Does anything sound better than a hardworking V-10? The question was raised and subsequently answered by the combination of a freeway tunnel on the Spanish island of Gran Canaria and the Audi R8 Performance Spyder’s 8700-rpm redline, experienced with the roof down. The noise is both glorious and entirely free of digital augmentation—savage exhaust harmonics overlaying the mechanical thrash of the naturally aspirated engine, busier and harder-edged than a V-8, angrier than a V-12.
We will miss it when it’s gone, which it will be all too soon. Both the R8 and the closely related Lamborghini Huracán are most of the way to retirement, and the V-10 engine they share—the last offered in any current production cars—is set to die with them. Audi is working on an all-electric replacement for the R8, and Lamborghini is developing a hybridized twin-turbo V-8 for the Huracán’s successor. It isn’t time to write the R8’s obituary yet, but the pared-back model range proves the clock is ticking.
