The 4.2-liter V8 engine used in the base Audi R8 is a great engine that has also earned its stripes under the bonnet of the RS4. However, as things move on and we await a new R8, we learn that it may very well receive a smaller turbocharged engine.
It may not be added at the time of first release, but it will be added to the range sometime after.
Audi board member for technical developmen Ulrich Hackenberg explained to Autocar magazine that the next R8 would need a force-fed motor because “in some countries, you need to reduce the capacity of engines also and we need to find solutions for these markets. So we’re looking at smaller engines, yes.”
It’s not clear how many cylinders this engine would have, and I don’t think Audi knows yet, either. There is a very slim change of it receiving a four-pot, but “it’s a big step from 10 cylinders to four though – there are some numbers in between that we could look at,” according to Hackenberg.
By Andrei Nedelea
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