Mercedes-Benz doesn’t have one. Neither does BMW. Nor Volvo or Saab or any of the Brits save Lotus, and not—at least since the short tenure of the Ford GT—any of what’s left of the Big Three. Exclude the Italians specializing in exotics and Porsche, hardly a volume manufacturer, and the only luxury relatively-mass market carbuilder making a mid-engine automobile today is Audi. That car is the Audi R8.
Indeed the Audi R8 places its engine behind the passenger compartment and in front of the rear wheels, allowing a lower seating position and ideal weight distribution--44/56 front/rear--of sports racers not bound by the practicality required of most road vehicles. As such, the Audi R8 is among the elite of the world’s sports cars.
For 2010 the Audi R8 adds another stratum of exclusivity by adding a V-10 engine to the V-8 offered in the R8 since its autumn 2006 arrival for the 2007 model year. The new engine is rated at 525 horsepower and 391 lb-ft of torque, eclipsing the R8’s 420 hp and 317 lb-ft respectively. Not that the latter is yesterday's bread, but 500 horses is the ante in today's exotic car market.
The Audi R8’s V10, also used in the Audi R8 LMS GT3 compliant racer introduced in 2009, has an even broader spread of torque than the eight cylinder and pushes minimally more weight so as a result creates the kind of performance that inspires writers to metaphors when the raw numbers should suffice: 3.7 seconds for 0-60 mph and a top speed of 196 mph (or according to factory literature, a precise 196.4 mph, but we're allowing for the added drag of a humid day).
That of course is only the beginning. Building on Audi’s sports car racing experience more directly transferable to road vehicles than other manufacturer’s dabbling in open wheel racing, the Audi R8 takes to a racetrack like Paris Hilton to stupidity. Which is why Audi chose to introduce the 2010 R8 V10 to a limited number of automotive journalists, Infineon Raceway (in a former lifetime Sear Point, in Sonoma County, California), where Audi maintains an Audi Sportscar Experience facility, was the natural choice.
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