Over-the-Top
Over-the-Top: Audi R8 TDI Le Mans
It's a new twist on the high-performance exotic sports car - lean, mean and green, thanks to diesel power. And we drive it before the Europeans get to.
By Jim Hall • Photos by John Lamm
With 500 horsepower and over 737 lb.-ft. of torque, the Audi R8 TDI Le Mans certainly has the street cred to move right up into the upper echelon of the exotic sports car category inhabited by the likes of the Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano and the Lamborghini Murciélago LP640. But this handsome German offering's powerplant sports an utterly unique twist over those Italian V-12-powered machines: It's a diesel.
Unique exterior (honeycomb-trimmed grille openings, carbon-fiber "sideblade" trim aft of the doors) and interior (aluminum trim, more carbon fiber) touches help further set this oil-burning edition apart from the road-going R8 coupe.
As this is a prototype vehicle, should the R8 TDI Le Mans go into production (it is likely to be built), it will most certainly sell for more than the current gas-burning, V-8-powered R8's base price of $109,000.
Look for a full Technical Analysis and Driving Impression in the June 2008 issue of Road & Track.
