Future R8 Underpins New Porsche 458 Killer?

[gazza1]

Speculation that the new R8 might underpin a new Porsche Model..

Some guess work in the articles about the new R8 engines and construction of the chassis.

Nothing of course confirmed..but a good short read never the less.



http://www.autocar.co.uk/News/NewsAr...llCars/259894/

http://www.gtspirit.com/2011/11/08/r...ari-458-rival/

[SebringSilver]

I like the last three paragraphs in the Autocar article.

And GTSpirit asks an interesting question: If the new Porsche does use the second-gen R8 platform, would you still want one? Honestly, that would be the only reason to want one. Conversely, I'm not sure I'd want an R8 that uses Porsche underpinning.

[Rit2]

That bit about the future R8 being a 4 liter V8 twin-turbo, s-tronic trans, is confirmed by a reputable colleague at Audi AG. Also, it seems that the V10 only gets power improvement.

[SebringSilver]

So there will no longer be a naturally-aspirated V8 in the lineup?

[Rit2]

He didn't say nor did I asked. It appears people wanting more out-off the V8 including a revised transmission. Audi seems to be listening :-)

[SebringSilver]

That's a little bit unfortunate. I'm certainly in favour of an improved gearbox, but have always felt that the addition of turbocharging is like a last resort, kind of like cheating. You've run out of all other ideas and have no alternative but to turbocharge. I'm sure it'll be a rocket, but still wish Audi could have pulled something else out of the bag instead of taking this particular route.

[Rit2]

If my memory serves me correct, I read somewhere that the future trend with German automobiles will be to reduced the capacity of engines but add turbocharging. And there's also that hybrid coming into the picture with reduced engine capacity, without turbocharging, but with electric motor assisted performance. I'm still wondering why Audi hasn't taken this route, ala Porsche 918 and BMW i8. But then again I answered my own question, with turbocharging you could do more (and more and more) :-)

[willyjp]

The "300 lb. goriila" that drives the direction of development in the US market is the "CAFE" (corporate average fuel economy) rating. Because this number is heading to what would seem impossibly high levels in the forseeable future, ALL companies sending cars into the US market are scrambling to come up with ways to increase the EPA mileage ratings of ALL cars in their company's fleet. Every mile/gallon gained, on every model, helps the CAFE number approach the limit (and large fines are assessed for every mpg below the target number).

Turbocharging (or supercharging to a lesser degree) improves the volumetric efficiency of internal combustion engines in any case, resulting in at least some improved mpg. for a given performance level. But, because EPA mpg. numbers are determined not in the real driving world but in a computer driven "EPA drive cycle" turbo boosted engines (with computer controlled waste-gates) can be given an engine management profile that does especially well in the EPA drive cycle testing. Thus turbocharging can give an even better EPA number to help the company's CAFE number than the actual savings in fuel usage experienced in real driving, ESPECIALLY in a high performance car (with a heavy footed driver).

So the extra investment in development, apparatus and (arguably) lesser reliability and service life are WORTH it, especially for "high performance" cars and especially now that the reliability and long term performance of turbo'd engines has been refined to the point where the latter reliability factors are minimized.

So get used to it guys: I suspect in a few years, "atmospheric" engines will become uncommon in new cars generally and rare in performance cars, unless the makers are willing (eg. Ferrari) to pay the hefty fines and their buyers gladly accept the pass through. But even at Ferrari, I've read that there's definitely some interest in boosted engines!

[SebringSilver]

Hmmm....all the more reason to hang on to our 1st-gen V8s and V10s, perhaps.

[maegeri]

It makes sense for Porsche to use the R8 platform. I'd be tempted to get it because I like the service department much better at Porsche than at Audi.