Audi R8 5.2 FSI V10 by ABT

By Anthony Crawford | August 29th, 2009

If you live in Germany and you own an Audi, then you surely know about ABT Sportsline. They do to Audi what AMG do to Mercedes and M-Technik do for BMW.

That is, modified engines, suspensions, interior trims, aerodynamics, and exterior highlights to distinguish them from the standard factory models.

Take ABT Sportsline’s R8, with the 4.2-litre V8, which Car Advice drove through Germany’s mountainous Allgau-region earlier this year .

Easily one of the quickest accelerating supercars we drove on this year’s Full Throttle Tour, which included many of the world’s fastest cars, but it was the R8′s cornering ability through the switchbacks, which was on a different level to anything else we drove. It was as though the car had Formula One levels of down force going on, such was its adhesion to the tarmac at colossal speeds through the bends.

ABT have been working on Audi’s latest version of the V10 powered R8, and we have no doubt, that this will be something very special indeed.

They have managed to extract a whopping 600bhp (it sounds better than 441kW) from the 5.2-litre engine, which means the 0-100km/h sprint will take just 3.8 seconds and top speed increases slightly to 322km/h from around 320km/h in the ABT R8 with the V8.

But it’s a whole lot more than that, equally important is the race like bodywork kit, designed by the DTM guys within ABT. For those of you in Australia and outside of Germany, DTM stands for Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft, which is their Touring Car Championship and Audi cars tuned by ABT, are the current leaders in the series.

ABT’s version of the V10 powered R8 is a significant power upgrade on the standard Audi car, with an additional 55kW of power on board and should be a treat to drive.

ABT is distributed in Australia by www.ramspeed.com.au

Cameron

WOW.
The old addage, “if money were no obstacle………..”.
Alan

personally i think all these tuner’s cars have quite tasteless bodykit. sure the engine upgrade is a welcome addition, but i think i can do without those excessive bodykit.

by the way, wouldn’t ABT be more comparable to Brabus rather than AMG and BMW M division? Isn’t ABT an outside tuner, not part of Audi?
http://www.caradvice.com.au Anthony

“…all these tuner cars” that’s quite a generalisation and a dangerous one at that, if you have never driven any of these cars.

The ABT Sportsline body kits are developed by the ABT’s DTM team, and are there to assist the car’s overall performance ability and again, if you had driven any of their cars (that includes their version of the Golf R32, which is a knockout) you would understand the rationale behind the exterior modifications.

AMG (Aufrecht Melcher Grobaspach) kicked off as a private company in 1967 and BMW Motorsport GmbH started as a race only company, which morphed into a tuner of standard BMW cars, as time went by.

ABT have a very close and successful relationship with the Volkswagen Group, and are one of the principle reasons why Audi is currently dominating the DTM Series. They have also been tuning cars for over 100 years.
Yanzo

i don’t care about the r8 no more! i’m enthralled by the 458 italia…
SpeedO

forget the ferrari italia, whats the point with the 3 exhaust pipes anyway? If you talk realm of luxury and style there is only one: http://www.wiesmann.com.au to be imported soon by Ramspeed. And yes, Anthony is right, once you have driven one of the ABT cars, you will not talk for days.. just enjoy the after effects. I drove the ABT RS6 at 300km/h on German autobahn with over 700 BHP. got the footage too if anyone is interested..
http://Caradvice.com.au Baddass

Those tail lights are intriguing….how are they different? There is something different about them that I can’t make out.
Wheelnut®™

SpeedO – I’ve got an idea where the 3rd [middle] exhaust pipe on the Ferrari 458 comes from.. and it’s not the engine
crouchy

Not a fan of that spoiler!
http://www.tuning.com.au Tuner ®

Alan, these are not “body Kits”, but a genuine PU Rim material, wind tunnel tested piece of gear designed to enhance stability, cooling and lastly looks. We are so backwards here in AU in this department and Audi would make us believe that “S-Line” is the pinnacle of Audi customisation. Granted, we are unfortunate to do what the Car Advice team and SpeedO seemingly have done, but the fact remains ABT Sportsline is a genuine piece of Audi and VW gear +, they run Polo Cup in Germany. You see a junk Jap import with cheap fibreglass whale tails hanging out of every orifice, that’s sad, ABT is a fair dinkum tuner, respected and closely associated with Audi. Just look at the list of official Audi and VW dealers on ABT website which retail ABT tuned cars.
Alan

Tuner, don’t get me wrong, i respect their work like i adore cars made by Brabus and Alpina (although Alpina has a closer tie to BMW than ABT or Brabus to VW/Audi or MB), but i still think that many of tuning companies have body kit (not in the Jap sense, but in general sense regardless of quality/material) ruin the original lines of the car. I don’t doubt body kits from these German tuning have aerodynamic benefits, but in a purely aesthetic sense they tend to look a bit OTT compared to the original car. The normal R8 is a beautiful car with simple and elegant lines (especially the V8 version), this seems to have ruined it slightly.
Alan

Anthony, i knew that AMG was originally a private company that became a subsidiary of MB, didn’t know that M GmbH started separate from BMW, thought they were always a division of BMW. ABT is not quite their equal as it’s a separate company, i think Quattro GmbH will be a closer competitor wouldn’t it?
Frank

In Germany, this is one of the hottest and hardest cars to get- there is literally a waiting list and most especially in diesel format. You know you are doing something right when your main competition is within the same family, namely the Porsche 911 Turbo. Better still the R8 is less expensive than its kissing cousin. Personally I think the R8 is a better car all the way around!
http://www.caradvice.com.au Anthony

Alan, let\’s say a separate division within BMW with its own budget and staffing responsibility etc,and yes, while ABT is run by the ABT family including Christian and Han Jurgen ABT (Christain was a successful DTM driver and still does much of the testing) it\’s way more closely related to Audi, than comparative tuners of other German marques due to its work in prepping the successful Audi DTM cars. And as one reader has already stated, ABT has a huge dealer base around the world despite the fact that it has only ever really focused on the domestic market.

As another reader said, once you drive an ABT Audi, you will beg, borrow or steal enough money to buy one over the standard factory model (despite factory cars like the RS4 being an impressive car) due to the perfect balance of reliability and performance. At least, that\’s my opinion.