I think this will be my last official road test of Audi’s R8. It’s not that it isn’t a great car; indeed, the opposite is true. Nor is this because I don’t enjoy driving the lithe little Porsche fighter; I love the darned thing. Audi can park one in my driveway any time it wants and, were the automaker to forget where it left one errant supercar, I would happily drive one for, oh, the next five years or so.
Nope, the reason I am not proceeding with any further road tests of the R8 has nothing to do with driving but everything to do with writing. Succinctly put, I have nothing really new to say about the car. Oh, yes, the one tested here is the new 5.2-litre version, powered by a double overhead camshaft V10 remarkably similar to the one that drives the Lamborghini Gallardo. Yes it is faster, but I could have just rescripted my last road test of Audi’s top-of-the-range sportster with a few extra “mores,” particularly as it pertains to the engine, its sound and the wonderful kick in the pants you get every time you mat the throttle.
Certainly, everything I’ve said previously about the R8 being the most desirable automobile on the planet remains completely apropos.
The most remarkable thing about the 2010 R8 isn’t its new 525-horsepower V10 engine — though it is quite remarkable — but that the R8 has lost none of its allure despite being two years old.
Two years is an age in the world of automobile desirability. Even the reactions one sees to new Ferraris get toned down dramatically when the shine wears off. Corvette Z06s now pass largely unnoticed, and even pricey Aston Martins fail to garner much attention once the new model line is more than 12 months old.
But the R8 still renders the general public speechless. I was amazed two years ago at the incredible passion passersby had for the two-tone sports car. I’m even more gobsmacked now; surely, familiarity should breed some measure of contempt or at least some feeling of sang froid? But, instead, driving the new V10 R8 around Toronto, despite it being largely unchanged visually (the side vents are larger, the twin tail pipes are oval and the front fascia is slightly altered), was the same exercise in people demanding pictures, crowds gathering in parking lots and teenagers drooling with expressions that said they would gladly trade 20 years of their existence to just sit in the passenger seat for 10 minutes. I’ve been doing this job for more than 25 years and this is the most visceral response I’ve ever seen to an automobile.
Of course, from inside the cabin, the biggest change is that monster motor sitting not half a metre behind your head. Five-point-two litres of displacement spread out over 10 high-revving pistons is the stuff of which sports car legends are made.
And the R8 doesn’t disappoint. For one thing, the exhaust note is positively intoxicating. That’s a surprise since the V10 layout doesn’t always yield the most exciting exhaust burble; just ask Dodge Viper owners. In this case, however, judicious exhaust system tuning has resulted in a tonality not that dissimilar to Aston Martin’s V12; high praise indeed. Especially as it passes 5,000 rpm as it screams its way to 8,000 and beyond, it offers up quite literally the proverbial “ripping silk” soundtrack.
With one hundred more horsepower on tap, the R8 graduates from sports car to supercar status, Audi claiming a 3.9-second, 100-kilometres-an-hour time (just 0.2 seconds behind the Gallardo that uses the same engine). Remarkably for such a large-displacement engine, there’s a noticeable kick in the powerband around 5,000 rpm as if the second phase of the V10’s variable valve timing chimes in to enliven the proceeds. The engine takes on a more authoritative rasp, the revs start climbing even faster and the scenery starts flashing by at a remarkable rate. I took a variety of cousins/friends/really-beautiful-women-I-barely-knew for rides and all developed the same shell-shocked visage once the tach hammered past 5,000 at wide-open throttle in second gear.
The rest of the R8 is largely unchanged. Oh, there are some new rims, the tires are slightly larger (PZ35/35R19 front and 295/30R19 rear) and the spring rates are slightly stiffer to accommodate the 5.2’s 60-kilogram weight gain. But the combination of quattro all-wheel drive (with a very sporty 15/85 front/rear torque split), an aluminum chassis and mondo Brembo brakes remains while Audi has wisely made its ultra-quickly adjustable magneto-rheostatic suspension standard equipment. There’s no way to test such attributes on the road without losing your licence, but my race track sojourns in previous R8s tells me this is one car that is super in more than just engine.
Inside, the same remains true with Audi’s combination of excellent fit and finish and exquisite materials separating the R8 from the common exotic. There’s also a Bang & Olufsen stereo, which, while not as sonorous as the version in the S8 luxury yacht, is far superior to anything offered in a Porsche, for instance. The switchgear and controls are all familiar to more common Audis, save for the gated shifter mechanism, which seems to be an acquired taste. Oh, and the trunk — located in the front thanks to the rear, mid-mounted engine layout — is pretty small. Indeed, the one area where even other sports cars trump the R8 is in storage capacity.
Still, the Audi R8 remains possibly the most desirable car on the planet, at least judging from the reaction of those who cannot afford it. Nonetheless, until Audi engineers a diesel version of its now iconic supercar — not nearly as crazy as it sounds considering the company wins the historic Le Mans race annually in a diesel-powered race car and it has already prototyped such a beast — I think my keyboard will become an R8 free zone. There are only so many ways to say bellissimo.
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