The crazy Audi R8 RWS (Rear Wheel Series) is due for arrival in Australia as of April. It’s a bargain all round with just $299,500 for the coupe and $321,000 for the Audi R8 Spyder V10 RWS convertible. Both cars are exactly $67,500 less than the quattro variants. Anyone with that sort of coin may well be inspired by the recent Bathurst 12-hour victory by the Audi Sport Team. Robin Frijns, Stuart Leonard and Dries Vanthoor got the Audi R8 LMS GT3 home, but only 999 will score the R8 RWS worldwide for their own pads.
“The Audi R8 RWS is such an exciting car for us because it’s the very first rear-wheel-drive production car ever built by Audi. As a brand famous for quattro, or all-wheel-drive, this was a huge but exciting move for our brand in once again demonstrating our Vorsprung, or progressiveness, to consumers. It’s hard to imagine any sportscar-loving owner who wouldn’t be motivated by such a modern classic supercar,” said Paul Sansom, Managing Director of Audi Australia.
The production version shares around half the components of the Mount Panorama car, an exclusive factoid purely reserved for the R8 RWS. The car will clearly be a handful with a 5.2-litre V10 FSI engine that will blast out 397kW / 540Nm. A seven-speed S tronic dual-clutch transmission joins the party and will send the R8 RWS to 100km/h in 3.7 seconds (coupe). If you have a death wish or can find a track with a straight long enough it will rocket right up to 320km/h.
An ‘Audi Space Frame’ helps keep the car as close to the track version as possible. It’s constructed from feather light carbon fibre and aluminium. A mid-mounted engine and the ability to drift like mad will clearly appeal to the richest end of the hoon market.
The ‘Ibis’ white paint job is standard although you’d have to go with that optional GT stripe design, right? The RWS gets its own distinctive looks over the quattro version – unique exhausts and contrasting colour body trims that include a matte black honeycomb grille. LED headlights and LED daytime running lights are standard as are rear LED lights and dynamic rear indicators.
Other typical Audi highlights include:
The R8 RWS will clearly only be available in limited numbers for the Australian market, so hurry up.
Chris was EFTM’s Motoring Editor for many years, driving everything from your entry level hatch to the latest Luxury cars through to the Rolls Royce.
He has been in the media for 20 years, produced three Olympic games broadcasts, attending Beijing 2008 & London 2012.
Strangely he owns a Toyota Camry Hybrid, he defiantly rejects the knockers.
Chris is married to Gillian and resides in Sydney’s North West. They have Sam the English Springer Spaniel and Felix the Burmese cat to keep them company, and recently welcomed baby Henry to the family.
He has now left EFTM, and writes freelance and runs his own Facebook Page “Bowen’s Garage”
Many of us overlook dash cams for our new (or old) cars. They are like…
Zeekr 7X owner Tim joins us to talk about his learnings from an outback QLD…
Roborock had a heck of a show at this years IFA in Berlin, showing off…
Australia’s fuel giant Ampol has agreed to purchase 100% of EV charging company Evie. Fast…
Amazon tonight announced a faster Fire TV Stick 4K and a suite of new Kindles…
Telstra, Optus and Vodafone have joined forces to establish Temporary Disaster Roaming to keep users…