We’ve got an Audi R8 V8 that just pulled into one of VFE’s service bays. Its owner has a pair of R8s because of course he does. This particular R8 does duty as a dedicated Club Racer.


Greg is a hardcore Audi guy (he’s owned like, 50 or something). But it was a Porsche GT3 that ultimately brought him here.
The R8 was doing great in the twisty bits but lacked the 911’s straight-line acceleration. Greg got tired of seeing the Porsche’s petulant rear end. We're
going to fix that for him.


The VF550 Supercharger kit gets prepped for installation.


Carbon build-up is fairly common in direct fuel injection engines.
We had some clean up to do.


Wonder if this will fit on the Corrado.



See You tomorrow

Stay Tuned

 

Our cleaning duties resumed first thing this morning. Although this R8 has a mere 8000 miles on its clock, the carbon deposits were significant (such is the life of a hard-driven sportsracer).
The divider plates were nasty but cleaned up well.



The lower lid of the VF550 system was computer modeled
and optimized for precise flow characteristics. It's a sexy
piece you sadly won't see much once it's installed beneath the blower.



The CAD designed and billet carved VF550 inlet mated to
the TVS 1900 supercharger and inlets.



The TVS 1900 features a glorious 1.9 liters of displacement and
features a pair of 3-lobe rotors with 60 degrees of helix
and specially designed inlet and outlet ports. It's been
acoustically optimized to reduce unnecessary noise
and vibration. Paired with the Audi's V8, it produces
a singular, understated sound.



The VF550 is a genuine bolt-on performance mod.
No cutting, hacking, slicing or dicing is necessary.
So far, the most challenging issue was keeping
up with the technician's pace. We got to this point in 5 hours.
Tomorrow we will be plumbing the air/water intercooler system.

Stay Tuned

 

Moving right along here. No real surprises.
The packing box is well organized.
We finish one section and the next group of hardware is
waiting beneath.




The VF550 includes a trunk-mounted
polypropylene water reservoir and Bosch water pump linked to...





An air/water charge cooler system.




Plumbing for the chargecooler lives in the driveshaft tunnel.




All four corners featured well scrubbed rubber. The R8's additional horsepower will benefit from stickier replacements.

 

Supercharged V8 under glass.




Loading the HEX TUNING software via OBDII port.




Supercharger webbing adds significant strength to the casing. The unit won't need any service for 80,000 miles.




Plumbing the VF550 air/water cooling lines.




Time for test drive....maybe a dyno run or two.

 

nice work!

 

Greg wasted no time collecting his R8.
I just got back from lunch and heard the
distinctive harmonic as the supercharged V8
ripped through the gears and faded into the
white noise of the freeway.


The obligatory "camera on a stick" pic.




Here, watch an Audi R8 V8 get
supercharged in less than 10 seconds.
Although the book describes the VF550
install as a 4 day job, Mike, our in-house techmeister
did it in less than 3.




That's good because another blue R8 just rolled in, a V10-flavored car. It's slated for the VF750 supercharger system.