2008 Audi R8: What's It Like to Live With?
Read the latest updates in our long-term road test of the 2008 Audi R8 as our editors live with this car for a year.
What do you want to know about?
- Introduction
- Cruising the Big Easy
- Truck It? Truck That.
- Westbound and Down
- Good A/C. Very Good.
- New R8 or '57 Chevy
- Welcome to Texas
- Racing an Aston DB9
- Is This Texas or Copland?
- Meat My Road Trip Mustache
- Mullet Three O'Clock
- Set the Cruise at 120 mph
- Bathtime
- Flat Out Through the West
- The Trip is Over
- Rock One, Tire Zero
- Back On the Road
- It's Got Meats
- Roadtrippin' 2,300 Miles — Seattle Or Bust
- The Sunshine
- No Auxiliary Input for You
- Piquing the Locals' Curiosity
- Badass Exterior, Warm & Fuzzy Interior
- Mary's Peak Road
- Unsafe and Insane R8 Admirers
- Extra Pics From Seattle Trip
- Radar Stress Relief
- Fuel Economy Wrapup for Seattle-L.A. Roadtrip
- Track Testing
- Almost Ready For Service
- Push to Upshift? Are You Nuts.
- Off roading in Monterey
- 15,000 Mile Service Cost $600.33
- Car Noir
- Cats Like Mid-Mounted V8s, Too
- Stare Master
- Most Comfortable Exotic Ever
- Eye Catchin'
- Ain't That Hot
- Even the Guy in the Prius Digs It
- Stylin'
- I Drove the R8 And I Liked It
- ovR8ed experience
- The Anti-Ferrari
- Feels Like A Lightw8. But That Front Overhang? I H8.
- What Would You Pick?
- A Cheap Entrance
- My Hatred of Valet Continues
- Family Hauler
- More More More
- bald is bothersome
- Not Quite What People Think
- 19,999 Miles of Super Car Bliss
- Needs Oil But No Oil Change
- Errand-Running Supercar
- 820 Miles In Audi's Exotic
- Idle Chatter
- Even the R8 Has Gray Plastic Trim
- The Details Count
- Man vs. Nature
- Real Superheroes Love This Supercar, Too
- The Great Tailpipe Conspiracy
- Old-Fashioned
- Camera Car
- Please Don't Steal Me
- Sports Car for Girly Men?
- Scene Stealer
- Finding Balance
- Idiot Proof Launch Control
- Exotic in all the right ways
- 25k service and more
- It was a Dark and Stormy Night
- Supercar in the Rain
- Cracking 25,000 Miles
- Not Girlfriend Approved
- Scheduled Maintenance Ain't No Joke
- Brake Dust Not Helping Its Image
- Tire Jinx Strikes Again
- Doesn't Like the "Cold" Either
- D is for Dumb
- As a supercar, it barely scrapes by
- They've Raised Their Shields, Captain
- Sleeping (Not So Much) Beauty
- In a Perfect World
- Yet Another Oil Post
- Choosing the Right Car for the Job
- Hi, Yes, This Is My R8
- Awesome Drive
- AM Reception = Epic Fail
- 2008 Audi R8 vs. 2009 Nissan GT-R: Buckets of Death
- Our Favorite Caption
- You Write the Caption
- Visibility
- 2008 Audi R8 Transmission: Hated by Car Guys and Non-Car Guys Alike
- A few pros and cons vs GT-R
- Our Favorite Caption
- You Write the Caption
- Our Favorite Caption
- You Write the Caption
- Editors' Favorites Number One: 2008 Audi R8
- Wrap-Up
Introduction
Pardon us if our Web site goes untended for the next three months. We've already made arrangements to have someone come by to feed our pets. We've kissed our loved ones good-bye.
You see, we've just signed the paperwork for a new long-term test car and the lines are already forming. Bribery and backstabbing are soon to follow.
We know you, our loyal readers, will understand. After all, you get it; you voted for it thrice on the Inside Line 2008 Readers' Most Wanted Awards, once for "Speed Over $30,000," once again for "Luxury Over $30,000," and again for "Instant Classic Over $30,000." Apparently the 2008 Audi R8 Quattro has already made quite an impression in the few months that it's been available.
That's right, Audi's new R8 supercar — rocking a 420-horsepower V8, Quattro all-wheel drive and Audi's R tronic automatic transmission — has just joined our long-term test fleet. Forgive us if we seem a little distracted.
What We Borrowed
When Audi agreed to supply us with a 2008 Audi R8 for long-term testing, there were two conditions. First, Audi stipulated that the term of the test would last for only three months instead of the customary year over which we evaluate long-term test cars. And two, we had to take a car already in Audi's media fleet.
We hesitated. Usually we lay down the law: "Bring us a brand-new car for 12 months or you can stuff it where the sun don't shine."
But rules are meant to be broken, especially when an Audi R8 is on the line. So when Audi called and said there's an R8 in Atlanta, Georgia, with 7,000 miles on its odometer and the R tronic automatic transmission (we would have preferred the six-speed manual), we said, "We'll take it."
Besides its Daytona Gray Pearl paint — a $650 option — our test car is equipped very much like the R8 in our recent supercar test entitled "Ultimate Performance Car Test: 2009 Nissan GT-R vs. the World." That means it's comprehensively equipped with convenience features, including a package of enhanced leather upholstery (in Tuscan Brown), which adds a few more swatches of high-quality hide to the tune of $5,500.
Also included is the $3,500 Premium package, which includes a hill-hold feature for the transmission, Bluetooth phone connectivity, a six-disc CD changer, auto-dimming side mirrors and Audi's system of parking sensors. Audi's navigation system adds another $2 grand to the sticker.
MSRP of our 2008 Audi R8 test vehicle is $132,745, which is nearly four times the cost of our outgoing supercar, the 1984 Ferrari 308 GTSi. Still, it's not even twice the price of our soon-to-be long-term test car, the 2008 Nissan GT-R, and it can be considered a bargain when cross-shopped with a Lamborghini Gallardo or Porsche 911 Turbo.
Why We Borrowed It
When Audi AG (itself a subsidiary of Volkswagen AG) bought Lamborghini S.p.A. in 1998, the Germanification of the Raging Bull was expected to follow. We figured the ability to share the engineering and production of parts would allow Lamborghini to build cars that could be a usable means of conveyance rather than just outlandish status symbols that made loud noises.
What we didn't anticipate, however, was the parts could be shared in the other direction. Despite Audi's famed racing lineage, the thought of any Lambo bits falling into the Audi bins seemed out of the question. But then, Audi pulled the sheet off of the Le Mans Quattro concept at the 2003 Frankfurt Auto Show. It was built on a Lamborghini Gallardo chassis and looked like the future itself. The Italians must have slipped some grappa into the coffee at an all-company meeting and suggested that the Audi geeks put down the T-square and have some fun.
And unlike so many other showcars-turned-production, the R8 (as it was henceforth to be known) wasn't visually neutered in the process. It still had the gaping maw, the overstated side-blade and the poised, athletic stance.
What the R8 did not have, though, was a billion horsepower 18-cylinder engine fueled by whale oil. The normally aspirated version of its corporate 420-hp 4.2-liter V8 didn't even feature rocket boosters, much less a turbocharger. And the combination of an all-wheel-drive system and a ride height that could easily clear speed bumps seemed entirely too practical. We began to suspect that this was perhaps not the supercar we expected. That it was a sheep in wolf's clothing.
Once we had a turn at the wheel, however, we learned the truth. The 2008 Audi R8 is a proper rival for the untouchable Porsche 911, at once extraordinary and yet useful. As the Acura NSX forced the hand of Ferrari in the 1990s, the Audi R8 has called out the 911. The Audi is a supercar that's designed to be driven every day.
And we intend to do just that.
The Mileage Mission
Our traditional mission in a long-term test is to hit 20,000 miles in 12 months. For you math majors out there (we had to get a calculator), this works out to 1,667 miles per month. Now multiply that number by the three months we have the car and that works out to a total of 5,001 miles in our short-term long-term test.
Well, our calculator can go to hell. We're still shooting for 20,000 miles, and we've begun our three-month test with a cross-country jaunt from Atlanta to Santa Monica.
What else should we do with Audi's new supercar? Comment on the R8's long-term road test blog and tell us. You've got a 2008 Audi R8 for three months in Southern California; what would you do?
The manufacturer provided Edmunds this vehicle for the purposes of evaluation.
According to Wikipedia the priest-chronicler Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix described the city of New Orleans in 1721 as a place of a hundred wretched hovels in a malarious wet thicket of willows and dwarf palmettos, infested by serpents and alligators.
Yup. Sounds about right. And at this very moment they're all looking at an Audi R8 cruising Bourbon street... It's about 11 AM, so most of the bars are closed and there are only several dozen visibly intoxicated serpents and alligators looking for a public place to relieve them selves.
Yo, not on the car, dude.
The tight confines of the French Quarter, which is thriving despite being under water a couple of years ago, would normally knock a mid-engine supercar off its rung. But not the R8. The same wonderful machine that got us here on 469 miles of mindless interstate, is just as wonderful on these heavily crowded, heavily potholed streets.
No it isn't a Lexus, but it's certainly comfortable. And compared to that Nissan GT-R I drove 2,000 miles a couple of months ago, it is a Lexus. Even the R tronic transmission, which we honestly didn't want, now makes all the sense in the world. We've been stuck behind a horse and buggy for ten blocks, but with the transmission in Auto mode, its been very easy to work my Blackberry while dodging the animal's sizable stool.
Although part throttle take off and upshifts still aren't as smooth as a conventional automatic, they're better than we've experienced in other cars with similar gearboxes. Hate to say it, but if your R8 is going to spend most of its time in the city R tronic just might be the way to go.
Now, what are these beads for?
The boys are thirsty in Atlanta and there's beer in Texarkana and we'll bring it back no matter what it takes. — Jerry Reed, Eastbound and Down, Smokey and the Bandit, 1977
It was with that mentality that we went and got our Audi R8 in Atlanta, Georgia — because it was there and it needed to be here, back at our office in Santa Monica, California. Well, that and a 3,000-mile road trip in one of the world's great cars sounded better than a week in the cubicle.
Believe it or not, Audi wanted to truck the car out west... Puhhh-lease. That'd be like turning down a hot tub date with the Pussycat Dolls because there's just too many of them.
Not us. We put on our Speedo, packed up our gas credit card and jumped in the water. After all, the point of our spending the next three months with Audi's new spaceship is to find out if it really is the ultimate everyday supercar. And what better way to start this little experiment than a four-day, 3,000-mile run from Hotlanta to the Pacific Ocean?
