Yahoo Autos The 2019 Audi R8 Supercar Won't Get a V-6 Engine
We've been telling you about Audi's plans to produce a version of the R8 with a turbocharged V-6 engine since this generation was launched in 2015, with the anticipation being that it would arrive at the same time that the junior sports car received its mid-life facelift.
But now we bring sad news: the smaller engine is definitely not going to happen. The company has confirmed to C/D that there is no chance this R8 will be offered with anything other than the naturally aspirated 5.2-liter V-10 that currently powers both regular and Performance versions.
"No, absolutely no, never," a company spokesman told us at the launch of the revised R8 when we asked if we could expect to see a downsized powerplant anytime soon.
While the mighty deca-pot has been given a modest power increase for 2019, with the new range-topping Performance version upgraded to 602 horsepower, the space below the regular model will remain unfilled, despite the extensive work that was done on engineering a version of the R8 that would have used the turbocharged engine from the Audi RS5. Company insiders admit there are both engineering and marketing reasons for the decision to stick with the V-10.
The original R8 was pitched as an alternative to the Porsche 911 and had a V-8 engine in base versions that allowed it to compete with the lower reaches of its rival's range. But the second-gen R8 shares much of its underbody structure with the Lamborghini Huracán, making it far harder to make a case for a substantially cheaper version.
But a bigger problem was the potency of the TT RS and its 400-hp five-cylinder engine. Although the front-engined TT is less technically sophisticated than the R8, it is devastatingly effective at going quickly-we recorded a 3.4-second zero-to-6o-mph time in testing-with Audi reckoning it would be too hard to create a V-6–engined R8 that could sit between its V-10 sister and the TT in terms of performance.
"There just isn't space between those cars," the spokesman told us.
There are currently no plans for a direct replacement for the R8, although the PB18 e-tron concept that was shown at this year's Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance suggests that serious consideration is being given to an electric car in the same part of the market.
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