Well color me happily surprised, if this turns out to be true, but the R4, Audis baby-R8 might actually see the light of day.
Back in March, der boys from Ingolstadt said their Boxster/Cayman competitor was dead-dead0dead, but now … seems like that initial diagnosis was a bit off. The new mid-engined R4 is on (or so says AutoBlog & AutoExpress). The R4 will be above the TT and below the R8 in the company line-up, and prices will start around £35,000 (around 56K in greenbacks). Like the R8 it will be a two-seater only, available as either a coupe or roadster.
Unlike its Porsche cousins, the R4 will get Quattro AWD and aluminum construction. Mills range from a 2.0L turbo, all the way up to the new supercharged and turbocharged 335-hp 2.5L five-cylinder from the TT RS. And, be-still my heart, a high-performance diesel V6 are also said to be in the mix. The gearbox will either be a traditional six-speed manual (standard) and a seven-speed, S-tronic twin-clutch, semi-automatic as an option (yes please).
Yeah, 56K is kind of steep for me, but if the mighty R8 led to the R4, then maybe Audi will make an even babier (and lighter) R2 or something in the future.
Source: AutoBlog
Is that going to be real quattro with a Torsen diff, or fake quattro (ala TT, A3) with a hadex diff?