Watch the Audi R8 E-Tron lap the Nurburgring in 8:09 - silently

Like so many of you, I love watching cars in action on the Nürburgring but unlike the majority of the ‘Ring videos that we feature here on TorqueNews – this video of the Audi R8 E-Tron in action doesn’t offer the eardrum bursting roar of a high performance engine. The all-electric drivetrain of the Audi R8 E-Tron churns out 308 horsepower and 605lb-ft of torque without making a sound so all that you really hear in this video is the squeal of the tires and wind noise. At the helm is experienced Nürburgring racer Markus Wankelhock who took home the victory in this year’s Nürburgring 24 Hour in the Audi R8 LMS.

Audi points out that the production version of the R8 E-Tron that arrives in dealerships around the world later this year will be nearly identical with the biggest difference between the car that ran the 8:09 lap and the production model being an increase top speed in the car shown in the video below. The car used in the video below has a top speed of 155 miles per hour while production units will be governed to “just” 125 miles per hour. Wankelhock also made some laps around the Nordschleife with the standard production speed limiter in place with a result of 8:26 seconds – so those R8 E-Tron owners making their own trip to the ‘Ring will find their stock electric supercar to be about 17 seconds slower than the modified car shown in the video below. However, the production version will still be able to dash from 0-62mph in just 4.6 seconds while offering an all-electric driving range of 134 miles.

While 8:09 is a far cry from the fastest cars to lap the Nürburgring Nordschleife, the Audi R8 E-Tron is the second fastest all-electric vehicle to complete an official lap. The only electric vehicle to have turned in a faster lap than the R8 E-Tron was the Toyota TMG EV P001 (a prototype race car) with a time of 7:47 – but that car is far from ever being a production road model. Another notable electric lap time was turned in by the Peugeot EX1 Concept but with a time of 9:01, the Peugeot was considerably slower than the production-bound R8 E-Tron. When compared to the V8 and V10 versions of the Audi R8, the electric R8 E-Tron best lap time was just four seconds slower than the V8 model while trailing the V10 model by 25 seconds. The current fastest lap by a full production vehicle was turned in by the 2010 Dodge Viper ACR with a time of 7:12 meaning that the all-electric R8 E-Tron is less than a minute slower than the fastest production road car in the world around the 12+ mile track.

Audi plans to build only 1,000 examples of the R8 E-Tron for global consumption.