Here's How Fast The Audi R8 Really Is

The Audi R8 is the pinnacle of Audi's gas-powered cars before it takes the full plunge toward electrification. The mid-engine sports car is a sleek futuristic performance machine that carries the brand's long heritage of racing into the 21st century. It takes all of Volkswagen Group's and Audi's technology to the nth degree. The term "affordable" doesn't belong in the discussion of cars like the Audi R8, but it shares its 5.2-liter V10 engine with the Lamborghini Huracan and starts at $158,600 compared to the Lambo's $248,295.

With the R8, there are two distinct flavors: there's the V10 Performance RWD Coupe that boasts 562 horsepower through just the rear wheels. Then, there's the V10 Performance Quattro which utilizes Audi's storied "quattro" all-wheel drive system. That variant of the R8 throws down 602 horsepower. The R8 is also available as a convertible in the R8 Spyder model. Either way, it's optioned out, there's no "wrong" answer both models are a respectable, fire-breathing send-off to the brand's V10 and in a sense, gasoline as a whole. But given Audi's iconic stature as the brand's only recent supercar, just how fast does the R8 go? 

The answer is absurdly fast. It's safe to say that Audi knows what it's doing when it comes to performance cars and making cars look stately and composed while cruising down the Autobahn at high speed. At the highest trim level, the Performance quattro variant, the R8 can launch itself to 60 miles per hour in a scant 3.1 seconds, thoroughly annihilating lesser V10-less cars and any doubt that the R8 wasn't anything more than a scaled-up Audi TT. For top-end speed, the R8 reaches its limits at just over 205 miles per hour. Anything reaching over 200 miles per hour is alarmingly fast.

Audi claims the R8 reaches such lofty performance metrics because it's essentially a race car with a nice sound system and leather seats. The automaker says that it shares more than half of its components with the R8 GT3 LMS car that Audi built specifically for racing. There are many cars faster than the R8, but few can claim as much racing heritage as the Audi has in its bones.