Audi R8 RWD 2021 first drive

The approaching end of the internal-combustion era is creating some strange juxtapositions in marketing messages.

The launch event for the new rear-driven Audi R8 V10 Performance took place on the Spanish island of Gran Canaria, closer to Western Africa than the rest of Europe, with the highlight a spectacular high-altitude campsite in the mountains. Audi’s commitment to sustainability meant this featured all-vegan catering and power from repurposed Audi E-tron battery packs. All of which was in stark contrast to the snarling V10 that carried me there.

The R8 was never going to die quietly, and although it’s too early to pen an obituary, the arrival of the Performance RWD marks a thinning of the range that, special editions aside, will carry it through to retirement. The standard models have been quietly dropped, with the choice now set to be a pair of binary decisions between Performance variants: coupé or Spyder and all-wheel drive or rear-wheel drive.

While the Performance RWD is an obvious model to make, it isn’t just an R8 Quattro shorn of half its driven wheels. It gets a new version of the naturally aspirated 5.2-litre V10, one that now makes 562bhp – 30bhp more than the outgoing RWD R8 but still 40bhp shy of the AWD version.The suspension settings are unchanged from the old RWD R8 but different to those of the Performance Quattro: the rear-driver gets slightly stiffer springs and more negative camber at the back to help sharpen responses.

The two variants are also distinguished by various other spec changes in keeping with the Performance RWD’s status at the foot of the range: 19in wheels and steel brakes are standard, as is a body-coloured ‘side blade’ around the rear air intake, where the Performance Quattro gets carbonfibre trim.

Audi is also offering a posher Edition trim, which brings the rear-driver the carbonfibre furniture, 20in wheels and a Bang & Olufsen stereo.

Despite expectations, the reduction in driven wheels doesn’t make the Performance RWD feel radically different from its Quattro sister, certainly not at road speeds.

Gran Canaria’s sometimes dusty roads produced the occasional sense of gentle traction control intervention, which I probably wouldn’t have experienced in the Performance Quattro. But once the Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tyres were on warm, clean asphalt, grip rose to a level that even spirited real-world progress rarely transgressed.