There’s something in the water in Texas. That’s the only thing that can explain it. The gearheads down there in the section of America that used to be Mexico really know how to take fast shit and make it faster shit. Audi’s second-generation R8 is already impressive with a 533 horsepower V10 and a 0-60 time of 3.5 seconds, thanks to its standard all-wheel drive. But what if you wanted to more than quadruple its power output? You’d go to Texas.
Texans are obsessed with straight line speed, pumping millions of dollars into drag racing, top speed events, and land speed racing. That’s how shops like T1 Race Development make their living, catering to these kinds of speed obsessed maniacs. If you want to go really fast and look really cool, you’re pretty much building a 2005 Ford GT, a Nissan R35 GT-R, or slapping some turbskis on a V10 in an Audi R8 (or its chassis mate Lamborghini Gallardo).
In last week’s episode of American Tuned with Rob Dahm, the R8 was the central piece of the feature. There’s a reason these cars are so well regarded, because they’re about as docile as kittens when you keep the revs down, but when you push the loud pedal past 6,000 RPM, it really wakes up and starts to build serious boost. Is there another car you can theoretically drive every day, then turn up to an 1/8th mile drag strip and rip off a 5.2-second run? It’s not an exact science, but estimates usually put a car that runs 5.2 in the eighth at about an 8.2 in the quarter. Wild.
Sadly Rob doesn’t get a ton of time with the car because a front axle CV breaks when the car hooks up in third gear. But it’s easy to see that this is an incredible platform that will continue getting development into the future. I’d like to get behind the wheel for a rip at the Texas Mile. That sounds like a riot.
