Well. At least it answers one question. Remember the R8 prototype that was destroyed in a fire earlier this year?
Some of us thought that it was a diesel R8 and so forth. It turns out that it was a twin turbo V10 version of the R8, or RS8. And apparently it causes it to catch fire. So. No 600hp RS8 from Audi.
Which also means the most powerful R8 will probably be no more powerful than a Gallardo.
When we first wrote about the burned out Audi R8 in the picture above, we mentioned scuttlebutt saying it was a test mule. Now, Quattro GmbH director Werner Frowein reveals that it was indeed an RS8 test mule, and that the problem was specifically due to the turbos of its V10 powerplant getting too hot in the mid-engined layout. Based on the best translation we can find of the Dutch article, Frowein says (or at least we think he says) that putting the twin-turbo V10 in the R8 is out of the question, and that they are instead working on a normally-aspirated V10 with a little more than 500 HP.
-Autoblog via German Car Blog
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Twin Turbo V10 R8 Canned: Combusts into Flames Too Much
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