Audi Slips the V10 into the R8: European version of a rocket

If you're planning a move to Europe any time soon and need for a grocery runner, you'll want to check out the latest from Audi - the R8 5.2 FSI quattro. Well, maybe if you live in Denmark and your grocery store is in Spain...

Audi has inserted the V10 with the Le Mans engine architecture behind the cockpit of an R8. That would be a 5.2-liter direct gasoline injection, dry sump, DOHC 90deg V10 pumping out 525 horsepower and 390 lb-ft of torque in a quattro all-wheel-drive, Audi Space Frame, aluminum bodied, mid-engine street machine. There goes the neighborhood.

The six-speed manual transmission version weighs in at 3751 lbs, just 80 pounds more than the V8. There's also a slightly heavier R tronic sequential shift version.

Among the cool racing inspired options are the ceramic pad calipers and composite discs - replacing the ventilated disc stock system (8 piston, 15-inch rotor fronts; 4 piston, 14-inch rears).

All this performance plus every imaginable creature comfort and electronic gizmo you'd expect in a luxury automobile. Base price: EUR 142,400.

And a deep throat source tells us that the R8 V10 will make it to these shores when certain supply/sales criteria are met.