So come along for the ride; first stop Nawlins, Weasiana.
Delta flight 936 dumps us in Atlanta on time and in one piece. Now all we need is a car. A car with air conditioning. They don't call it Hotlanta for nothing... Temperatures are near the 100 mark, with the humidity approaching 5,000,000 percent.
Audi told us the machine of our dreams would be waiting for us at a place called Park 'N Fly Plus. The instructions were clear. "After claiming your baggage," the email said, "follow the sign to Ground Transportation at the west end of the baggage claim concourse. The bus that will take you to your car will be parked toward the far left end of the second row of courtesy buses."
And it is. And our Daytona Gray Pearl Audi R8 is waiting for us as promised as well, tank full of 94 octane (gotta love the East Coast), tires shined like patent leather, its odometer showing 7,041 miles.
We packed light in anticipation of the Audi's slight 3.5 cubic feet of cargo room. Good thing. Our bare minimum for four days of living on the road fill the car's nose trunk and the small shelf behind the seats.
"Is that the car from iRobot?" asks the Park 'N Fly Plus guy.
"It is."
"And Ironman?"
"Yup."
"Sweet."
"Thanks."
It's a conversation we'll have many times over the next 3,000 miles. Should be a fun trip. Crank the A/C, let's go. Looks like we got a clear shot all the way to the 'Bama state line.
You want proof it's hot in Nawlins? Well, here it is. But at least it's really freakin' humid.
But there's good news too... The Audi R8's air conditioning is up to it. In fact, it hasn't broken a sweat keeping us from breaking a sweat. With the system on Auto and set at 68 degrees, we are perfectly comfortable inside our $132,000 supercar.
By the way, we found out what the beads are for. Nawlins rocks.
Almost to Lockhart we spot this '57 Chevy and few other assorted 'Merican muscle by the side of the road in Luling. U turn.
Hot Rod Jim (www.hotrodjimtexas.com) turned out to be a cool place. And Jim a cool guy... He gave us a tour of his shop, which specializes in putting C4, C5 and C6 Corvette drivelines and suspension under anything, and told us about the street racing in town back in the day.
"We used to race for a tank of gas," he told us. "'Course, these days that's real money."
The coolest thing about Jim was his complete disinterest in the Audi R8. He didn't look at, he didn't ask us any questions about it. Even after we challenged him to a little drag racin'. And folks, let me tell you, that just doesn't happen.
Nice to meet you Jim.
Big place this Texas. Like real big. Kim Kardashian's ass big. Should take us an entire day of hard driving to make it through the other side, plus we're going to make a stop in Lockhart, about 150 miles west of Houston for some of the state's finest BBQ (according to Texas Monthly magazine)...
So with the R8's navigation system navigating we're hammer down on the I-10 looking forward to some of the world's best brisket. But get this. Just outside of Columbus, with the navigation system telling us there's 666 miles of Texas to go, the R8's instrument panel lights up. Car wants oil. One quart.
You follow? 666 and a warning light, at the same time. Coincidence? Not from where I'm sitting. Freaky is more like it.
By the way, that quart of Castol Synthetic was like six bucks.
Between The Big Sleazy and the Texas border we've made a few friends. First was this long haired older guy in his new black on black Aston Martin DB9 droptop. We ran together for a while at about 85 mph and nailed from a roll just once. I'd like say we blew his doors off, but the cars were pretty even...
We also got nice wave and the friendly eyeball from this Louisiana State Trooper. Despite our speed, however, Buford T. Justice just wanted to check out our wheels. The best part? Thirty minutes up the road he nabbed some kid in a Saleen Mustang.
Probably gave him a ticket for poor purchase judgment.
Between Sheffield, Texas and beautiful El Paso there's a cop every 27 feet of I-10. I'm not kidding. For several hundred miles we've witnessed the most condensed concentration of police we've ever seen on any road anywhere.
Still, we're ticket free, baby...
And it has nothing to do with our sticking to the speed limit. I got a new radar detector. I needed one bad. Picked up a Passport 9500i from the friendly folks at Escort and let me tell you, it's the greatest thing since the female. Saved our asses at least 30 times.
Somehow that little black box sniffs out Johnny Law over hills and around corners. And it tells you how fast you're going. The people at Escort figured out that your eyes go to their device (in stead of your cars speedometer) the second it sounds the alarm, so they gave it GPS capability and a speed readout for the first few seconds of an alert. Brilliant.
It also can detect five different signals; X-band, K-band, Ka-band, Ku-band, POP and laser, and the signal strength.
Screw getting an iPod, or a Blackberry, or a calculator watch, the Passport 9500i is the greatest personal electronic device of our time. Trust me, without it we'd be walking home. Or worse, calling mom for bail money.
Hot Rod Jim was a nice find, but up the road in Lockhart is heaven. Gastrointestinal heaven. Bring on the meat, we've landed in BBQ nirvana.
First stop Kreuz (pronounced "Krites") Market, which has been turning out the smoked meats since 1900. Got a quarter pound of brisket and a hot link, and a drink for like six bucks... And it might be the best thing I've ever eaten in my life.
Full.
But up the road like a quarter mile is Smitty's Market. It's actually the original Kreuz Market and is owned by the same family. Seems a family rift among Edgar "Smitty" Schmidt's children back in 1999 sent a few of them up the road to a new building with the Kreuz name, which Edgar bought in 1948.
Whatever. Another round of smoked meat on paper please.
The funniest thing is, besides us having two meat lunches within an hour, is that nobody, and I mean nobody in Lockhart asked us about the car. Oh they looked at it, but like Hot Rod Jim they didn't really care enough to bother asking about it. Seemed odd, but with that much good BBQ around your priorities are sure to skew a little.
Actually my road trip mustache is even funnier than that, but now I have the meat sweats so...
A couple of hundred miles west of our meat and greet, we had a run in with this mullethead and his Mitsubishi Eclipse.
He tailgated the R8, circled us a few times and basically made a pest of himself. We even saw him on his cell phone telling his buddies the tale.
"No I'm dead serious, it's an Audi R8 and I just passed the guy like he was standing still... Did you get the Whitesnake tickets?"
Actually it was fun to toy with the guy who was obviously into our ride. But he also revealed a problem with the Audi's R tronic transmission. If you don't have it in Sport mode it is slow to downshift. Like reeeeeeaaaaaaaal slow. Floor the throttle at 75 mph or so and you get a two count before the thing kicks down and the motor revs up.
We know this because Mr. Mullet actually caught us off guard one time. He was coming up on our right, and I laid into the throttle just too damn late. By the time the Audi's transmission caught up to my right foot, his Hockey hair was past us. Honestly it was embarrassing. We got beat by an Eclipse. At least it had the V6.
Oh well, at least my mustache looks better than his Camaro Cut.
That green in this blurred image of the R8's speedometer reads cruise. You gotta love a car that lets you set the cruise control at a buck twenty. Most don't. The Audi's awesome high speed stability doesn't even make it a moment...
With the Ultimate R8 Road Trip in the history books there was only one thing left to do. Good thing California has liberal child labor laws.
We're finally out of Texas. Five states to go; New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Arizona and California. We could just bang due west and get this trip over with, but come on, we're in an Audi R8 and if there's anyplace in this country you can still go fast it's in the wide open spaces of New Mexico, Utah, Arizona and California.
Plus Monument Valley is just a few short hours away. As is Route 66. It'll add about 500 miles to our trip but so what. We're having fun, and the Audi R8 is comfortable enough that another 500 miles won't be much trouble.
Here are some photographic highlights. Not much to tell, besides the R8 is running perfectly (it got an scheduled oil change at 5,000 miles and will be due for another at 15,000), and my co-driver Scott Jacobs has a bladder the size of a pea.
I'd also like to report that all that BBQ back in Lockhart, Texas has not come back to haunt us.
After four days, 10 states, 2,877 miles, one quart of Castrol Synthetic, one mullet head, and two fantastic BBQ lunches, we coasted into Santa Monica on fumes.
Over the course of the trip, the Audi R8 drank 144.8 gallons of premium gasoline and averaged 19.8 mpg.
At nearly $5 a gallon, you do the math. But I'll tell you this...
It was worth every penny. Everybody should drive a great car across this great country at least once in their lives. If you haven't, make it a priority. You haven't seen America until you've driven through it.
So I get the coveted keys to the R8 for the weekend, doesn't get much better right? Well, yes and no. Saturday morning started out well enough. Clear skies, minimal traffic and a quick run to Angeles Crest Highway. I know it well, so the R8 was a good companion on its ridiculously pristine stretches of twisty asphalt.
Well, I should say, mostly pristine. About 30 miles in I came around a medium speed right hander only to find a random collection of granite sprayed across the pavement. My initial thought was to straddle the big rock on the right to avoid the several smaller stones on the left, but at the last second I figured tire damage was better than body damage.
And tire damage is what I got. The sizable boulder on the right took a chunk out of the sidewall and the air came pouring out in one big blast of "you're screwed dude". I pulled into a turnout to plot my next move. I didn't expect a spare, so I wasn't surprised to see a useless tire inflator kit. There was no cell phone service that far into the mountains, so I made the four mile walk to the nearest call box.
A couple hours later, the R8 was deposited into the parking lot of our local tire dealer. No shops in L.A. had one of the R8's front tires in stock so it would have to wait until later in the week to get fixed. Such is life with a brand new supercar. We'll let you know what it costs us when it returns.
When the tire shop said it would have to order a tire for our Audi R8 after last weekend's blowout, I knew it wasn't going to be cheap. Sure enough, when the tire arrived a couple days later the final tally after mounting and balancing was $450. No one ever said living with a supermodel was cheap.
R tronic. Even the name is awkward. After four days and several hundred miles, I've got mixed feelings about Audi's automated manual gearbox.
After experiencing it in every driving environment one can enjoy in L.A., I'm aware of how much latitude a manual transmission allows those willing to tolerate a third pedal. The road is an ever-changing environment which necessitates instant adaptation. R tronic can accommodate each of these environments, but not without constant switching between "sport" and normal modes as well as between automatic and manual shifting. In and effort to adapt, I find myself constantly punching buttons and moving levers. And because none of this is second nature yet, I might as well be driving a manual transmission. It all seems so self defeating.
Sure, with more time in the car, the controls will become more familiar and I will become more effective in using them, but changing R tronic shift programs will never happen with the same efficiency as the mental transition my brain executes in milliseconds to swap from cruising to hauling ass and vice versa — not to mention the muscle memory and speed that has developed from years of driving three-pedal cars.
