Bruce

PARIS - Audi’s R8 will be the German premium automaker’s first car to break the 300kph barrier.

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AutoWeek | Published 10/30/06, 8:13 am et





"Powered by a 420hp V-8 engine, the supercar will have a top speed of 301kph. All other Audis will continue to be electronically limited to 250kph.

“It is impossible to sell a vehicle like the R8 with a speed limiter,” an Audi spokesman told Automotive News Europe.

The mid-engine R8 is targeted at the Porsche 911, which has a top speed of 285kph to 310kph, depending on the model.

Audi is breaking a voluntary agreement by German carmakers - excluding Porsche – to limit the top speed of their cars to 250kph.

The agreement was made in 1988, when BMW’s V-12-powered 750i upper-premium car was launched. Its theoretical top speed was higher than 250kph but carmakers wanted to avoid a public discussion about speed limits in Germany.

The German autobahn system does not have a general speed limit. But politicians are under pressure from safety campaigners to impose one.

The voluntary agreement has been weakened in recent years. BMW M5 and M6 buyers can opt to have their top speed raised to 305kph if they take part in a special driving course. BMW uses the letter M to designate its performance-tuned cars from less powerful versions of the same cars.

Buyers of cars from Mercedes’ in-house tuners, AMG, can have their top speed raised to 275kph and 300kph as a factory-approved option, depending on the model.

Audi unveiled its R8 at the Paris auto show last month, three years after a supercar concept called the Le Mans Quattro debuted at the IAA in Frankfurt.

As Audi’s halo car, the German premium carmaker will build about 5,000 units a year of the coupe. Deliveries are due to start in the first half of next year.

Audi says it plans to offer optional LED front lights in its R8 supercar. Audi says the R( will be the first series-production car to have LED high and low beams, daytime running lights and turn signals."

Just_me

Audi RS4 topspeed?

ree

250 km/h (electronical limited)

Just_me

lol I know but how fast without it?`

Yannis

Not much faster. Around 275-280 km/h if you remove the limiter. It has been engineered with max acceleration and not top speed in mind.

Actually even the "limited" RS4 can accelerate to 270 km/h with no problem like previous RS6. Audi has a flexible approach to the 250 km/h limit.

Bruce

Sounds right to me. The RS4 that Sport Auto tested in the super test didn't have a limiter and they got up to 262 km/h on the Dottinger Hohe. I'd it could easily do 275 km/h

Tumbo

The guy in the RS4 I was driving, told me that they did 305 km/h easy on the autobahn from Germany. It didn't had the speed limiter, and it was stock. Think about it. If the old RS4 did 290km/h, why on earth whouldn't a 420bhp car break 300km/h. 280 km/h is just impossible that it would stop there.

Yannis

ABT Audi RS4

Wondering how fast your precious Audi RS4 could go without that darned electronic speed limit that the Germans impose? Is a 250 km/h top speed not enough for you? Well, no problem with that as the German car specialist ABT just came out with a solution that’ll get rid of your problems. With the help of ABT, the potential top speed of 420 hp V8 RS4 from Ingolstadt now totals to a more appropriate, 282 km/h.

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Tumbo

Yes, I know that. As just as I did when I reas this article then, I react the same way now: ridiculous! 282 is N-O-T-H-I-N-G for the RS4.

Tumbo

There are tons of movies where stock RS6s are doing 300km/h... Especially RS6+.

EXAMPLE:


Look in the beginning.