R8 Coupe

Make
Audi
Segment
Coupe

The Audi R8 GT is the limited-production special edition supercar to bid farewell to the second-generation Audi R8 and say goodbye to the V10 with it. So why did Audi give the R8 GT only 602 horsepower when the Lamborghini Huracan Tecnica and STO get 631 hp? Well, at the international launch of the R8 GT in Seville, Spain, CarBuzz asked whether it was limited in order to not step on Lamborghini's toes. As it turns out, that's not the case at all.

Nils Fischer, Technical Project Manager of the Audi R8, explained that the reasoning concerns emissions legislation and how it affects low- and high-volume manufacturers. "For Lamborghini, as a small manufacturer, they have different rules to play with," says Fischer. He tells us one core difference between the two supercars is their exhausts, stating that "with Audi's manufacturing laws, we couldn't use that."

European lawmakers allow niche volume manufacturers to apply for exemption from certain emissions regulations. Small-volume manufacturers - those who produce less than 10,000 cars per year - can set their own exemption target, usually in reference to their emissions from years gone by. This is the same loophole the Italian government is fighting to keep to prevent Ferrari and Lamborghini from killing the combustion engine by 2035 with the rest of Europe.

Lamborghini only produced 8,405 vehicles in 2021, placing it well within these regulations and allowing the company to apply for a larger exemption. Comparatively, Audi produced 458,746 vehicles in 2021. The brand's fleet-wide CO2 emissions target must be below a certain threshold, and a full "Lambo-spec" R8 - of which Audi is on track to produce 1,000 units in 2022 and 2,000 units in 2023 - would hamper this. So Audi had to be careful.

Curiously, the R8 GT is also down on power for the US market. Typically, the lack of particulate filters results in US-spec cars having more power and noise - as was the case with the Audi RS3 - but the R8 GT produces 602 hp stateside while European models make 611.5 hp. Fischer told us that while the rating may be different - partially because the US uses SAE-standard horsepower ratings while Europe used metric, ISO-governed standards (620 metric horsepower is the official rating of the R8 GT) - the performance of American cars will be fully on par with their European counterparts.

For the record, the R8 GT will hit 62 mph in 3.4 seconds and 124 mph from a standstill in 10.1. It'll top out at 199 mph. These figures are impressive, given the R8 GT's reliance on a naturally aspirated motor and rear-wheel drive. They can be partly attributed to the extra power over a standard RWD R8 but also to the 55-pound diet the car has been on and the bespoke suspension, gearbox tuning, and sticky Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 rubber.

Make sure to visit CarBuzz on November 23, 2022, when our first impressions of the R8 GT go live.