Game of Thrones: Audi R8 V10 Plus

Audi has a new R8 in town. It’s called the R8 Plus, and it’s just broken the production car lap record at the BIC. So, only a fool would say no to a drive in it!

These track days are becoming a norm of sorts in the industry. Media drives, for even the most ordinary cars, are being organized at the brilliant Buddh International Circuit – and that’s absolutely unbecoming for an expanse of land that is the natural habitat for racing machines and sports cars. This event, on the other hand, wasn’t about yet another ordinary car – it starred the much revered Audi R8 in its latest avatar.

I must confess, however, that the R8 never really grew on me. The mechanical brilliance of this product can hardly be contested, and its Teutonic looks are striking, but it just didn’t stir my soul. In regards to the R8 Plus, though, Karun Chandhok proved that it’s every bit a spectacularly fast supercar when he beat the track record at the BIC for a regular production car – previously held by the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG.

Karun, naturally, had a clear track when he set a stunning time of 2:12.71. In our case, the event started with a lead-and-follow exercise – with the instructors leading the pack, and the rest of us following in a range of cars. There were a couple of TT’s and RS5’s, but the main attraction, of course, was the R8 Plus.

Once the handling and braking tests were dealt with, it was time for some fast laps – and I was very eager to give the R8 a bootful. Sadly, though, we weren’t going fast enough to really explore the capabilities of the supercar that the R8 truly is. As they say, you’re only as strong as the weakest link, or, in this case, as fast as the slowest member in the pack – let’s just leave it at that!

There were, however, times when I’d fall back so that I could gather some pace and push the R8 around the corners. And whatever magnitude of speed I was able to gather around whichever corner, it simply didn’t seem to affect those monster tyres and the Quattro in even the slightest manner. The R8 roars through a 5.2 litre, 550bhp V10 engine that dismisses the 100km/h mark in just 3.6 seconds, and will go on to reach 200 in merely 11 seconds – now that’s crazy fast!

The R8 Plus gets better suspension parts with revised spring and damper settings. The brakes are carbon ceramic, which resist fade even under repeated application, and the Plus has a weight advantage of about 50 kilograms over the regular V10 coupe. But the best bit that I liked about the Plus is the huge improvement they’ve achieved with the S-tronic gearbox. It’s now a dual-clutch affair, which is a pretty smooth unit and is now at par with the best gearboxes around. It’s also miles ahead of the SLS AMG in shifting through the cogs, and you can now hold gears based on your mood when you put it into manual mode.

The rest of the car is pretty much the same superstar it’s always been – the traction is simply awe-inspiring, and, with the slightly rear-biased torque split, you don’t feel as though the four-wheel-drive is suppressing any feel.
It’s a damn awesome car, this, and I really enjoyed driving it – to whatever speed the conditions allowed on that day. The trouble for me is that it still didn’t move my soul like, say, a Gallardo. Even though they share much in common, the R8 is just – well – not as mad.

That apart, the R8 takes over the crown of being the fastest around the BIC – for now. I’m waiting to see how its rivals respond. Game on!