AUDI R8 V10 PERFORMANCE RWD

Rear-driver is one of two new models that will take the V10 supercar to its expiry date

- MIKE DUFF

TESTED 7.12 .21,GRAN CANARIA,SPAIN

ON SALE EARLY 2022

The approaching end of the internal-combustion era is creating some strange juxtapositions in marketing messages. The launch event for the new rear-driven Audi R8 V10 Performance took place on the Spanish island of Gran Canaria, closer to Western Africa than the rest of Europe, with the highlight a spectacular high-altitude campsite in the mountains. Audi’s commitment to sustainability meant this featured all-vegan catering and power from repurposed E-tron battery packs. All of which was in stark contrast to the snarling V10 that carried me there.

The R8 was never going to die quietly, and although it’s too early to pen an obituary, the arrival of the Performance RWD marks a thinning of the range that, special editions aside, will carry it through to retirement. The standard models have been quietly dropped, with the choice now set to be a pair of binary decisions between Performance variants: coupé or Spyder and all-wheel drive or rear-wheel drive.

While the Performance RWD is an obvious model to make, it isn’t just an R8 Quattro shorn of half its driven wheels. It gets a new version of the naturally aspirated 5.2-litre V10, one that now makes 562bhp – 30bhp more than the outgoing RWD R8 but still 40bhp shy of the AWD version.