The Audi R8 has been revered ever since its initial launch, with good reason. It's a damn good looking product, has several variants to appeal to several different types of buyers and will make for a helluva used car in a couple of years for $80,000.
But now that it's been on the market for several years and after the introduction of the V10, Spyder and GT, it's time to give it a bit of a refreshing.
We've known for sometime that the vehicle was due to receive an updated set of headlights, taillights and a new transmission, but we didn't know how much work was going to have to be put into the R8 to get these seemingly simple changes done.
According to Autocar, Audi has had to re-engineer the entire rear structure to fit in a dual-clutch box. While the current R-Tronic has taken some serious flak for being a bit jerky -- full disclosure: it is -- you just have to feather the throttle like a manual. It just takes some getting used to the timing.
As you'd expect though, folks just want the vehicle to do all the work itself, and Autocar writes that the row-it-yourself and R-Tronic has put off would-be buyers. Thus, the serious re-engineering.
The facelifted and significantly re-engineered Audi R8 that goes on sale this autumn has been scooped for the first time.
Spotted testing at night in non-reflective paintwork, this otherwise undisguised R8 Spyder gives away the visual changes of the facelifted supercar, due to be revealed at the Moscow show this August.
But the substantial changes are under the skin. There’s a new seven-speed, dual-clutch transmission on the options list — and this has required a completely new rear structure...
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