Audi R8 Beautiful Car Feature
Audi R8 - Specs
(continued)
VEHICLE TYPE: mid-engine, 4-wheel-drive, 2-passenger, 2-door coupe
Audi R8 - Specs
(continued)
VEHICLE TYPE: mid-engine, 4-wheel-drive, 2-passenger, 2-door coupe
ESTIMATED PRICE AS TESTED: $130,000ENGINE TYPE: DOHC 32-valve V-8, aluminum block and heads, direct fuel injection
Displacement: 254 cu in, 4163cc
Power (SAE net): 420 bhp @ 7800 rpm
Torque (SAE net): 317 lb-ft @ 4500 rpm
TRANSMISSION: 6-speed manual with automated shifting and clutch
Some people may be tempted to dismiss Audi's R8 mid-engined supercar as a reskinned Lamborghini Gallardo. The format is just so similar, and Audi already makes the Gallardo's body in one of its aluminum-space-frame facilities. Besides, with a history of intelligent platform sharing under its belt, why wouldn't Audi simply indulge in a little badge engineering?
The answer is simple: Audi is a company on a mission. Remember — this carmaker revolutionized rallying with its Quattro and then later turned the 24 Hours of Le Mans into a company picnic, with five victories scored by this new car's namesake. Audi also kick-started a design renaissance with the first TT and prompted an entire industry to look at vehicle interiors in a different light. What's left to do? Well, Audi would love to steal a larger share of the luxury-sedan market, and it would certainly like to stick it to Ferrari and Porsche in the segments those companies rule.
That's a tough objective, but if the R8 is anything to go by, don't dismiss the idea as pie in the sky. For one thing, the R8's versatile nature reminds us more of Ferrari's F430 than it does the more-or-less relentlessly severe Gallardo. This is not a car that gets in your face the whole time you're in it. When equipped with the stock suspension or the optional adjustable magnetic shocks, the R8 will cruise the freeway with as little ride disruption and mechanical commotion as an A4.
We tested an R tronic model at Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch in Pahrump, Nevada, and managed to achieve the benchmark 0-to-60-mph sprint in 4.0 seconds. Audi claims a 0-to-62-mph (100 km/h) time of 4.6 seconds, which sounds decidedly conservative compared with our data. The drill for maximum performance is to engage the launch-control function by braking and selecting the R tronic sport setting. This allows the engine to rev up to about 5000 rpm before you release the brake and it dumps the clutch. This produces brief wheelspin at all four corners before the car regains traction and rockets off to a quarter-mile time of 12.6 seconds at 113 mph.
We expect the manual-gearbox car to equal this performance, but the driver's technique will need to be similar to the program used by R tronic. As usual with these things, R tronic provides the sort of convenience you expect from an automatic transmission. Unfortunately, R tronic uses a single clutch, not the double clutch of the stellar Audi S tronic automated manual (known as DSG at VW) and is therefore not as smooth. Shove the selector to the left, and the transmission goes into automatic mode, but a nudge at the paddles or the selector lever itself quickly reasserts manual control. Since the steering-wheel paddles rotate with the wheel, making them difficult to differentiate when all crossed up in a mountain switchback, we found the console selector to be a handy alternative.
However, it was less intuitive when making quick three-point turns. Because you need your foot on the brake to engage a forward gear after shifting out of reverse, the transition sometimes had us revving fruitlessly in neutral while trying to get out of the way of oncoming traffic. BY BARRYWINFIELD
We expect the manual-gearbox car to equal this performance, but the driver's technique will need to be similar to the program used by R tronic. As usual with these things, R tronic provides the sort of convenience you expect from an automatic transmission. Unfortunately, R tronic uses a single clutch, not the double clutch of the stellar Audi S tronic automated manual (known as DSG at VW) and is therefore not as smooth. Shove the selector to the left, and the transmission goes into automatic mode, but a nudge at the paddles or the selector lever itself quickly reasserts manual control. Since the steering-wheel paddles rotate with the wheel, making them difficult to differentiate when all crossed up in a mountain switchback, we found the console selector to be a handy alternative.
However, it was less intuitive when making quick three-point turns. Because you need your foot on the brake to engage a forward gear after shifting out of reverse, the transition sometimes had us revving fruitlessly in neutral while trying to get out of the way of oncoming traffic. BY BARRYWINFIELD
