Audi R8 Second Generation Revealed

The Audi R8 is one of the most successful models Audi has released in years, and today the German company has revealed its greatly anticipated second generation to the public. The second-generation Audi R8 will first appear at the Geneva motor show held next week, but some details concerning it are already known.

It is going to be an evolutionary development of the first R8, retaining all the characteristic features of the highly-successful model, but bringing them to a logical conclusion. According to Drive.com.au, every component of the car has been either upgraded or designed from scratch using Audi’s own know-how.

“The new two-seater will be sold with a range-topping 449kW 5.2-litre V10 petrol engine and newly developed quattro four wheel drive system capable of providing it with 0-100kmh acceleration in just 3.2sec and a 330km/h top speed.”

Ulrich Hackenberg, Audi’s head of technical development department, states that with all the racing expertise used during the design process, the second-generation R8 it is closest they ever had to a race car. In order to further highlight the power of this new model, in initial sales stages it will only be sold with V10 power while a cheaper variant may be added a little bit later.

This is not the first time Audi has received the spotlight in the last few months. Back in January, their experiments with self-driving cars attracted a lot of attention of mass media. According to the Inquisitr, their Audi A7 Sportback managed to drive itself on autopilot, not only in carefully-prepared laboratory conditions, but on a public highway from San Francisco to Las Vegas, at normal speed and with little to no interference on the side of the driver:

“Audi, a German automaker, says the ultimate goal is a car which will pilot itself as directed by the driver. This most recent 900 km test “resulted in actionable data” to get one step closer to cars that pilot themselves being available to customers. The test from San Francisco to Las Vegas was the longest drive undertaken so far by Audi at full road speeds with members of the public behind the wheel.”

It may be hard to believe, but Audi specialists claim that all the elements of a system which would allow a car drive itself are ready for production. And although the new Audi R8 is probably still not among the self-driving models, it jumps into future in its own way; in addition to petrol engine options, it will come with a fully electric drivetrain.