Audi’s supercar turns heads

WOW. I’ve driven a few Audis in my time but this one is easily the most impressive.

The R8 is a real headturner, a fair dinkum supercar and just like any Ferrari or Lamborghini, it draws a fair bit of attention.

In fact, driving the car was something of a circus, with people waving and pointing, teenagers taking photos and `idiot road warriors buzzing us on the motorway.

One bloke in a white van (they all seem to be nuts) drew alongside, rolled down his passenger side window and started yelling something at us at 110km/h.

Closeted in the cockpit of the $350,000 V10, mid-engined sports car, we did our best to ignore him.

Firing up the R8 for the first time was a bit daunting, particularly when we discovered it was a manual.
We prefer a manual, but there’s something to be said for letting the car take care of things and concentrating on the business of driving in this case.

It also takes some practice to find the right gear, with a special slotted change with individual gates for each of the six gears, just to make sure you don’t get it wrong.

With 386kW of power on tap and revving all the way to 8700rpm, it’s just as well because we found ourselves nudging the dividers on more than one occasion as we grabbed for a gear.

Turning over the 5.2litre, V10 when it’s cold requires a couple of prods of the throttle to keep it from stalling and is a sure-fire way to wake the neighbours, with a whip-like response not unlike an F1 car.

The engine is basically the same V10 that can be found under the bonnet of a Lambo (they’re owned by the same company) and occupies pride of place amidships where it sits under a glass engine cover for all to see: it’s illuminated at night so you can’t miss it.

The sound is not quite as good as a Ferrari, but you won’t find any complaints here.

Two sound baffles, controlled by pressure, modulate the pitch and volume depending on the engine load and speed.

The R8 is certainly a car with a sense of style.

In terms of performance, the V10 is considerably quicker than the V8 model, able to blast from 0-100km/h in 3.9 seconds and on to a top speed of 316km/h.

It sits on variable magnetic style suspension with 10-spoke 19 inch wheels 235/35 and massive 295/30 tyres front and back.

Drive is fed to all four wheels through a specially modified version of Audi’s quattro all-wheel drive system, with an 85 per cent bias towards the rear wheels during normal driving.

Liberal use is made of aluminium and carbon fibre to reduce the car’s weight to 1600kg and maximise the power to weight ratio.

With a few hours to spare we slipped away for a quiet drive on a Sunday afternoon, returning about four hours and 400km later.

What a cracker! We could have easily gone further, but home beckoned.

Motorcycle riders, even those with big fat rear tyres, just fail to appreciate that some cars are capable of accelerating and braking just as quickly as they can.

Even the fuel economy is not too bad at a claimed 13.7 litres/100km. We averaged 15.0litres/100km on our varied route.

The V10 comes with heated leather seats, satellite navigation, and a Bang and Olufsen sound system as standard.

What everyone else is thinking

Pino Martello

04/03/2010

this Audi R8 is well and truly a lot of car for the money. its one of the best cars that I have driven and yes, it certainly turns heads. My neighbours all came out and stared at the car when I brought one home for the day. its features are incredible. Well done Audi... you're the best.