tronic as standard it can be specced with a manual gearbox if you want. This, at a stroke, delivers much of the limited edition R8 GT experience (less 10hp) while answering the major criticism of that car being an R tronic only deal.

Revised diffuser style rear bumper

Prices have now been announced and can be found below; deliveries of the facelifted cars are expected to start early next year.

UPDATE:
Following the initial announcement Audi UK has confirmed pricing for the refreshed R8 range - details below.

4.2 FSI (V8) Coupe (manual) £91,575
4.2 FSI (V8) Coupe (S tronic) £94,475
5.2 FSI (V10) Coupe (manual) £112,675
5.2 FSI (V10) Coupe (S tronic) £115,575
5.2 FSI (V10 plus) Coupe (manual) £124,675
5.2 FSI (V10 plus) Coupe (S tronic) £127,575
4.2 FSI (V8) Spyder (manual) £100,225
4.2 FSI (V8) Spyder (S tronic) £103,125
5.2 FSI (V10) Spyder (manual) £121,325
5.2 FSI (V10) Spyder (S tronic) £124,225

OP Posts Only

Prev 2 3...7 8 Next

OP Posts Only

Author

Discussion

WMP

Original Poster

154 posts

199 months