CARLOS LAGO: That right there is the Audi R8 Spider.
It's got a v10 and 540 horsepower,
and on this episode of the Edmunds' smash hit,
How Fast Can It Go in a Straight Line,
we're going to find out how fast it can go in a straight line.
It's a descriptive title.
So, the first part of acceleration testing always
begins with my favorite part of testing in general,
the 'just slam the gas and see what happens' approach,
so let's do that.
A little leisurely off the line there, we
didn't get a super hard launch, but that's really
fast acceleration for just turning the car on and mashing
the gas.
Next, we'll put it into the Dynamic setting,
turn on the Sport Stability Control,
and play around with launch control which
should make that pretty easy.
We're going to put the R8 in Dynamic mode,
I'm going to hold the brake with my left foot,
mash the gas with my right, and then release the brake when
it seems like it's ready to go.
I should put the traction control
in sport too, that might help.
Let's give it a try.
All right, that's-- that's launch control.
So that dropped significant time from the acceleration.
Couple of things I noticed, so when you mash the gas up
when you're folding the car with your brake.
You activate launch control, the engine
revs up to 3,500 or 4,000 RPM, I couldn't really tell,
I wasn't paying that close of attention to it.
The launch is a lot more aggressive,
there's actually some rear tire slip,
and that helps get the car moving faster,
because the end is operating at a higher speed,
giving the car more power to accelerate.
In launch control mode, the gearshifts
actually have a kick.
If you don't put it in launch and smash
the gas the gear shifts are so smooth,
it's almost like you're in a CVT.
You just move from one gear to the next,
without any sense that it's happening.
In launch control they actually kick the transmission
when it changes gears and that could be for excitement,
there might actually be small benefit
to doing that too in regard to acceleration, either way,
it's really quick and not too difficult
to get into and access.
There are way clunkier and more confusing launch control
systems, and who can argue with the performance?
That's really fast for a car with just 540 horsepower.
So, for this run, we're just going
to keep doing the same thing, we already
know generally, with the launch controls
don't make this car do it might try something different
come off the brake a little bit sooner as we're getting
the launch control, and see if it helps at all,
but let's just be honest, this is for fun.
So coming off the brake a little sooner
actually slowed the car down but by a matter of hundreds, not
even tenths, so, it doesn't seem to matter what I do,
this car is just going to do what it does, and that is,
go very fast.
This R8 V10, it's not even the most powerful one,
they do a plus that has 610 horsepower.
But this, even with 540 horsepower, that's still a lot.
Even though cars in this range have more power--
some cars do at least--
this is still really fast, you're still looking at a zero
to 60 in the mid-three second range, a quarter
mile and the high 11s, that's incredible for a naturally
aspirated car, especially one that weighs 4,000 pounds.
So all right, very fast.
Glad we could find that out.
Captain obvious reporting that super cars are fun.
Thanks for watching.
If you want to see more, keep it tuned right here.