Just last week we saw our home-grown racing ace Alex Yoong barrel down the Grandstand straight in a factory built, GT3-spec Audi R8 LMS Cup car as part of the one-make-race series by Audi. But Alex was piloting the late model first generation R8 and not the second-gen seen in these pictures here. However, that doesn’t stop former F1 driver and six-time 24 Hours Le Mans winner Jackie Ickx from saying that the R8 is “the best handling road car today”.
The R8 LMS car in question here is the second-gen version thats sports the V10 lent over from its sister, the Lamborghini Huracan. Although this iteration of the R8 was launched back in March at the Geneva Motor Show, production is slated to start in the mid of September, with the first few cars billed for delivery before the year end.
Powering these new generation of track munchers is a tried-and-tested, quad-cam V10 40-valve mill that produces 585 hp and 560 Nm of torque that’s built on Audi’s Space Frame design technology. Audi has been rather stingy with technical details on their latest GT3 spec racer. The only number they’ve revealed to date, is its price.
Not to be comparing the R8 with ordering a burger at the drive-thru, but an ala-carte R8 LMS GT3 would set you back €360,000 (RM1,740,873). Should you find yourself liking that burger with chips and soda, that’ll set you back a total of €398,000 (RM1,924,631) which gets you the car as well as a starter and parts package for the season.
Until the end of March 2016, Audi has scheduled production capacities for 45 GT3 race cars for the coming 2016 season. With that, the four-ringed brand’s R8 LMS will set the pace as one of the first new models to correspond with the new GT3 regulations that will come into effect from 2016 until at least 2018, and thus sets new standards in terms of safety.
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