As I see it, the ability of the human machine to seamlessly adapt to any changing road condition (like adjusting engine braking to suit the situation) or opportunity (nailing that small gap in traffic without hesitation) is unmatched when driving a manual transmission.
Still, there's plenty to like about the R8. Like this spectacular little roller on the steering wheel which controls audio system volume:
And, in the timeless words of editor Oldham: "It's got meats."
Who would be dumb enough to take our long term 2008 Audi R8 on a six-day, 2,300 mile road trip?
*raises hand*
Last time I drove an Audi R8, I proclaimed to those in our office whom would listen (thanks Mr. Goldfish) that the car is compliant and comfortable enough that one could drive it across the country without a moment's hesitation.
So now I'm putting that claim to the test. I'm taking it on a roadtrip to Seattle and back with a few stops along the way to visit family and to explore some cool roads.
First things first. Need to pack. How much stuff can you put in a mid-engine two seater? Turns out not much. The two duffels pictured above hold the brunt of stuff for two people and six days.
They fit quite nicely in the R8's trunk along with a gift for my sister, and there's at least two cubic centimeters left over:
Bonus space behind the seats:
Time to hit the road.
Here's a foible I noticed while rocketing up the road in our long-term 2008 Audi R8. The sun visors.
The visors flip down, but they don't swivel over to the side. So when the day draws to a close, the sun makes an obnoxious appearance in the side windows.
Driving north in the flat, cloudless desert in the middle of the summer, this means the sun dazzles the driver of the R8 for roughly half an hour.
Then the sun sets and the R8 returns to 100% Awesome status.
When choosing a car from our fleet to take on a long road trip, one of the things we usually factor in is does it have an auxiliary input or a way to connect an iPod/MP3 for road trip tuneage.
Surprisingly, the 2008 Audi R8, the car of Iron Man — every technogeek's superhero — doesn't come equipped with an aux input. Even our 2007 Nissan Versa had one. But our Audi only has two SD card slots. And who uses those?
Instead we had to resort to using an FM transmitter to hook our iPod up to the stereo...and change the station every time it gets static-y, which will probably happen a lot during this long trip.
Stopped our long-term 2008 Audi R8 for burgers and greazy garlic fries at Basshole Bar and Grill in Lakehead, CA. They were about as good as you'd expect from a place named "Basshole." There's a black AMG CLS55 with black wheels and blacked out taillights parked near the door.
An older guy inside the restaurant approaches just after we sit down. I already know he's the AMG owner. "Driving the Audi?" he asks.
Me: "Yup."
Older Guy: "That's the first one I've seen. How much power?"
Me: "About 420."
The guy's face lights up and a broad smile spreads across it. "Oh yeah? I have the Mercedes outside. It has 480 hp. When I race cars on the freeway, it pulls hard. I take it up to 90."
Me: "Hmm."
Older Guy: "What fuel economy are you getting?"
Me: "About 18."
The guy's face lights up again. "Oh yeah? I get 23 in my Mercedes. It pulls hard. Well, have fun with it."
With that he pats me sharply on the back before returning to his barstool as if to say, "Aww, better luck next time, young fella."
I can tell that our Daytona Gray Pearl 2008 Audi R8 looks pretty intimidating on the highway by the way most of the left lane squatters skedaddle out of the way upon our approach.
Some motorists switch lanes even if it means falling in behind a slow-moving semi to get out of our path. And one time a Silverado 2500 almost switched lanes in front of us as we were cruising along, saw us in his driver side mirror and then moved back to his original position in the other lane as if to say, "Oops, pardon," he didn't want to get in our way. That NEVER happens.
But with all its badass looks, the R8 is still awfully comfortable and roomy inside. After 800 miles when the novelty of being in the supercar sorta mellowed, I settled into its high-quality Tuscan Brown leather seat, had my iced grande latte at the ready in the center cupholder, stretched out my legs and almost felt like I was sitting at home in my leather armchair. That is until I looked up and saw Mt. Shasta passing quickly by outside my window.
In any case, it's such a different experience from sitting in other driver-enthusiast friendly cars I've been in whose cockpits fold me into a compact-size passenger and scream angry engine sounds in my ears (you know who you are, Ford GT and Ferrari 308). Don't get me wrong, I'm all for enthusiastic engines but for hours on end the Audi is great as it emits only a purr (unless you floor it in which case it snarls). Just nice to know that there can be something for both the driver and the passenger here.
It wouldn't be worth taking our long-term 2008 Audi R8 on a 2,300-mile road trip if we didn't find some crazy-good roads to experience along the way.
Route 34 lies just outside of Philomath, OR. It winds gently through the countryside and then forms a clump of cambered switchbacks just before the right turn to Mary's Peak Road. Mary is our kind of woman, judging by the way her 9.3-mile ribbon of joy jags through the Oregon woods, gaining 2600 feet of elevation on its way to a clearing near the summit.
The R8 is scintillating on this road. There is zero indication the front wheels are driven other than the fact that you're accelerating away from apexes in a way that few two-wheel-drive cars can (the 911 excepted).
Altitude saps some of the Audi's power up here, but the fact that you can fearlessly thrash a wide, $130,000 mid-engined supercar on bumpy pavement like this is a testament to the R8's versatility. It's forgiving, fast and totally engaging.
This is a special car. The more I drive it, the more the thought of returning its keys pains me.
OK, I get that the 2008 Audi R8 is a totally hot-looking car. Even as I saw it while sitting in another car caravaning behind it, I couldn't help but drool, and I've already ridden in it for over 1,000 miles. And I know that of course people are bound to be curious about it. You don't see many of these on the road. But we've encountered sooo many a-holes on the I-5 because of it. I'm talking people who are cutting off other motorists just to drive beside it, who tailgate us, who squat in our blindspots while on the highway so we can't switch lanes when we need to.
So I thought I'd create a wall of shame, if you will, of said motorists who gave me a glimpse of what it must be like to be a celebutard being hounded by paparazzi. These are only the worst of the offenders.
Jetta GLI driver on the way to Seattle: We encountered this douchebag on the I-5 after leaving Corvallis, Oregon. He just came out of nowhere at full speed and nearly rear-ended the other car in the lane beside us. He then cut us off, swinging past our front end pretty close. Basshole!
But that wasn't the end of it. He stayed in the left lane and then adjusted for a slow cruising speed. But every time we ended up in front of him, whether in another lane or in the left lane, here he'd come again, driving erratically and unsafely. We didn't know what to do. We couldn't get rid of him. He'd always drive just slow enough so we'd end up passing him and then would seem to get angry when we did.
Finally, when a long stretch of highway opened up before us, we accelerated deep into the triple digits (after we turned onto a closed track of course) putting a lot of distance between us and Le Douche. Unfortunately, before we could sigh with relief, here he was again, going full speed and aiming for our rear. Wtf? If he was in a sports car, I could sorta understand what he was getting at, but in a Jetta? So I turned around and shot a couple of pictures of him with my Canon G9 which I guess looks more official than a point and shoot because he veered off quickly to the right lane and took the next exit.
7 Series driver on the way to Eugene, Oregon: This guy with his wife and small daughter started off as an eager admirer of the R8, committing those offenses I had mentioned at the top of the post.
But then things inexplicably went in the other direction when, after pulling off on a closed track and flooring it to get away, the 7 Series driver came tearing out of the bank of cars behind us, gunning for us. I could see him from miles away dancing around the other cars as his bright xenons gave him away. He finally reached us and sat on our tail for miles even as we switched lanes.
So we tried another tactic and dropped our speed to 60 mph, a crawl in the 70-mph zone, especially in this car. He zoomed past us til he was a little bit ahead of us and then applied his brakes, trying to match our slowww speed. And then he blipped his windshield wipers so that the cleanser sprayed us. "I don't know if he did that on purpose," said Jay, "but I don't know what we did to anger him." "You think maybe it's because I took his picture?" I asked meekly. "Ohh yeahhh. Hm," he replied. We were finally able to get rid of him by exiting toward Eugene.
In any case, if you see our R8 on the road, it's OK to look and admire but please keep your eyes on the road, too.
Here are just some extra shots taken of our 2008 Audi R8 during the long road to Seattle, Washington, and back. The shot above is taken facing away from that infamous Basshole Bar & Grill, facing the I-5. Temps must have been in the 90s so we parked the R8 under a huge tree.
In the parking lot at the summit of Mary's Peak near Corvallis, Oregon, after Jay tackled the twisties to get here. We had to take a break. That cyclist biked the whole way to the top, stopped for a bit of energy gel and then went back down the way he came. So hard-core.
More after the jump...
Another shot from the Mary's Peak road. It was gor-jus up there!
Free coffee from a rest stop on the road to Seattle. I think it was called safety coffee. It would have been even safer had they provided covers for the cups. Jay just made sure to not make any sudden movements with the R8.
Getting attention wherever it's parked. I shot this covertly from the top floor of a two-story house across the street, paparazzi-style. The gentleman in the wheelchair was the first to show up, noting that the wheels "look like 19s but I think they might be 22s" to his neighbor (the man in the center) who walked up soon after. When Jay's sister wandered by, she told them that all she knew about the R8 was that it was in Iron Man.
It looks so out of place here in front of this quaint home in Seattle.
Off-roading on Mercer Island in Seattle. The R8 may have all-wheel drive but we still took these gravelly roads at 10 mph. Don't want to chip that Daytona Gray.
We parked the R8 in front of Sweet Life Patisserie in Eugene, Oregon, for a quick breakfast before we hit the road to Sacramento. Oddly enough, these were really the only two people during the stop to blatantly ogle the supercar.
Mt. Shasta on the way back. It seemed like we'd be traveling for miles and miles until we could no longer see it. Apparently it's huge. Who knew?
Next post we'll include the final fuel economy numbers for the trip as the R8 and its fuel log are currently unavailable. It seems that car never sits still for long.
Oldham has his weapon of choice. But does he know where the bogies are, and how many? This Valentine One I borrowed from my friend (thanks, Sarah F) has saved my bacon time and again on my roadtrip in the 2008 Audi R8.
And talk about range. At one point it alerted about three miles before I actually saw the cruiser.
Another time about 10 miles from the Oregon border, a Washington cop hit us with laser and the V1 exploded with bleeps and lights. With laser, these alerts are too little too late, and you're usually bagged. I had slowed ahead of time, though (call it spidey sense), and escaped unscathed.
