Audi R8 V10 Plus: A week with Tony Stark's ride - Ars Technica
But when there's a bright red mid-engined sports car parked outside your house you may as well drive it, and if I was going to drive it I may as well write about it, so here we are. The R8 first appeared in 2006. It took its name from Audi's Le Mans racer, one of the most dominant racing cars ever to turn a wheel. Audi wanted to celebrate (and capitalize on) its racing success, leveraging the hard-won credibility of the R8 name and the fact that it now owned Lamborghini to create the company's idea of the every day sports car—something to rival Porsche's... The chassis got expanded it a bit in the interest of interior space, and Audi swapped out the Italian engine for a direct injection (FSI in Audi-speak) V8, the company having proven FSI engines with the racing car. " It's the ultimate expression of that car that we've been driving, the R8 V10 Plus. The engine—hand built in a factory in Gyor, Hungary—gains another 25hp (18kW). The standard car's magnetorheological suspension is swapped for bespoke passive dampers, and enormous carbon ceramic brakes come as standard. A six-speed manual is available, but our car came with the seven-speed S Tronic dual. Source: arstechnica.com
