Audi R8 - what's under the hood?

Prompted by a tip by Luca over at eurocarblog, we did a little research into the R8's powerplant.

According to Audi, the Le Mans quattro unveiled in 2003 at the Frankfurt auto show was driven by a 5-liter, twin-turbo V10, with four valves per cylinder and continuously variable valve timing. Like the racing R8, the engine features a direct fuel injection system (FSI). As built for the Le Mans quattro, the 610 bhp engine powered the concept car to 100 km/h in 3.7 seconds. Luca reports Auto Motor und Sport as citing identical numbers for the R8, so it seems that the production engine will be essentially unchanged from the concept car's.

The normally aspirated version of the V10 powers the Audi S8 and the Lamborghini Gallardo. The S8's FSI V10 (pictured above) delivers 450 hp, while the 2006 Gallardo version cranks out 520 hp.

[Thanks, Luca!]