Overall, I noticed how the box relieves me from having to constantly scan every overpass, clump of trees and on-ramps for patrol cars, instead allowing me to focus on other things. Like driving.
I gotta get me one of these.
The above was the most expensive fillup we had in the course of our 2,650-mile road trip to Seattle and back. Granted, it was our biggest fillup as we'd always have to stop for food or a bathroom break and were only able to get it down to a little less than half a tank before we allowed ourselves to stop. But it made us glad that we didn't have to pay for the gas ourselves. This one fillup is more than the cost of one-way airfare to Seattle from L.A.! (Virgin America $79).
We had 10 fillups during our trip and burned through 146.9 gallons of premium. Our average fuel economy was 18 mpg; most of that was highway driving with some twisty roads. Best mpg: 19.7 (from biggest fillup). Worst mpg: 15.1 (first fillup).
(Click above to view full-size photo)
In its short time with us, we've driven our long-term 2008 Audi R8 along both the X and Y axes of this great land. At this pace, it'll probably pass the Aura's mileage in about three days. And really, if you suddenly had an R8 you didn't pay for, you too would be thinking about driving it to the Yukon for no particular reason. Hey, that's actually sounds appealing.
Anywho, our R8 with R-Tronic transmission hit the track last week to see what she could do. Judging my Jacquot's comments, I think he likes it. I've included the numbers we achieved with the short-term R8 we tested a few months back that had the six-speed manual.
ACCELERATION:
0-30 - 1.7 seconds (1.5)
0-45 - 3.3 seconds (2.8)
0-60 - 4.6 seconds
0-60 Roll-Out - 4.3 seconds (4.2)
0-75 - 6.7 seconds (6.3)
1/4 Mile - 12.8 seconds @ 108.4 mph (12.7 @ 110.7)
Senior Road Test Editor Josh Jacquot says: "Easy-to-access launch control is nice. Hard, fast shifts at redline. Brilliant sound. Instant response from paddles."
BRAKING:
60-0 - 108 feet (103)
30-0 - 29 feet (26)
Jacquot: "Erratic stopping distances, but consistent pedal feel. Noticeable left-to-right squirm at full ABS activation."
SKIDPAD:
0.95g (0.98g at different site/surface)
Jacquot: "Very easy to achieve oversteer. Delicate oversteer/understeer balance at limit. Wants to do glorious powerslides. Awesome."
SLALOM:
70.0 mph (73.8 mph)
Jacquot: "Can bite with every nanny shut down. Still, very communicative and adjustable. Fun."
We've had our long-term Audi R8 for six weeks, exactly half of its 3-month stay with us. And so far we've driven it 7,493 miles. Not bad.
According to its computer, our silver supercar is almost due for its 15,000 mile service, which would be its second bit of scheduled maintenance (the first was performed at 5,000 miles). We'll easily cover the remaining 700 miles this weekend, and take the car to Santa Monica Audi sometime next week. While it's there, we'll also have a couple of other small problems addressed. Minor stuff, including a slightly loose piece of console trim and a dying keyfob battery.
It has taken me a while, but I've found a flaw in our long-term 2008 Audi R8.
When the car is equipped with the R-tronic transmission, as ours is, you push the shifter to upshift and pull it back to downshift. That's backassward. When you're upshifting, you're accelerating, so you should pull the lever. And when your downshifting, you're decelerating, so you should push the lever. That's how it's been in race cars for years.
Oddly, only Mazda and BMW get this right, even in their SUVs. The shifters in both our long term BMW X5 and Mazda CX-9 are as they should be, while the shifters in all our other cars, including the Cadillac CTS, Pontiac G8 GT and Hyundai Veracruz are backassward.
I know, I know, use the Audi's paddle shifters and the problem is solved, but I'm old school and still like to reach down and feel the action of the R8's aluminum shifter.
And another thing, the gear readout on the Audi's dash is way too low and too small. When you're flogging this car in manual mode, the gear readout should get larger for quicker reference.
Like Al said, some of us headed to Monterey this weekend for the big MotoGP race. I lucked out and scored the R8 for the 300+ mile drive, yeah rough life I know. Since I had to bolt up there on Sunday morning, I took the fast, but boring, Interstate 5 for most of the way.
True story: I'm rolling with the flow of traffic at around 90mph when our Escort radar detector blows up. I see a CHP on the other side about to cross the median, so I slow down to around 75mph (limit is 70) and wait to see what happens. He sits back for awhile, then fires up the left lane and pulls up alongside me. When I look over, he points to the car, gives a big thumbs up and then pulls away. Score one for the R8.
After surviving the less-than-smooth rural parking lot without a scratch, I took the R8 down some of central California's best roads on the way back. As much as I hate the transmission, it does work well when you're running hard.
Once I got back on the Interstate, I did find a new flaw in the Audi - you can't drive fast with the windows down. The buffeting from the wind creates a horrible resonance that makes it unbearable. Disappointing, but hardly a deal breaker.
Yesterday Santa Monica Audi performed a 15,000 mile service on our long-term Audi R8. Ken Maryan our service advisor could not have been more pleasant to deal with, and the work was done in a single day as promised.
They changed the oil and filter, checked the car over and installed a new dust and pollen filter to our climate control system. That's it. Total for parts: $185.06, which includes 9 quarts of synthetic motor oil.
What killed us was the labor. Two and a half hours at an incredible $160.00 an hour (Labor for our 1984 Ferrari 308 was only $120.00 an hour.) That's $400.00 in labor costs. Total for the job: $600.33.
How many times can I get up to look out the window to see this beauty in my driveway?
But we couldn't let if just sit there. So we headed south toward San Diego but then remembered it was the last day of Comic-Con and didn't want anyone to mistake the Audi R8 for the Millennium Falcon. So we stopped off in San Clemente, former home of the former worst President of the U.S.
It's a quaint old town with a little shopping district, some nice restaurants and lots of Spanish mission type of architecture. All of the buildings look like Kim Novak should jump off of them. But I guess that was San Juan Capistrano.
The ride packed the usual excitement for other drivers. It really makes me nervous when you see cars looking at you in the mirror instead of the road. There's always somebody who takes your picture, somebody who wants to race, somebody in a Prius who yells at you as you drive by because you're destroying the environment. The usual crowd.
There is something accessible about the R8 that makes people want to talk to you. I can't imagine getting the same reaction in a Ferrari or Lamborghini. Perhaps it's the newness of the R8. People haven't seen it before. And the style is exotic without being ostentatious. It makes people happy.
On the highway, the R8 is fun, fun, fun. Merging? No problem. Speeding? Can be a problem. Once the R8 gets going, its low hum lulls you into thinking you are driving at legal speeds. Until you look at the speedometer and "Whoa."
Starting off is very clunky in the lower gears, very similar to driving the Smart. No fooling. The transition from 1st to 2nd can be awkward until you learn to finesse it. Outside of the attention factor, the similarities end there. I was driving behind a friend in the R8 and he said when he looked in his rear-view mirror, he thought the R8 was going to eat him. The Smart on the other hand looks like it's about to be gobbled up by Ms. Pac-Man.
One of the interesting things about the R8 is that, although you can drive it as an automatic, it has no "Park" gear. You just put on the hand brake, notch the shifter into gear and shut her off.
Behind the seat is a handy storage area that keeps small items from bouncing around yet remain within arm's reach.
The nav system was a pain in the you-know-what. It gave me ridiculous directions and when I chose another path, kept telling me to make a u-turn. I mean, I must have passed twenty-five intersections before it finally shut up and readjusted itself. And then it still tried to re-route me back to its original course. I ended up shutting it off. The tiny map graphics were useless anyway.
Have you seen any Audi R8s on the road?
Last night my neighbor's cat let me know that our 2008 Audi R8 is the greatest thing since the Pontiac Solstice and its hammock-style cloth top. The cat, who goes by the name Mr. Fuku, partied hard on the right quarter panel before bedding down over the engine compartment.
This morning the manager at our local car wash let me know it would be $30 to remove the paw prints and dander, which is actually not bad for a true hand wash in West LA. We've decided not to risk putting on long-termer on the tracks for the customary semi-hand wash.
Now for the substantive half of this post: Recently, I drove an R8 (but not this R8) on a road course. In that setting, where obviously you're either on the throttle hard, or not at all, the Audi's single-clutch automated manual gearbox worked fairly well. Although, it would be nice if you could vary the shift speed.
Around town, though, it's amazing how much less acceptable this transmission feels. Five years ago it would have passed muster, but today, compared to all the dual-clutch transmissions we've sampled lately, it feels antiquated. If it weren't for the terrific sounds during a half-to-full throttle upshift or a rev-matched downshift, driving it in traffic would almost be a drag. Almost.
This job has given me the opportunity to sample a lot of impressive automobiles: Dodge Vipers, the Lotus Elise and Exige, a Lamborghini Gallardo, a Ford GT, Vettes, AMG Benzes, the occasional Ferrari, a plethora of Porsches and the Nissan GT-R. But none of them has elicted the kind of extended gawking, spontaneous cell-phone photography and ill-advised pursuit as this 2008 Audi R8.
It started on the 91 freeway as I was driving home. The guy in the car pool lane next to me held-up his followers for a good 5 minutes while his passenger shot dubious-quality photos with his cell phone. At one point people in three different cars on all sides of me were doing much the same thing. Is this what it's like to be Brad Pitt?
Every lane-splitting motorcyclist I saw on the freeways over the whole weekend paused just off my starboard bow to look back over his shoulder and stare for a few seconds before giving a thumbs-up and darting ahead, hoping I'd drop a gear and take-off in pursuit. Sorry, pal, but I can't squeeze between cars like your Ducati can.
And then there was the kid who ran out of his garage and hurdled the bicycle in his driveway at a dead run, cell phone camera in-hand, while I cruised down the street toward his house.
Gawkers of all ages, from 10-year old skate-boarders to 70-year old dog-walkers on Balboa Island were heard to spew variations of the same expletive: "F***, that's a bitchin' car!"
My whole time in the car is probably documented on YouTube and various message boards.
I'm not sure what it is. Its appearance as the Starkmobile in Ironman? Maybe, but none of the folks who talked to me made that connection. The visible V8 under glass, the LED eyelash daytime running lights and the rollicking V8 exhaust note doubtless have something to do with it. But the R8 also grabs the eye on a gut level. It looks fast and exudes just the right amount of don't-even-try-it menace. Yeah, the Audi R8 is just plain bitchin'.
