2009 Audi R8 5.2 FSI Quattro Test Drive - MotorTrend

A review of the 2009 Audi R8 5.2 FSI Quattro has been posted over at MotorTrend.com. 'The R8 5.2 carves almost without effort, yet you can feel the road and cornering forces through your fingertips as if the tires wore your palms instead of treads. The suspension, with two-position shocks, is the same architecture as the V-8's (and both cars sport the same standard 19-inch Pirelli PZeroes), but for V-10 duty the settings are tightened up. Ride quality is still simply outstanding -- in both forms the R8 glides over pavement like a hovercraft -- but maximum grip edges up fractionally, from 0.99 g to the magic 1.0g mark. The added stick of the 5.2 (and its power advantage) helped it trim the run in our figure-eight course from 24.6 seconds (at 0.79 g) to 24.4 seconds (at 0.81). Brakes are the same on both cars, and indeed the 5.2 posted the same spectacular stop from 60 mph: just 96 feet.