If you live in Germany and you own an Audi, then you surely know about ABT Sportsline. They do to Audi what AMG do to Mercedes and M-Technik do for BMW.
That is, modified engines, suspensions, interior trims, aerodynamics, and exterior highlights to distinguish them from the standard factory models.
Take ABT Sportsline’s R8, with the 4.2-litre V8, which Car Advice drove through Germany’s mountainous Allgau-region earlier this year .
Easily one of the quickest accelerating supercars we drove on this year’s Full Throttle Tour, which included many of the world’s fastest cars, but it was the R8’s cornering ability through the switchbacks, which was on a different level to anything else we drove. It was as though the car had Formula One levels of down force going on, such was its adhesion to the tarmac at colossal speeds through the bends.
ABT have been working on Audi’s latest version of the V10 powered R8, and we have no doubt, that this will be something very special indeed.
They have managed to extract a whopping 600bhp (it sounds better than 441kW) from the 5.2-litre engine, which means the 0-100km/h sprint will take just 3.8 seconds and top speed increases slightly to 322km/h from around 320km/h in the ABT R8 with the V8.
But it’s a whole lot more than that, equally important is the race like bodywork kit, designed by the DTM guys within ABT. For those of you in Australia and outside of Germany, DTM stands for Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft, which is their Touring Car Championship and Audi cars tuned by ABT, are the current leaders in the series.
ABT’s version of the V10 powered R8 is a significant power upgrade on the standard Audi car, with an additional 55kW of power on board and should be a treat to drive.
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