Everyone asked the price, of course. But even those who clearly couldn't afford it thought $120 or $130k was a bargain. The R8 would seem to be a bargain for Audi, too, as everyone I talked visibly recalibrated their respect for the entire Audi brand based on merely seeing this car. "That's an Audi? I had no idea."
Oh, and the R8 drives bitchin' and hauls ass, too. But here's a tip: save ten grand and get the regular 6-speed manual instead of the R-tronic single-clutch automated manual transmission. Paddles aside, I'll wait for a dual-clutch version.
At this point, I've used the R8 for basic transportation around town and one long road trip. Yeah, it sounds great and handles nearly perfectly, but what keeps jumping out at me is how comfortable it is along the way.
It's a $120,000 mid-engined exotic, yet you don't have to fall into the driver's seat to get in. And once you're situated, it's not the least bit claustrophobic. The sight lines are good through the windshield and when you look over your shoulder you can actually see out the back window.
It rides smoothly too, with none of the bucking and twitching you might expect from a car with low-profile tires and a tight wheelbase. In other words, the R8 is a real car and when it comes to exotics that's saying something.
I got handed the keys to go on a short photo shoot location scouting mission. I drove up to Malibu on the PCH, which normally is the land of the rich and famous driving their 911 Turbos and Ferrari F430's. I figured the R8 wouldn't be that big of a deal.
I was wrong.
I stopped in the Malibu Village area to grab a coke. A swarm of people descended on the R8 as I was at the cash register. Normally I don't mind talking about the car I'm driving, but this day I just wanted to get back out on the road and figure out where I was going to shoot a three car comparison.
As I approached the car, I a family of tourists was standing in front of the car taking pictures of it, them with the car and so on. They noticed me standing there and gestured if it was ok for them to continue. I had no problem letting take a few more photos.
Once they finished they waved and nodded with a smile, the international "thank you". The oldest son approached me and said, "Your car is German. We are French."
"I'm happy for you."
I got in the car and drove away, not sure of what to make of their declaration and my reaction. Must have been lost in translation.
Yesterday around 4 pm, while stuck in a traffic jam near downtown Los Angeles, our long-term 2008 Audi R8 insisted it was 118 degrees outside. Trouble is, it was near room temperature in the City of Angels at the moment.
We'll have the glitchy thermometer addressed on monday morning when the R8 visits the dealer for a faulty front hood latch.
Recently somebody told me that the Toyota Prius was being bought by poeple that don't like cars. I argued the point. "Everybody likes cars," I said. "Everybody."
And last week I was proven right. I was driving our long term 2008 Audi R8 to work, which essentially means inching along in traffic, while drinking coffee and talking on my cell phone. Normal morning. But imagine my delight when I looked over and saw this guy in the pictured slate gray Prius taking a picture of my car. He photographed it from several angles before lowering his camera and giving me the thumbs up, all while smiling like Theo Epstein the day the Dodgers took Manny.
Now, when you're in the R8 people take your picture. Happens 100 times a day. But the fact that this guy got it, despite being signed up for years of payments on that Prius should tell you something.
I was lucky enough to style in the R8 this past weekend, my first time to drive it. Although it was penned by Walter de'Silva, its modern sexy looks could easily have been shaped by architects Frank Gehry (Disney Hall shown) or Santiago Calatrava.
The R8 attracts so much positive attention not only because of its exotic looks, but because it — or its driver — doesn't have a negative image. Remember the old BMW and porcupines joke? Well the same thing could apply to Porsches, Ferraris, and Lambos too. But the Audi doesn't have such baggage. And although Lambos aren't uncommon on the fashionable West side of LA, I've only seen one other R8.
I didn't experience the psycho pursuit or cell-phone stalkarazzi that the other staff members have gone through. But my friends, co-workers, and a few strangers went absolutely bananas over it. As I was fueling, one guy asked to take some pics. "Go ahead and sit in it," I said. When he was finished, he looked like a kid who just opened his Christmas presents. And when I was rolling on Melrose, one guy saw the window was down, and shouted while smiling, "Hey, are you Ironman?" I just smiled and pointed to him. A female friend, begged for — and got — a ride.
I drove the R8 all over the place this weekend: K1 in Irvine for the Edmunds kart Death Race, Orange County, the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, and Walt Disney Hall. I got about 15 mpg overall in mixed driving environments - certainly not bad enough to get convicted of crimes against humanity by the Sierra Club.
The R8 is so comfortable in both ride and cabin comfort that you could use it as a daily driver. The seats, in particular, are beautiful in appearance and both supportive and comfortable (although some driver seat bolster wear can be seen in the pic). The car has terrific ride/handling balance, with a firm, but not at all uncomfortable ride. The handling is superb, with almost no understeer. And the size and shape of the steering wheel are perfect for me - I felt like I was driving an ALMS car or something.
But enough gushing. Let me deride. The R8 has no RF-keyless ignition on/off, nor RF-keyless entry. It has — a push button remote and metal key! I have the same disdain for metal keys in luxury cars as other here have for cassette players. The auto-shifted manual transmission is terrible — a deal-breaker if a 6-speed manual weren't also available. The bucking in the lower gears is annoying — using the paddle shifters doesn't get around that either (it's better after the first few gears). Also, if you're at stop light and leave it in Auto first gear, the transmission will timeout to neutral. When you try to leave the light, you just spin the engine up while going nowhere ("Oh, that putz can't drive stick.")
The radio is crap, with the CD changer located between the seats facing forward! And although the interior is quite comfortable, the inside — except for the seats — is not as luxurious as a $130K car should be.
Overall though, I would consider the R8 if I was shopping in this market. I might consider it over an equivalent Porsche: although it's less luxurious, it feels more modern.
As part of my job writing model reviews for Edmunds, I take the opportunity to drive as many short-term cars that pass through here as possible. The more I drive the better, with more volume-selling cars being a wiser use of my time than limited production GT500KR-like things. But as I was about to grab the keys to the 2009 Mazda 6, I saw the Audi R8's switchblade hanging on the board beckoning me. I gave into temptation.
And with apologies to Katy Perry...
(It helps to play this while reading. If that link doesn't work, try the YouTube Video)
This was not the drive I planned
Not my intention
I got so brave, keys in hand
Lost my discretion
It's not what, I'm used to
Just wanna try it out
I'm curious for it
Caught my attention
I drove the R8 and I liked it
Despite it's crappy auto stick
I drove the R8 just to try it
I hope my Z3 don't mind it
RTronic felt so wrong
The V8 felt so right
But I'm OK with not taking it home tonight
I drove the R8 and I liked it
I just liked it
I know I should drive the Mazda 6.
It doesn't matter,
You're such a sexier pick.
Just human nature,
It's not what,
Good journalists do
Not how they should behave
I should drive a real car
But so hard to obey
I drove the R8 and I liked it
Despite the photo-taking pricks
I drove the R8 just to try it
I hope Mike Schmidt don't mind it
Dead pedal's placed so wrong
Steering feels so right
But I think I'd rather have a Porsche, alright?
I drove the R8 and I liked it
I just liked it.
Supercars are so magical
High speeds, hot looks, so driveable
Hard to resist so lustable
Too good to deny it
The Audi's a big deal, but I'm indifferent.
I drove the R8 and I liked it
But the Aston's a better pick
I drove the R8 just to try it
I hope Brent Romans don't mind it
MMI works so wrong
The V8 sounds so right
But don't mean I'm in love tonight
I drove the R8 and I liked it
But I just liked it
"Why are those people staring at us?" my girlfriend asks. We're just trying to get some fruit, albeit from the popular Farmer's Market at the Grove in Los Angeles, but the facts don't change: The two of us are just doing some grocery shopping and people won't leave us alone.
"Ignore them" I tell her, "the poor don't deserve our attention." By the time my head stopped ringing from the smack to the head, we had miraculously found a parking space, exited the car and were sipping tripple iced espressos.
When returning to the car, bags in hand, we were startled by a group of teens surrounding the R8. "Great car!" "I saw this at the auto show!" "Is it fast?" My replies were pleasant and I didn't bludgeon or threaten any of them with the cane I had been carrying due to a knee injury. (I did make various threats to children playing, upset that they were on the lawn.)
I just wanted to put my groceries into the absurdly small frunk (front trunk), go home and go to bed. This wasn't Cars and Coffee, this wasn't Hot Import Nights; it was simply a hot Wednesday night where I happened to have a car and some coffee.
And this brings me to my thesis statement: Supercars are dumb.
Before you get your Countach poster all in a bunch, follow the jump.
I guess it's the New Englander in me speaking, but I prefer things to be functional and understated. The other day I saw a hammer made of titanium with some carbon fiber stickers on it. Earlier that very same day (which explains why I was in the hammer aisle) I built an Ikea night table with, literally, a penny, the allen wrench that came with the thing, and a can of tuna for a hammer and, when placed on its side, a level. Not only did it handle the task of securing finishing nails into a piece of fiberboard, it was also delicious! And currently the empty can is being used to hold spare change. Can the fancy-pants hammer do that? No, it's nothing more than a shiny expensive unitasker.
Such is life with the Audi R8 and in my experience, virtually every supercar. Sure they do what they do very well, but the cost of ownership is absurd. No, not the financial cost, but the emotional cost. Gone is your privacy and, to an extent, your dignity. Driving the R8 is phenomenal. Driving the R8 also makes you "that guy." The guy who has a supercar is not to be envied. The guy driving the supercar down Sunset is the guy with an ego problem, not a passion for cars.
Growing up I lived next door to a rock star. He ditched "the life" and moved to a quiet town to start a small farm. I never understood the decision. He had fame, fortune and to steal a quote from Futurama, "access to the depths of sleaze that those things bring." It wasn't until driving the R8 that his life path made some sense; He didn't need the attention.
Kudos on the R8, Audi, but my sense of self worth is just fine, I'll have an Rs4.
I'm just not desperate enough to own a supercar.
Slummed it in the Audi R8 again this weekend. Had to drive to Monterey to see what all the rich people were doing in Pebble Beach. Apparently all that news of a recession hasn't hit the upper classes as there were more new Ferrari's, Lamborghinis and Rolls Royces than I could count.
That said, I didn't see another R8 once. Maybe I wasn't looking hard enough, maybe there was a Deutsches Autoerscheinen that I missed, who knows, but the R8's rarity cemented its status as the ultimate anti-Ferrari. People waved, smiled and otherwise seemed to enjoy seeing something other than a bright red F430 with shiny tires. The fact that I left our long-termer covered in bugs and brake dust only added to the effect.
