Sizzling new Audi R8 V10

And the good news is that it will probably be launched in South Africa during the third quarter of 2009.

The R8 V10 is the result of cumulative know-how from Audi's string of Le Mans victories and the ten-cylinder design is the perfect synthesis for impressive top performance, mighty pulling power, and low weight.

From next year this engine will also prove its potential on the world's racetracks - in the new R8 racing car Audi is developing for customer teams in conformance with the GT3 rules.

The V10 engine in the production sports car will be almost identical in construction to the one in the racing version.

The Audi R8 5.2 FSI quattro rockets from zero to 100km/h in 3.9 seconds. In the version with the sequentially shifting R tronic it reaches 200km/h in another 8.1 seconds. Even then its propulsive power hardly lessens: it's sufficient to reach a top speed of 316km/h.

And Audi says it will return an average of 13.7 litres per 100 k in the combined cycle.

The V10-engined R8 will have Quattro all-wheel drive to give it even more grip. It enables the driver to step on the gas sooner when coming out of a curve.

And it's not only the traction that benefits, but also the transverse dynamics and the stability.

A very distinctive highlight of the R8 V10 is its all-LED headlights as standard equipment. Audi is the world's first automaker to use LEDs for the high beam, low beam, daytime running lights, and turn signals.

The car's price will be announced closer to the launch date.