Audi RS e-tron GT vs Audi R8 V10 on the track: you can handle the Audi driving experience courses too!

The driving courses Audi are open to all customers, and you can take part in them from 240 euros for the Progressive option, from 420 euros for the Performance, and from 650 euros for the most sporty option, the Sportscar course. If you are a Audi customer, these prices drop a little: up to 100 euros less for the most expensive one. On the Audi driving experience website you will find all the information, with prices, schedules, what each course involves, which cars can be driven…

Perhaps what you have read in the first paragraph doesn’t fit an article whose title starts by pitting a Audi R8 V10 against the new Audi RS e-tron GT on the track. But read the title again to the end: the protagonist can be you.

The Audi driving courses

The brand with the four rings has had a driving school for years, Audi driving experience, which organises courses on asphalt and on snow, and recently also off-road courses. The asphalt season has just started, with the Sportscar course, in which we were able to take part. But there will be more. For example, you can already book the Performance course, which will take place in September at Ascari (Málaga). And very soon the booking calendar for the Progressive course will open, to be held at the Circuito de Los Arcos, in Navarra, on 14 and 15 October.

In these courses, the main goal is to learn sporty driving techniques and to improve your driving skills. After a practical part, braking tests, stability control and evasive manoeuvres are carried out… exercises that can also help in the future to deal with an unexpected situation while driving every day. They are also very suitable courses for learning to make the most of the new technologies that vehicles incorporate.

And, above all, they allow participants to drive on the track and try out Audi’s most sporty cars, such as the R8, the RS range… or the electric versions, such as the e-tron Sportback or, a novelty this year, the new Audi e-tron GT. As I said, the best thing is to go to the Audi driving experience website and start saving up to treat yourself.

At this point, I am going to tell you about some of the exercises we carried out in the Sportscar course, now indeed with the Audi RS e-tron GT as the star, even displacing a whole Audi R8 V10, which until now was “the very best” in Audi’s sporty driving courses.

Look, because neither the course nor what follows is set up as a direct confrontation between the two cars. That would be unfair. Suffice it to say that the Audi R8 V10 is what it is, a two-seat sports car which, with few modifications, serves as the basis for a racing car with an incredible record in the GT3 category in various championships around the world.

And the RS e-tron GT, although it carries the RS initials that identify Audi’s sporty models (it is the first 100% electric car from Audi Sport), is still a Gran Turismo, with everything that entails: it has to offer large doses of comfort and driving pleasure.

Audi RS e-tron GT vs Audi R8 V10: which one would you choose for track driving?

Before going on, let’s review some technical features of both cars. At least the most important ones for what comes next. Don’t worry, we won’t talk about prices or equipment. Nor will I overwhelm you with figures.

The Audi R8 V10 FSI Performance has a naturally aspirated 10-cylinder V engine with 620 hp at 8,000 rpm that delivers a maximum torque of 580 Nm at 6,600 rpm. It weighs 1,670 kg and comes as standard with ceramic brake discs. It reaches a top speed of 331 km/h, and accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h in 3.1 seconds.

For its part, the Audi RS e-tron GT uses two electric motors, one on each axle, which together deliver 646 hp in boost mode, with a maximum torque of 830 Nm. The weight is… 2,422 kg. The top speed is limited to 250 km/h, while in the 0 to 100 km/h acceleration it clocks an astonishing 3.3 seconds. Here the ceramic brake discs are not standard, but the units we were able to test on the courses had this option fitted. They cost 7,000 euros, in case you were wondering.

We don’t have the exact figure. But Audi claims that, due to the flat battery placement under the floor, the centre of gravity of the RS e-tron GT is even lower than in the R8. This, together with the fact of having maximum thrust (maximum torque) almost from the moment you press the accelerator fully, makes the Audi RS e-tron GT a real surprise… on the track too.
Accelerate, brake, take the corners: an electric car can be sporty too

We have already told you in detail about all the features and how the electric grand tourer from Audi drives on the road in the

Audi e-tron GT road test. And we have also driven the Audi R8 Performance on the track several times, one of the last at the Jerez Circuit, precisely for one of the Audi driving experience courses.

