The 2023 Audi R8 Coupe V10 GT RWD Is One Hell of a Goodbye

A silver Audi drives quickly on a race track at sunset.

With 612 hp and rear-wheel drive, it’s going to be one hell of a short trip to that farm upstate for the R8.Photo: Audi

Audi’s R8 has been an incredibly long-serving and successful mid-engine supercar for sensible people who own dental practices or accounting firms. It’s somehow as face-meltingly fast as its twin, the Lamborghini Huracan, but it’s simultaneously more buttoned-down and less intimidating. It’s also currently going the way of the thylacine, and that’s sad. But before Audi puts its mid-engine naturally aspirated supercar out to pasture, the company is giving it one last hurrah.

The 2023 Audi R8 Coupe V10 GT RWD will be limited to just 333 units worldwide, and as swan songs go, it’s pretty good. The yowling 5.2-liter naturally aspirated V10 engine produces a very healthy 612 hp and 417 lb-ft of torque, directed through a new seven-speed dual-clutch transmission to the rear wheels exclusively.

An Audi R8 Coupe drives into the sunset.

Audi is sunsetting the R8, so this photo is more than a little on the nose.Photo: Audi

It also gets a new driving mode called “Torque Rear,” which lets drivers select their level of stability control intervention. It’s kind of like the big dash knob on a Mercedes-AMG GT R, only different. The important thing is that it will allow the brave or foolhardy to dial back their traction control without necessarily turning it all the way off and subsequently yeeting themselves off a cliff and into the sea or something.

Other notable changes include a 44-lb weight reduction compared to the non-GT RWD Coupe and a black intake manifold, so nerds 15 years from now will know that you were once very cool, moderately wealthy and possessed of a fine relationship with your local Audi dealer. The GT also comes with the carbon aerokit as standard, which looks pretty boss.

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The 2023 Audi R8 Coupe V10 GT RWD will retail for 225,000 euros (currently around $220,500, but there are fees and taxes and blah blah, so expect a different price here), and it should start reaching customers sometime next year.