Took the long way home and the R8 was as entertaining as ever. I've figured out that it's more fun to drive with the dampers set to their normal mode as the Sport setting makes the car too jittery and nervous through tight corners. As far as wear goes, the only sign of anything wrong was an occasional buzz from somewhere near the headlight switch, not bad considering that it clicked over 18,000 miles on the way home.
And for those who care, the picture taken at the general store was in Big Sur. I thought I was driving the world's dirtiest German sportscar until some guy pulled in with that mud-covered Cayman S. I also stopped and took a shot along the coast a little further south before turning inland. I'm not saying where the shot with the rolling hills was taken as I don't want anybody clogging up one of my favorite backroads. Feel free to guess, I'll confirm a right answer.
One thing I dig about our medium-term 2008 Audi R8 is how light it feels from the driver seat. The Nissan GT-R feels lighter than 3,900 lbs, but it's still obviously a substantial car. The Corvette Z06 somehow doesn't feel notably lighter than the GT-R, despite being the lightest of the bunch by a longshot (3,162 lbs). But the 3,634-lb R8 — trust us, we weighed it — has a light-on-its-feet character in corners that the other two supercars just can't match. It feels compact, tossable and playful; the others feel a bit piggish by comparison.
Over at the Austrian's recent R8 post, however, three astute commenters gave voice to something I've thought from the first moment I laid eyes on the R8 in our garage: that front overhang is out of control! Go to Austria's post and check out the first picture — looks like the car is about to tip forward and fall on its face, particularly given the clipped rear end. I know there's a (largely useless) frunk up there, but, dude. Those front wheels need to be moved about a foot closer to the front of the car.
My high school reunion is coming up. It's a multiple of ten, but I won't say which one.
I have to drive something. Why not take advantage of the Audi R8? Or is turning up in Ironman's car the most utterly tool-ish move I could make? "Nice car, Dan. How long have you had it?" "Well, it's like this..."
The Nissan GT-R perhaps? Only the truly car saavy (and heavy-duty gamers) will know what it is. To everyone else it might simply register as yet another 350Z with an overwrought body kit. This one is a good car-guy filter. Fellow motorheads are always easy to talk to at awkward parties.
How about the Smart? Nah. Everyone thought I was a dork in high school (I drove a Ranchero with side pipes back then.) I'm not sure I want to remove all doubt with this one. But this is Southern California, after all, and I'd like to think we've all grown up a bit. Yeah, right.
The Pontiac G8 GT? Why not the Evo or STI? The Cadillac CTS is another good one.
I must point out that I am happily married and am not trolling in any way. Besides, no one but the valet (if there is one) is likely to see my borrowed ride.
Oh, sure. I could drive my own car — if it'll start. But who wants to turn up in a beater Miata with faded red paint and no A/C? Or in a minivan full of crumbs, for that matter? My wife sure doesn't, and she didn't even go to my high school!
What would you pick?
At this point I'm leaning toward the GT-R, myself.
Among the few imperfections on our Audi R8 long-termer, you know other than the garbage gearbox, is the cheap door handle. Yeah, a petty shot, but for a six-figure car it feels ridiculously cheap. I mean like using coupons at Wal-Mart cheap. I even made a video so you can hear the hollow pop it makes every time you let go. Thankfully I only have to use it once per drive.
I despise valet parking. Unless the lot is only 1,000 square feet or the nearest public parking lot is a mile away, I avoid valet like the plague. I don't need some dude in a maroon vest joy riding in my car — even if it's not really my car. I don't need to show off at the valet stand. When I'm driving something like the R8, it's even worse. But twice I've been driving the R8 and had to valet. The first time (photo above) was because the lot was about 1000 square feet, but it's right next to the restaurant so I don't mind. And the second time occured this weekend when the nearest public parking was a mile away. I reluctantly handed over the keys to maroon vest dude who was working solo. It's a tough feeling handing $130,000 over to somebody.
Anyway, when I got out of dinner, I handed the guy a $20 for the $7 parking charge. To make it easy, I even just asked for a 10 back. He informed me he had no change, only a 1 and a 20. I would have to check in the restaurant for change. They had none. I came back to the guy empty handed and the little snot was giving me attitude as if it was my fault he didn't have the change to do his job. "You have to pay for your service, sir." "Service? What, driving my car 30 feet to the other side of this building? Do you expect me to just pay you $13 extra for that? I may be allegedly rich, but I didn't get allegedly rich by being stupid." But I didn't say that. Instead, I ran over to a gas station for change and paid the little bastard — no tip. I should've just driven off.
It sullied my evening and I couldn't help but feeling that he was treating me like this because I was a 20-something driving a flashy 130-thousand-something car. The sort of unwelcome attention I was lamenting over in Riswickland. Perhaps it would've been the same had I been driving the Focus, I don't know. Either way, my distaste for valet parking continues. Next time, I'll say, "Get in the car buddy. I'm parking her myself."
Abomination against a supercar or coolest daycare pickup ever?
I guess this was inevitable, given that I drive our long-term cars and pick up my 2-year-old daughter from day care most days. As I cinched the Recaro Como child safety seat into the orangey-red buckets and triple-checked that the airbag was disabled before leaving the office for day care, I couldn't help but giggle out loud and wonder how often similar vehicles are put to this task. It felt half ridiculous and half cool.
After I strapped my daughter in and explained in toddler-friendly terms as much as I could about the car we were driving (which surprisingly was a lot), the trek home felt 100 percent ridiculous and 100 percent cool, as I slogged through stop-and-go surface street traffic while she squealed "Faster, mommy! Faster!" every couple of blocks. I couldn't grant her wish (and wouldn't have even if traffic had been light) for many, many reasons, but I loved her enthusiasm.
What with her already documented love for her Recaro and the zeal with which she is a passenger in high-horsepower cars, I appear to be raising a car girl.
We begged. We pleaded. And we got our way.
Audi extended our loan of the R8 for another three months.
You'll remember our goal for the R8 was to get the odometer up to 20,000 miles, just like any car in our long-term fleet. But we had to do it in three measly months instead of our normal twelve. Well, we've almost met our goal. Today is the three-month mark and as of this morning our Audi R8 has reached 19,334 miles.
But now we have it for three more months. So let's give a half-time report.
We've gotten used to the celebrity status that comes along with this beauty of a car. People smile and point when they see the R8 as if they just spotted Lindsey Lohan and Britney Spears making out. We've learned to ignore their stares. They're soooo boring.
But all kidding aside, the bloom is slightly off the rose. The R8 is still a blast to drive. But our non-stop road trips have started to wear on our supercar. The front trunk, or frunk as we like to call it, doesn't close properly and takes some finagling. We'll have it looked at by the dealer. At our last service appointment we had the loose parking brake lever cover reinstalled.
This morning I noticed the Tuscan brown color is wearing off of the leather upholstery on the left driver seat bolster. Everyone slides against it getting down into the car and it's starting to show. We'll have that looked at as well. Minor things.
So, what should we do with the Audi R8 for the next three months?
Last weekend fate smiled as it handed me the keys to our 2008 Audi R8 for the weekend. When I turned around to leave, fate placed a kick-me sign on my back and and rushed off to wind up the giant boot that kicked me swiftly in the buttocks.
Since the R8's transmission is almost as bad as the smart's in casual driving (it may be as bad, but the extra 350hp over the smart make up for a lot) and it can carry fewer items than your average Radio Flyer, my weekend was shaping up pretty nice: no errands and lots of roads that, when viewed aerially, look like a handful of tapeworms thrown onto a carpet.
It only took a few minutes of driving before I realized this plan was not going to work out as well as I'd hoped. Merging onto the freeway the Audi cut power and the traction control light illuminated. In the remaining 8 miles to my apartment traction control turned on no less than four times and, sensing a pattern, was fully disabled (by me) once when I came across a big puddle on a 6-lane road. (I'm weak when it comes to weather-related shenanigans.) I checked the tires the following day when the sun was out. While — as visible in the picture above — they look ok, a tactile inspection reveals the truth: there was no groove left. Someone got the last of the excellent grip afforded by quasi-shaved tires and left me with two slick rubber tubes that never held on. Needless to say, this made my drives much slower, much more interesting and caused the AWD system much more trouble.
"R8 needs rear tires ASAP" my text to Schmidt read on Sunday morning. Monday I called Stokes Tire Pros to place the order.
This picture shows the extent of the wear more clearly. The new tires (Pirelli PZero R01s, 295/30ZR19 100Y) took a day to arrive and were installed within an hour of the car's arrival.
Cost? A lot. $584.97 EACH (for comparison our Long Term Ford GT's rear meats were $350/ea. Audi of Santa Monica quoted me at $704 a piece for the same tires.) Installation ran another $102.52 bringing the grand total for this job to $1,272.46.
The following is a collection of quotes from random Santa Monica residents upon seeing our R8 parked on a local residential street:
"Dude, it's an R8, that thing is $250,000" (actual price — $132,000)
"Its layout was designed by a woman that's why it looks so good" (actual design director - Walter de'Silva)
"Look at the engine. I think it has like 600 horsepower." (actual horsepower - 420)
"Check out the headlights, I think they're LEDs." (actually, full LED headlights are only available on the R8 in Europe. The Cadillac Escalade Platinum is currently the only vehicle in the U.S. that offers full high- and lowbeam LED headlights)
Strangely enough, a Cadillac Executive told me last month that Ferdinand Piech, Chairman of the Volkswagen Group, special ordered an Escalade EXT outfitted with the LED headlights. First person to capture a picture of Piech behind the wheel gets a $100.
On the way to Seal Beach Elementary's "Back to School" night, I glanced down and saw our long-term Audi R8's odometer on the cusp of a mileage milestone.
Maybe you're tired of hearing about our love affair with the R8, our enthusiam over Audi's willingness to extend what was originally scheduled to be a three-month loan.
And perhaps I'll get tired of talking about it, but I'll never get tired of driving it.
Here's to another beautiful 20,000 miles, luvver.
On Monday night Ed Hellwig and I drove our long-term 2008 Audi R8 down to San Diego (about 120 miles from Los Angeles) to wach the Chargers kick the living daylights out of my New York Jets. The car was perfect for the trip; comfortable, fast and flashy enough to get us a parking spot, which we found out are very hard to come by at Qualcomm Stadium.
Anyway, on the way home I got a warning light telling me the R8 needed a quart of oil. Then I realized the car was also saying it was due for an oil change. Trouble is, we just had it changed 5,000 miles ago, and the interval is 10,000.