But testing both cars on the track, with the possibility of getting out of one and immediately getting into the other, and also with the advice of the instructors at Audi’s driving school, really opens your eyes to the future of electric mobility. Sorry, did I say future? I meant present.
The braking and evasive manoeuvre with the Audi R8

Before the laps on the track, two exercises. We had already done the first on other occasions: maximum acceleration with the Audi R8 (without using the

launch control so as not to strain the mechanics) until reaching a braking point where you apply all your force to the pedal, to avoid an imaginary obstacle also marked with cones while you are still braking hard.

A piece of cake for a car like the R8, especially with the ceramic brakes already “warm”. Here, the “driver” only has to press the brake pedal with all their strength at the right moment, and not ease the pressure even when it’s time to turn the steering wheel for the evasive manoeuvre.

ABS makes this possible; before, when cars didn’t have ABS, if you locked the wheels you lost steering control, but that is forgotten now… although the instructors confirm that the main mistakes made by students in this test are still not turning the steering wheel when they should even though they keep braking, or easing off maximum brake pressure when it’s time to turn, which lengthens the braking distance.
The Audi RS e-tron GT shows its maximum acceleration

From here we move on to a very fun exercise, because of the rivalry element it includes by being done in pairs… and because it’s the first contact with the Audi RS e-tron GT. It involves accelerating down the long Jarama straight as far as you can and want… as long as you are able to stop the car without going past the cones marking the end of the straight set out for the occasion. The one who stops the car first wins, so the key is to accelerate hard and brake better.

And here comes the first surprise. Although the figures say the RS e-tron GT is 0.2 seconds slower than the R8 in the 0-100 km/h acceleration, the feeling at the wheel of the Gran Turismo when you press your right foot down on the accelerator is that the “slow” one is the other… The second surprise is that, despite its almost 2.5 tonnes, it brakes again and again with extraordinary consistency, with no rest between students and runs. The feel is somewhat more “spongy” than in the R8, to define it in some way. But there is no doubt: the e-tron stops as well as it goes, and vice versa.
The final highlight: driving on the Jarama Circuit

And the best part of the day arrives: the laps around the circuit. As always in these cases, groups of three drivers, with an instructor acting as the “pacer”, and with the chance for everyone to drive behind the instructor, taking turns on each lap.
The rules do not allow traction or stability control to be disconnected. Nor are the exercises carried out in a way that gives you a time reference to compare one car against the other. But that matters little.

The Audi R8 has nothing to prove at this stage about its performance on the track, and I don’t think anyone who buys an Audi RS e-tron GT is going to use it on track days.

The best thing of all is that driving one car and then the other, consecutively, lets us verify that Audi has done an incredible job with the RS e-tron GT, and that electric propulsion still has a lot to say. If Audi is capable of doing this with a Gran Turismo… what can we expect when it decides to launch a “real” electric sports car? And when I say “real”, I mean the equivalent of an Audi R8 in electric version.

Time will tell. For now, the RS e-tron GT on the track doubles what it already conveyed when we tested it on the road: it is a very, very fast car. And less experienced drivers of such powerful cars will find it easier to set fast personal laps with the RS e-tron GT than with the R8, which has a very high cornering speed, but demands more concentration, more skill and more “hands”.

The RS e-tron GT accelerates so hard out of corners that you reach the next one almost without noticing. And its size or weight seem to halve while the tyres work transmitting the power to the asphalt, something for which they have the invaluable help of electronics. The feel of the brakes is the least sporty thing about the car. And I say that correctly: the feel, not the braking performance. Otherwise, driving the RS e-tron GT on the track, overall, reminds me a little of Scalextric cars.

And if after all this I tell you that, for driving on the track, I prefer the Audi R8, don’t criticise me. For everything else, I’ll stick with the RS e-tron GT.
Related information of interest

• Audi driving experience: treat yourself to a driving course with the Audi R8
• Audi driving experience: learn extreme driving on snow

Image gallery of the Audi driving experience Sportscar courses

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Technical specifications of this car

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CoupeAudi e-tron GT1 version · from 111,700 €