Wednesday 10th May 2017

TTS Twin-supercharged Audi R8: PH Blog

Well when a car's been "dialled back" to 750hp, you know it's going to be exciting!

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There's much to recommend about the original Audi R8: it still looks good, the dynamics were a revelation for Audi, and the standard manual gearbox was rather nice too.

Familiar R8 from here...

That all this came alongside a glorious, high revving V8 made the package all the more compelling. But what if 420hp isn't enough? Well, there's the V10 version too, with another 100hp. Beyond that? Well you need to get in contact with TTS, who can twin-supercharge your V8.

The car you see here is the development car for TTS, the R8 used to develop the kit that TTS has now sold a dozen of. Richard Albans from TTS came along with his car, a car he uses for regular journeys and which has covered 30,000 miles with him.

Now being given anyone's car to drive with them in the passenger seat is a daunting experience, let alone one with 750hp. Fortunately this car is as docile as any other manual R8 you care to mention, albeit with a slightly firmer ride (thank the KW springs on this car) and quite absurd torque. Indeed you can pull away in second with barely any throttle, and urban driving very seldom requires a change out of fourth. It seems almost a shame with such a tactile and satisfying manual gearbox, but such are the reserves -560lb ft - available from just above idle that there really is no need to shift.

It's when what's behind you starts hissing and gargling that things are starting to get serious. In the installation here you can see 'Rotrex' on the chargers behind in the engine bay, but there really is no time to be looking back in this car. The joy of having this supercharger installation is that the characteristics are drastically enhanced rather than entirely transformed. This is an extreme case, but the R8 is still a car that delivers its best performance at high revs. When the opportunity arrives, of course. The full 16psi of boost comes in at maximum revs, by which point the R8 is going ballistic. If a McLaren 720S is quicker than this I'd be amazed. Richard has apparently run a 10.8-second quarter-mile in this car, which feels eminently achievable with this ferocious speed. Don't forget that's with a manual as well. The standard clutch is still used too...

... not so much from here though!

In all honesty, this level of performance is more than anybody really needs - and is usable - on the road. But as Richard says, if the demand is there for people to go faster then he is more than willing to cater for it! In addition to the pair of Rotrex C38 chargers, the kit features two charge coolers from the V10 RS6 (the RS6 only used one of them!) and a larger front-mounted radiator. Water methanol injection is used in addition, which is said to help with the coking issues associated with this engine and the lower quality of fuel found in other markets.

The price? £13,500 for the parts, £4,500 for installation and then VAT on that. A fair chunk of money given early R8s are now around £40K. On the flipside, of course, it's not much for a car faster than all sorts of hypercars. If speed is your thing, the twin supercharged TTS R8 should be enough for even the most loopy. And if it's not, work is progressing on a similar kit for the latest V10...

Matt

Watch the TTS Facebook video here.

[Photos: Dafydd Wood]

[DPSFleet]

Imagine that "sinking feeling" when it goes "bang"..............

[AyBee]

DPSFleet said:

Imagine that "sinking feeling" when it goes "bang"..............

I read the whole article thinking this!

[cib24]

Cool, but two centrifugal superchargers...why? Why not just a single twin-screw supercharger and mate up an intake manifold to feed both banks of cylinders? It would cost like 40% less and make instant low end power while still holding onto the top end.

[culpz]

Good little read that. I do seem to hear more and more people going for the forced-induction route with the R8. I've ever heard of this particular set up before though.

Anyone who is familiar with or follows Chris from Dedication Blog (YouTube channel) would know that he has had his manual R8 V10 supercharged for some time now. Can't remember exactly who did it and what set-up it is but the thing is absolutely ballistic. I can only imagine what the acceleration is like but it just appears to have instant get-up-and-go.

[Yipper]

Supercharging and turboing sports cars in the aftermarket is much more common in the US. Seems to be some stigma attached to that kind of thing here.

[SHutchinson]

AyBee said:

DPSFleet said:

Imagine that "sinking feeling" when it goes "bang"..............

I read the whole article thinking this!

