2016 Audi R8 V10 Spyder review, test drive

Audi’s R8 has already been lauded as being the perfect sportscar/supercar – a high performance machine that you can quite easily use every day. What’s more impressive is the fact that this has been applicable through the entire evolution of the car, from its original V8 roots to the second generation of the V10 that came out last year in its 610 horsepower ‘Plus’ specification. This year, this second-generation R8 has gone topless, but just how much difference has peeling off the roof made? Well, quite a bit actually, and with Audi’s mantra for this car being ‘lighter, stiffer, faster’, you’d better believe they mean serious business.

Add lightness (and stiffness)

One massive goal that Audi strived towards while making this new Spyder was to make it lighter and stiffer than the outgoing soft-top. And to achieve this, the entire aluminium-carbonfibre hybrid space has been reworked to give it the strength necessary to deal with the inherent floppiness that goes hand-in-hand with lopping any car’s roof off. Through the use of thicker cross sections of aluminium in certain areas such as the sills, A-pillars and windshield frame, not only is this car lighter and about 50-percent stiffer than the previous generation Spyder, it also has as much torsional rigidity as the last-gen coupé. To put that into perspective, the entire space-frame chassis of this Spyder weighs just 8kg more than the current coupé and the entire car tips the scales at 1,720kg, which is just 80kg over the hard-top.

Loaded for performance

The 5.2-litre naturally aspirated V10 motor from the Spyder isn’t available in the ‘Plus’ specification but still makes a fairly ridiculous 540hp of peak power with a more-than-healthy offering of 540Nm of peak torque. With about 15hp more than the previous-generation Spyder, this one is obviously faster when you put your foot down. It can dispense the run to 100kph from a standstill in just 3.6 seconds (two-tenths faster than before) and in a mere 11.8 seconds, it can get to 200kph. On our drive, we certainly got to experience the ferocious way the R8 gets off the line, but there was no way to experience its claimed higher top speed of 318kph.

Speed sensation

While the acceleration certainly is rather impressive, now there’s a whole lot more drama available if you’re so interested as well. When you set the Drive Select mode to Dynamic and floor the throttle, the new sports exhaust roars in an unbelievably loud manner. And as you lift your foot, it sends out loud pops and crackles out the back end. In fact, every time we entered a tunnel during our test drive, we simply couldn’t resist giving the Spyder a boot-full of gas and giggling with juvenile glee as the tunnel walls amplified the sonorous symphony the tail-pipes played. With no roof to separate you from the rock concert coming from the exhaust, that visceral feeling of speed is really turned up to 11. Oh, and we never got tired of all the waves and thumbs-ups we got from onlookers, children and adults alike, as we went past, exhaust screaming for attention.

Of course, when you’re done hooning around, one of the satellite buttons on the steering wheel lets you toggle the flaps in the exhaust to bring the noise to a far more tasteful level, without sacrificing the performance. You can go the other way around as well, by enjoying the ease of Comfort mode and toggling the exhaust button just for some aural drama.