Maybe it's because the rear panel is largely occupied by finned air outlets, or because of the four meaty tailpipes, or because the steeply raked glass tailgate exposes the mid-mounted V8; whatever the reason, the rear of the R8 is the business end. Although the fins are replicated at the front, it is the rear that appears to squat; to offer the promise of unrivalled Audi performance; and to hint at the race-bred technology that underpins Ingoldstat's new supercar.
The 4.2-litre V8 engine employs direct-injection FSI (Fuel Stratified Ignition) technology, which at first was billed in Volkswagen cars as a means of reducing fuel consumption and tailpipe emissions without sacrificing power or torque. The hint of green implicit in such technology was to some extent blown away at Le Mans in 2002 when FSI-powered Audis took a stunning 1-2-3 victory. These racing cars proved emphatically that stratified ignition had an application way beyond clean and green family motoring. And it is those very Le Mans racers that have been tamed and tuned to become Audi's ultimate road-going coupe. It is no coincidence that racer and road car share the same nomenclature - R8.
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