Car manufacturers who have been looking into making their vehicles lighter makes use of carbon fiber in the recent years but it is not really the only material that they can tap to, Audi will be making use of aluminum in the next production of Audi R8 that will roll out in 2014.
The second generation Audi R8 will be donning a combo of carbon fiber and aluminum. This was revealed during a recent interview of Audi top engineer Michael Dick. The choice might be odd considering that Audi has a close tie with Italian supercar manufacturer Lamborghini which has a monocoque configuration made of carbon fiber for the Aventador, and that they have to face a tough McLaren competition in the market. The Audi executive though explained that the combination of the two materials may actually end up even better.
The production of the Audi R8′s hybrid aluminum and carbon fiber structure will actually cost more but it will be lighter than the current monocoque that we know of today. Using the combination of the two materials, Audi promises to have the R8 lighter by about 45 pounds to the current R8 which hits the scales at 490 pounds.
The body work, components of the engine, suspension system, and electronics are also expected to make use of lighter materials to be consistent with the goal of the car manufacturer to make the new Audi R8 the lightest in its segment. The R8 will try to catch up with the 2012 911 of Porsche by the Volkswagen Group that is around 350 pounds lighter than the R8 now.
The rigidity of the Audi R8 will also improve by 30% or about 29,498 lb-ft in every degree. This number is a lot better than the 458 Italia by Ferrari and the Aventador of Lamborghini.
Audi is not releasing a lot of details about the new R8 but it might be getting a V8 with twin-turbo which was recently used for the S8, S7 and S6.