The man who does things makes many mistakes, but he never makes the biggest mistake of all—doing nothing.

[Hungrymc]

DPSFleet said:

Imagine that "sinking feeling" when it goes "bang"..............

I guess in the overall scheme of things, the Audi V8 isn't too rare or expensive an engine to replace (in the context of someone who spends 20K on tuning).

[xjay1337]

Yipper said:

Supercharging and turboing sports cars in the aftermarket is much more common in the US. Seems to be some stigma attached to that kind of thing here.

I agree

People here seem to think everything is going to blow up.

Cars are quite reliable. It's done 30k like this FFS.

[kambites]

Yipper said:

Supercharging and turboing sports cars in the aftermarket is much more common in the US. Seems to be some stigma attached to that kind of thing here.

I think it's a combination of two things - cars are viewed more as "consumables" in the UK so the natural attitude is to replace the car with something faster rather than spend money improving it which wont be recouped at sale time (many people in the UK seem to worry more about the person they're going to sell their car to than themselves).

Also, insurance for heavily modified cars tends to be pretty crippling in the UK.

[J4CKO]

SHutchinson said:

AyBee said:

DPSFleet said:

Imagine that "sinking feeling" when it goes "bang"..............

I read the whole article thinking this!

The man who does things makes many mistakes, but he never makes the biggest mistake of all—doing nothing.

I always say to my missus when she expresses skepticism about something, "Mustn't do a good thing because a bad thing may happen", I know people like that, never take a risk because there may be consequences and they still live with their parents in their 40s, same person I told to buy a house back in the late nineties but said it was a "Bad Time", yeah, right, that 150k house is now worth 600k, bad time was it ?

Do your research, weigh it up but dont just dismiss it because it may break, might break anyway !

[Adz The Rat]

xjay1337 said:

I agree

People here seem to think everything is going to blow up.

Cars are quite reliable. It's done 30k like this FFS.

Underground Racing in the US get a reliable 2000bhp from the V10's and offer a 2 year warranty on them, madness.

[Veeayt]

cib24 said:

Cool, but two centrifugal superchargers...why? Why not just a single twin-screw supercharger and mate up an intake manifold to feed both banks of cylinders? It would cost like 40% less and make instant low end power while still holding onto the top end.

Theoretically. And theoretically, attaching a single large turbocharger rather than any of those options is the best way to efficiency. But, you know... Life

[Patrick-Peter]

I would love to add a supercharger for the low down grunt on my murci but have yet to find anyone doing that for a V12.
Seems that the V12 engines either isn't easily modded or there isn't much demand for it.

[SirSquidalot]

Proper! Would rather go the TT route though.

[Veeayt]

Patrick-Peter said:

I would love to add a supercharger for the low down grunt on my murci but have yet to find anyone doing that for a V12.
Seems that the V12 engines either isn't easily modded or there isn't much demand for it.

Top chap. Now back to your homework!

[Resolutionary]

Love the work this little firm is doing - a twin supercharged R8 sounds more tempting concept than bi-turbo for me, for some reason. Would love to see the dyno sheet!

[Don1]

Is it just me, or does that line at the bonnet make it look like it's got terrible body gaps?

Apart from that, great work!

[lukeharding]

Don1 said:

Is it just me, or does that line at the bonnet make it look like it's got terrible body gaps?

Apart from that, great work!

I thought that, looks like they're driving with the bonnet open.

[TheAngryDog]

cib24 said:

Cool, but two centrifugal superchargers...why? Why not just a single twin-screw supercharger and mate up an intake manifold to feed both banks of cylinders? It would cost like 40% less and make instant low end power while still holding onto the top end.

Even a single centrifugal would have been enough.

[loose cannon]

Yipper said:

Supercharging and turboing sports cars in the aftermarket is much more common in the US. Seems to be some stigma attached to that kind of thing here.

I think it's more to do with the fact many over here don't want to spend £30 grand making there car go faster, though it seems that people that can only spend that sort of cash on something not that traceable are the biggest consumers purchasers of this type of modifying