So yesterday morning I called Santa Monica Audi. Turns out the oil change alert is a false alarm, but the car needing a quart of oil every 5,000 miles is normal. You know, they all do that.
Our service advisor, Ken Maryan, also said that if we brought the car over there he'd reset the maintenance light for us. It'll only take a minute, he said.
So I went over a few hours later. The guy plugged a laptop thingamajig into the doohicky and reset the whatchamacallit.They even topped up the oil for me. No charge. And it really did take about a minute.
Don't ask me how it happened but I scored our 2008 Audi R8 for the weekend. Yup! Little ol' me, the editor who usually gets assigned the Smart. And I used this supercar — Iron Man's car, the star of I, Robot — to finish up the last of my move, to run donated items over to Goodwill and to attend the American Wine & Food Festival (AWFF) which, funny enough, was sponsored by Audi. I was in heaven.
Sure, it's not really practical for running errands, and this car does not enjoy going slow but at all, but it somehow turned even the most mundane moments into a cinematic experience.
When I had parked it in front of my new house, a group of good-looking shirtless college-age men, from the nearby college's track team I assume, were running down the street and descended upon the R8 whooping and hollering. "Is this YOUR car?" they asked me as I stepped out of my house to investigate what all the ruckus was about. "Why yes. Yes, it is," I replied, fanning myself.
And I even found myself driving 10 miles away to another Ralphs since the one near my house didn't carry the cake mix I was looking for. Any excuse to jump behind the wheel.
Unfortunately, this car has no place in my life. I'm not fancy enough, rich enough or even skilled enough as a driver to own it. Like I said, it doesn't like to be driven slow as it jerked and puttered when I was driving around the garage at the AWFF looking for parking. And even if you sit at a traffic light too long, it automatically switches its gear to Neutral as if impatient for sitting still too long. "Yes, I understand, dear supercar. You want to go, and go fast."
In any case, borrowing this car, even for just staying in town really made my weekend. It's definitely great motivation for doing errands.
I had a biz trip to Phoenix and was given a couple of flying options. So I declined the hassle of airports and took Audi's land-locked jet instead. On the wide-open stretches of Interstate 10, where you see nothing but desert and the horizon, I let the car stretch its legs a bit. I say "a bit" because my cruising speeds varied from 85-100 mph (with the assistance of a Valentine One radar detector). Yes, not even breathing hard.
The R8 will supposedly top 185, but though I enjoyed a couple of high-speed bursts, I didn't deem it necessary to fully explore that claim. Maybe I'm getting old...
As impressive as the effortless high-speed cruising is, so too was the R8's literally cool demeanor and overall comfort. With the temps above 100 degrees for most of the way and the A/C keeping the cabin nice and cool, the Audi's coolant temp never budged above the half-way mark. A hundred and one at 101 was no sweat. And my back and butt had no complaints with the driver seat, even though I was disappointed that it lacked a few expected adjustments, such as under-thigh and side-wing supports.
What's not to like? Well, you've heard it before, but I'll throw my two cents in anyway; the R tronic tranny is like a zit on the face of this gorgeous model. In normal, low-speed driving, it's so annoying the way it sometimes jerks to and fro when in automatic mode. Gimme the manual six-speed and all would be perfect in R8 land.
Oh yeah, I averaged 17.1 mpg for the trip, just one mpg below the EPA's highway estimate. Not enjoying the V8's thrust and glorious sound would've probably netted me a few mpg higher.
Forget its crummy R-Tronic transmission for a second and it's clear that the 2008 Audi R8 hardly puts a contact patch wrong. Props to Audi's engineering staff for sweating the details.
Oddly enough, though, not everything about the R8 adopts the endlessly fussed-over mechani-cool character that pervades every one of its crannies.
Here's what I mean. Fire the direct-incted, dry-sumped, variable-everything V8 when its stone cold and the R8 idles lumpily, spitting and cracking like a Nextel Cup car. Just a few seconds later, the composure that has been so carefully fettled by its creators flips on and the R8 immediately snaps into a glassy smooth idle.
It's a contrast that I dig.
When it comes to interiors, Audi has become the standard by which other cars are judged. So you would assume that Audi's flagship sportscar, the one with the six-figure price tag, would have a flawless cabin. Well, it is indeed quite nice, but there are a few sizable pieces of gray plastic that are hard to miss, like this one around the center stack display. They don't look terrible, but they are gray, and they are plastic, so all is not perfect.
Maybe I'm stretching on this one, but as I was gassing up the R8 the other day I noticed another small example of how well thought out the R8 is from top to bottom. When you unscrew the gas cap there's a tether to hold it on. Nothing special there. But instead of just letting the cap dangle against the bodywork, they made it just long enough so you can hook it over the lid. Trivial maybe, but certainly no accident.
Not long ago I was taking a walk on the beach. There was a lone surfer waiting to catch a wave. Suddenly, a flock of dolphins — actually, I think the correct term is a pod of dolphins — started to play with him. These delightful creatures were swimming all around him and jumping out of the water. It was an amazing sight and the surfer was enjoying the interplay.
But, after a while, the dolphins started getting unintentionally rough. They didn't mean it. They're dolphins. They just wanted to have fun. Although they are wildly intelligent, they don't understand that humans are breakable.
Finally, the kid started to get freaked out and made his way to shore. He had an incredible experience but knew if he stayed out there any longer, he was going to get the wind knocked out of him.
That's how I feel sometimes when I drive the R8. It's a beautiful machine in a very accessible way. It is not at all aloof. People give you the thumbs-up just for beautifying their street. They want to play and drive next to you. They want to jump in front of you and take your picture with their camera phones. But after a while they start to sway too close and you really want them to pay attention to the road.
The photo above is one of several car murals decorating our office. She sure is a beauty.
This morning we had parked our 2008 Audi R8 across the street from a Santa Monica fire department when we were stopping off at a coffeehouse before work for some java. Upon returning to the car we saw these guys admiring the car, excitedly checking out its wheels, luxe interior, V8 engine gorgeously displayed in the back. We just had to get a picture.
Of course they were reluctant at first ("I know where these things usually end up," said one) until we explained to them that we thought it was cool that, in addition to Iron Man, real superheroes loved this car, too. THAT got them in front of the camera. Heh.
They asked how much horsepower our R8 had. When we replied, "420," they smiled and said, gesturing to their firetruck, "Ours has a Caterpillar V8 turbodiesel with 500 hp." We wanted to add, "AND it actually saves lives."
When we were getting ready to drive away, the firemen said, looking at the cop car parked nearby, "Unlike the police, WE'd like to see you go fast..." Instead we just did a U-turn in front of them and revved the engine. If we had time we probably would have offered to give them a really quick jaunt on the freeway. Ah well.
There been considerable hand wringing lately over the faux exhaust tips on the new Ferrari California. Such trickery seemed suspicious enough when it showed up on the Lexus IS-F, but on a Ferrari it's been deemed sacrilege.
Well, got some more bad news for you, the R8 is guilty too. It's less noticeable because the exhaust pipes are tucked away so neatly into the bodywork, but the photo doesn't lie, those tips are not connected.
For some reason, our super modern, rocket-ship-looking Audi R8 has a big ole ashtray planted right in the middle of the center console.
Who do they think is driving this car, the Marlboro Man?
I can think of better uses for this space. How about an iPod connection? Or just a little storage compartment?
A lot of carmakers don't even bother with smoking accessories anymore, let alone give them such a prominent position.
Does your car have a smoker's package?
Our long-term R8 isn't all only about having fun. Sometimes we put it to work.
We used it to shoot photos and video during our recent ZR1 versus GT-R comparison test.
When I got the R8 Friday evening, I started to notice the key fob wasn't working properly. It took a few tries to get it to lock and then unlock. Eventually it would do it, though. I went through the same multiple-fob-push song and dance every time. Sometimes I would try to manually lock the car using the key, but that didn't work either.
I was visiting a friend down in Orange County Saturday night and before we left for dinner (in his car), he wanted to sit in the R8. After a few tries, it unlocked and he got his wish. When I went to lock the car, it refused to lock with the fob. It would not lock using the key hole, nor from the inside using the auto door lock button. After a good five minutes, it was hopeless — the R8 was just not going to lock. I was also now concerned that if I did manage to lock it, I wouldn't be able to unlock it again. This was clearly an issue with the locks and not the key fob (which still blinked its red light with every push).
Seeing as I was in a rather high-end neighborhood (the country's largest gated community, which was featured in the Real House Wives of Orange County), I figured it unlikely that leaving the R8 unlocked would result in its disappearance. Plus, there's no lock switches or plungers in the car to give away from the outside that it's unlocked. And really, who randomly walks up to cars to see if they're unlocked?
The car was still there when I got back from dinner, and when I got back home Saturday, it still wouldn't lock. I had my girlfriend block the R8 with her car in our tandem parking spot. It's still wasn't working Sunday morning. Guess what Magrath's going to be busy with this week?
One of the great things about having our own 2008 Audi R8 to drive around as much as we want is the chance to let our friends take a turn. So we forced it on a friend who happens to be a development engineer for a rival car company, figuring he'd give us an outsider's perspective on the way the R8 compares to other cars.
From the start, our guy was really impressed with the R8's quiet, composed ride quality. "Obviously this is the Buick of sports cars, if you like that sort of thing," he said. "No wonder Oldham likes it." He went on to make a few disparaging remarks about "girly men," and noted that the R8 probably gets some added ride compliance because it doesn't have run-flat tires.
He was impressed with the big change in the R8's character that came from engaging the sport setting for the dampers. We were driving a section of CA Hwy 110 in Los Angeles that all manufacturers use to evaluate freeway hop, and the R8 was utterly calm on the regular suspension setting and then porpoised madly on the sport setting. He said this is a difference you really want since it suggests the suspension really has been calibrated for speed. "Of course you can also feel that the suspension bushings are pretty aggressive for autobahn speed, and you really pick up a lot of vibration on coarse pavement," he said.
One thing our guy couldn't get along with proved to be the single-clutch automated manual transmission. "When it shifts, it just drops the engine torque to zero then makes the gear-change, just like a computer would," he said. "It's really just a first-gen system and it can't take advantage of what a dual-clutch can do. And it also makes the car surge in low-speed traffic just like the Smart that I drove last week — worse than a Smart, in fact. The GT-R dual-clutch is way better. Not even close." He did allow that the Audi's transmission is quiet, although maybe that's because it's all the way at the back of the car where you can't hear it.
