Audi R8 V10 Plus: Speed Overload

By Kumar Saurav · May 2013 · 3 min read

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How does a Maruti Swift driver feel when he gets to drive an Audi R8 V10 Plus? Read on to find out.

“Congratulations, you will be driving the Audi R8 at the Buddh International Circuit” – at eight in the morning, you don’t really take such texts seriously because while mankind sleeps, telemarketers are busy feeding our inboxes with promotional texts for properties that we would never buy and holiday destinations that we would never go to, but this text was supposed to be taken seriously because the sender’s name corresponded with the name of the FHM India editor. My first reaction to this SMS was – why on Earth am I getting to drive an Audi R8 when there are other people at FHM who would happily give an arm and a leg to test ride Audi’s newest answer to Lamborghini? But then I convinced myself that maybe it was finally my day to get lucky.

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The Audi R8 zooms past 100 in 3.5 seconds. Now that’s quite a lot for someone who has been driving a car that takes much, much, much more than 3.5 seconds not just to cross the 100 mark, but also to come to a halt, so you can understand the nervousness I was experiencing. Plus, it was my first time at the F1 circuit and my debut on auto-transmission. I’m not scared of speeding, so I was really not bothered about getting over 100 or even 200, but the auto-transmission was certainly scaring me because I was completely ignorant of it, so I called up a friend (who will now be laughing, reading this article) who has dated more cars than women in his life for advice. He said, “Chill, there is nothing to get scared of. You can ask the Audi instructors about everything you don’t know.” I was relieved to know that there will be someone to bail me out if I turn into a complete idiot at the steering.

With that in mind, I reached BIC fully prepared to handle my ignorance, but once I saw the other auto-journalists at the circuit, everything I should not have been scared of came rushing back to haunt me. These guys know everything. During the training session before the R8 driving experience, all the other auto journalists knew the answer to every question that the instructor asked, so I realised that I didn’t deserve to be there and am better off interviewing luscious women. Nevertheless, I manned up and went ahead for the drive.

My co-driver guided me through the auto-transmission and I was pretty good and pretty reckless on the circuit, but the R8 is prepared to take care of even reckless, ignorant and super-nervous drivers like me. Its powerful V10 engine with 550 HP gives it wings and the ABS keeps you on track if you go overboard with the speed; however, you really need to know how to activate the ABS because I noticed that half the people, even those who had driven such cars earlier, were finding it hard to activate it. And if you really don’t experience the might of the ABS in the Audi R8, you are kind of missing out on the action-reaction.

What more does this spruced-up R8 offer? The new S-tronic 7-speed dual clutch automatic gearbox that gives you great leverage at the start, reduced weight of 50 kgs, a sturdier body, LED headlights, single frame grille and new dynamic turn signals. The result is a powerful automotive beast that even an amateur like me loves!

Just in case you are not a big fan of auto transmission, these large paddle shifts will excite you.
This machine could only have been perfected with this kind of transmission. S tronic works well.
With that kind of speed, you hardly get to notice the speedometer.