赛道攻击：我们将 2028 款奥迪 Nuvolari 驾驶到极限

Unfamiliar surroundings can elicit feelings of uneasiness. We’re in Madrid; we’ve just rolled out of bed and arrived at Circuito de Madrid Jarama. A few minutes pass, and we’re belted into the passenger seat of the Audi’s newest halo car, the Audi Nuvolari, itself a relatively unexplored place. Site laps are sometimes easy, but not today. Our tour guide, Victor, has a crazy look in his eye. And maybe a screw loose. He attacks the braking zones, exits corners sideways, and shows zero restraint in his speed. Victor, we love you, but can you save a little tire for the rest of us?

We enjoyed our first experience with Audi’s first mid-engine car since the dearly departed R8. After just three laps driving around the former home of the Spanish Grand Prix, we love the Nuvolari. Having spent time with the Nuvolari’s donor plug-in hybrid platform, the Lamborghini Temerario, eases the tension.

The Audi’s cabin, a cocoon of microfiber and leather with aluminum door handles, seat controls, and vents, oozes fancy-dinner vibes more so than qualifying laps. It’s a welcoming environment. Strapped into the driver’s seat, the Nuvolari starts up in its pure electric mode. Turning the top-left knob on the busy steering wheel wakes the 789-hp twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V-8; its flat-plane crankshaft is capable of spinning to a bonkers 10,000 rpm. The cabin fills with glorious noise, most of it real. Turning and holding that same knob activates Dynamic+ mode, summons more noise, and puts most of the systems in their most-ready state.

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Exiting Jarama’s final corner and pointing down the straight, the Nuvolari accelerates as if it were shot off an aircraft carrier’s flight deck. As in the Temerario, the screaming V-8 has friends. A 147-hp motor connected to the crankshaft fills the lulls in the engine’s torque delivery. The front axle has two 147-hp motors that also provide torque vectoring. While the Temerario stores its energy in a 4-kWh battery, the Nuvolari (like the new Lamborghini Revuelto SV) utilizes a larger 7-kWh pack. The new pack supplies up to 254 horses, compared to the Temerario’s 187-hp limit. In all, the V-8 and electric motors work together to create a 987-hp party, or 80 more than the Temerario.

By the end of Jarama’s nearly half-mile front straight, we’ve almost reached an indicated 185 mph. The Nuvolari brakes as effortlessly as it accelerates, courtesy of Brembo CCM-R Plus carbon-ceramic rotors (16.5-inch up front and 16.1-inch at the rear) that bite hard. The pedal doesn’t feel as wooden as the Lambo’s, where more force yields more stopping power. In the Nuvolari, a spring change within the brake actuator feels like it prioritizes pedal travel to modulate the brakes rather than pressure. Nevertheless, the pedal feels great.

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Bending the Nuvolari into Turn 2 reveals off-center steering feel that isn’t nearly as over-caffeinated as the Lamborghini’s. Here, it feels very Audi. Effort ramps up in a linear fashion but is never too heavy. It’s as direct as it needs to be, and there’s ample indication when the front tires have had enough.

A nearly 1000-hp supercar should be somewhat intimidating to drive, but Audi has tuned the Nuvalori to be a gentle beast. Audi’s Quattro Predictive Drive system uses a 6-D sensor (as in the Revuelto SV) to absorb information from the car, and, based on driving habits, in-house-developed algorithms predict what the car should do next. Tail out on corner exit? The car’s computer brain might send a little extra torque vectoring to the front axle to keep things in check. Crank a little too much steering input into a large braking event? You can feel the motors straighten out the car.

The Predictive Drive system also communicates with the dampers. They’re adaptive units with high- and low-speed electronic controls for the compression and rebound sides. The dampers allow Audi to use a softer spring than the Temerario to help maintain a consistent tire patch and keep the car stable during braking and the body flat when the Bridgestone Potenza Race tires are loaded up midcorner.

With Predictive Drive working in the background, the rest of our extremely limited time in the Nuvolari is spent trying to digest the experience. Don’t forget to tug the massive aluminum shift paddles before slamming into the 10,000-rpm limiter. Check. What’s after this corner? I can’t remember; Victor said something about braking. Speaking of braking, is the rear motor really braking the engine when there’s more horsepower than is available for traction to harvest extra energy for the front straight? There’s no indication it’s happening, but we’ll take their word for it.

Familiarizing yourself with your very own Nuvolari will cost north of $700,000. That’s before customizing one of the 499 Nuvolaris that will be built. You can specify any color you’d like or choose an unpainted carbon-fiber body for an unspecified cost, something we’re excited to see. We’re even more excited to see how Audi’s return to the supercar world trickles down into the RS brand. We’ll be waiting.

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2028 Audi Nuvolari
Vehicle Type: mid-engine, front- and rear-motor, front/all-wheel-drive, 2-passenger, 2-door coupe

POWERTRAIN
twin-turbocharged and intercooled DOHC 32-valve 4.0-liter V-8, 789 hp, 538 lb-ft + 2 front AC motors, 147 hp, 254 lb-ft + 1 rear AC motor, 147 hp, 110 lb-ft (combined output: 987 hp; 7-kWh lithium-ion battery pack; peak charge rate, AC 7.2 kW)
Transmissions, F/R: direct-drive/8-speed dual-clutch automatic

DIMENSIONS
Wheelbase: 104.7 in
Length: 185.8 in
Width: 79.6 in
Height: 47.4 in
Curb Weight (C/D est): 4300 lb

PERFORMANCE (C/D EST)
60 mph: 2.0 sec
100 mph: 4.3 sec
1/4-Mile: 9.3 sec
Top Speed: 217 mph

EPA FUEL ECONOMY (C/D EST)
Combined/City/Highway: 16/14/19 mpg
Combined Gasoline + Electricity: 24 MPGe
EV Range: 8 mi

First Drives