He really disliked the lack of coordination from the pedals at low speed. The tip-in for the throttle is too aggressive, and since the clutch comes in all at once, the car kind of surges forward. And while the brakes have a lot of bite for top-speed work, you find yourself varying pedal pressure to compensate for the transmission as it downshifts through the gears.
All this relates to driving the Audi R8 through town, of course. But since comfort and utility are what sets the Audi R8 apart from its competition, this is worth talking about. We probably have some reason to be skeptical, however, because a lapse in judgment led him to turn the R8 into a driveway at the wrong angle and the car got hung up with two wheels as if it were off-roading in Moab. "This is what you get with a 104.3-inch wheelbase and no suspension travel," our man said.
Even though Inside Line's Saturday street party was all about the Nissan 370Z, every time I glanced back at the Audi R8 in the parking lot, there were people milling around and snapping photos.
Stop flirting, R8. Don't you get enough attention?
Our long-term Audi R8 is one of the more rewarding vehicles in the long-fleet, but only if you can take full advantage of its combination of luxury and performance. I enjoyed driving the R8 for the past two weeks, but within 24 hours it was clear something was amiss regarding its normally refined ride quality.
At higher speeds a subtle, but consistent, vibration intruded upon the Audi's upscale interior. I figured (and hoped) it was simply a wheel balance isssue. A trip to Stokes Tire in Santa Monica confirmed my suspicions...and more.
Turns out three of the four tires where vastly out of balance (the driver's side rear was fine). In fact, the front passenger tire had no weights on it at all, prompting the Stokes technician to question whether the tire had ever been balanced before being mounted on the R8 at the factory. Certainly that would explain the high-speed vibration.
Problem solved, right? Not quite. While fixing the balance fixed the bad vibes there was another gremlin lurking under the Audi R8.
Upon pulling the front driver's side tire the technician noted uneven wear on the tread pattern. The wear bars were flush with the outside treads, and these treads had an almost "squished" look. The front passenger tire, while also pretty used up, did not have this uneven wear pattern. Clearly new front tires were in order, which Stokes priced out at $435 for each Pirelli P-Zero 235/35ZR-19. Total cost, including taxes and mounting/balancing, $949.67 The tires weren't in stock, but Stokes arranged for delivery the following day. Appropriately, as the tires were being mounted inside Stokes Tire Center a downpour began outside (gotta love that timing).
Front tire replacement is often paired with an alignment, particularly if the old tires had uneven wear. Stokes was prepared to give the R8 a four-wheel alignment, but the technician didn't expect to find such an elaborate collection of adjustments tucked above those underbody panels. "This thing is as exotic as a Ferrari" he told me. When I reminded him that the R8 and Gallardo share the same platform he replied, "True, so I guess that makes sense." But the alignment's price jumped from $110 to $170, and the time involved went from one hour to two.
That timing didn't fit with the rest of my day's schedule, so the R8 will be retuning to Stokes soon to complete its alignment service.
Our GT-R is not the only car in the long-term fleet with the now infamous launch control feature. The Audi R8 has it too, and with a 420-horsepower V8 it's equally capable of causing some damage if used too often.
Audi seems well aware of this. In the owners manual it warns, "Accelerating with the launch control program places a heavy load on all parts of the vehicle. This can result in increased wear and tear". Not quite as explicit as Nissan's warnings, but the statement still leaves Audi some wiggle room should a customer come in with a fried clutch after a few thousand miles.
That probably won't happen though. You see, the R8's launch control setup isn't nearly as aggressive as the GT-R's. After just one launch, I got the warning signal shown above. I tried launching it again after letting it cool a little and the computer basically shut me down.
Maybe the GT-R's problem isn't that it has launch control. The problem is that it assumes owners are smart enough to not use it too often. With the R8, Audi assumed the opposite.
It may seem obvious to say the R8 is a terrific car - what's not to like, right? Well, thing is, I really don't like many aggressive performance cars - most are simply too uncomfortable to be worthwhile in my book. I suspect many other people feel the same way although they suffer in order to project some kind of image. If I won the lottery, I'd never consider vehicles like the Nissan GT-R, Evo GSR or Ferrari F430.
However, I can totally see spending good money on the R8. I love the interior - the design adds to the special feel of the car. I also like the new Lotus Evora for the same reason. I really like cars like the R8 that can deliver stunning performance without stark interiors or a constantly punishing driving experience.
Even if money was no object, what performance cars would you still NOT want?
We put off a couple of fixes on the R8 while waiting or the odometer to hit 25,000. So when the magic number arrived there was quite a bit on the agenda. Santa Monica Audi addressed the issue in an (almost) timely manner. The breakdown:
25k service: Change oil and filter, perform safety checks, correct all fluid levels and adjust tire pressures. ($295)
Parking brake pad: During inspection the tech discovered the parking brake pad was separating in chunks. Could have been caused by driving with the brake on they tell us. Whatever the cause the end result was the same. Replace the pad. ($295)
Key fob inop: The key fob battery checked out fine, so they removed and replaced the door lock remote control. When locking the door manually the tech found the lock mechanism had also failed. The door panel was removed to access the lock cylinder, which was also replaced. (no charge)
Rough idle during cold starts: To fix this problem the dealer removed and replaced eight fouled spark plugs. New plugs didn't really fix the issue, but they were free. (no charge)
Creaking noise from center armrest: Remove and replace handbrake handle stop. (no charge)
Hood latch misaligned: Trunk compartment was removed to access and adjust the release cable, then reinstalled. (no charge)
Total Cost: $609.20
Days out of Service: 7
A storm was brewing in Southern California, so I figured I'd get my weekly shopping done before it really kicked up. It was a strange night on Friday, the astrological Grand Cross was forming portentously in the sky, the clouds were crowding in, and the winds were calm. It was the calm before the storm.
I went to my local market and came out with about 7 bags of stuff. Then realized, oh crap, I have the R8. But as Mike mentioned in his last post, we just got the latch fixed on the Audi's trunk, so I opened the hood to reveal a seemingly tiny compartment. I turned to my passenger and said, "looks like you're holding some of this stuff on your lap."
But to my surprise, the R8's deep trunk held all of the bags with ease. It even had a handy light so I could see what I was doing in the dark. Not bad.
It rained pretty steady last night. By the time I pulled out of my garage this morning, it had backed off a bit but the damage was done. And as we all know — and this is especially true in Southern California — just add water and you get instant idiot on the road. But my fellow commuters were taking it easy for a change.
And the superb Audi R8 didn't feel any less stable on the wet than it does under normal driving conditions. The tires were plenty sticky, no hydroplaning occurred, the heated seats kept me cozy and the intermittent rain-sensing wipers worked well. My only complaint, the rear defogger doesn't seem to do much of anything.
Last night, on my way home, our long-term 2008 Audi R8 cracked the 25,000 mile mark. I'll bet my old school subscription to Popular Mechanics (it was a gift) that makes our car the highest mileage R8 in the world. Am I wrong? Does anyone know of an R8 out there that has covered more ground?
"I used to like this car." She says as I'm opening the throttle, tearing down the only deserted stretch of roadway in Southern California last night. "But after the GT-R it's just so... I don't know...pointless and soft. And can you please stop doing that with the transmission?" The car had just changed from second to third, lagging for a second and then slamming the car forward. She was not impressed. But she does have a point.
Compared to the GT-R our Audi R8 is a beauty queen. Side blade and all. Functionally, though, the Audi doesn't stand up to the GT-R, at least not as far as I'm concerned.
Ever try to get out of an R8? First step is to readjust the seating position away from the correct driving position. Don't do that and you've got to tie your shoes together, dislocate your hips and swivel the whole knotted mass over to the left up to your chest and then around over 90-degrees out the massive doors and over the sill. Now imagine doing that in a dress. See, it's not that poor Hilton girl's fault.
And then there're the seats, quality is better in the Audi by a country kilometer, but the GT-R's are more supportive and grippier when the road gets turny. They also, as a reader pointed out, at certain angles look like the scream mask.
And then there're the human interfaces. Radio control: GT-R. HVAC: GT-R. Seat adjustment: GT-R. Steering wheel Adjustment: GT-R. Aforementioned ingress / egress: GT-R.
And then there's the attention. The GT-R certainly gets its fair share of looks (some of horror), but they're from people "in the know." Everyone looks at the R8. Still. Grandmothers, children, men, women, puppies. Everyone.
Oh, and cops.
The GT-R may be acoustically muted to a Toyotaistic degree, but a low vocal profile ain't always a bad thing, ya know? People who gawk at the GT-R know what it is. Everyone else just passes by. I like being passed by when I'm preparing to be bad. (As an aside, I'm a big fan of de-badging cars. I've never understood why anyone would add badges. Especially ones claiming displacement, AMG/SRT/M/SVT/SS affiliation, or horsepower — remember the C5 Z06s 405hp badge?)
Anyways, back to the point. For me, the draw of the Audi R8, despite many high-speed attempts, remains elusive.
We pulled into our garage at the end of the night and, maintaining forward momentum from the slope of the entry way, I popped the lever over to neutral and treated my neighbors to the sound of world-ending fury Audi's 4.2-liter V8 produces. She smiled that placating smile all men — especially car guys — have seen 1,000-times and finally gives in, "Okay, that's nice. But seriously, can't we just get our own GT-R? A red one? We could make it louder." And as the GT-R, a red one, costs some $59,580 less than a similarly equipped R8, it's a bargain. It also leaves enough in the (fictional) bank for a new transaxle...should the need arise.
Cheaper + faster + more functional + girlfriend approved = better.
Not in 321 days. Not in 323 days. No sir, this car needs an oil change in 322 days exactly. You've got to love the Germans.
Combine an odd stretch of actual weather in Southern California with some spirited driving and you get this - a filthy car with equally disgusting wheels.
Brake dust hasn't been too much of a problem with the R8, but when it builds up the results are pretty sad looking. If anything, it reaffirms the fact that we actually drive this thing like a real car. A garage queen it is not.
That said, after seeing the R8 in this condition I had to get it cleaned up, even with the threat of more rain on the way.
Ahh...that's better.
Last night, half-way home, the R8's low tire pressure warning light clicked on. Turns out the car's left rear Pirelli P-Zero had picked up a nail and had bled down to just 21 psi.
Back to the guys at Stokes Tire Pros in Santa Monica for a patch, total repair just $30.
You might be wondering why we didn't spring for a new tire. And the answer is simple: We're sick and tired of buying new rubber for this car. So far we've bought five (three fronts and two rears) in just 18,000 miles of driving (we got the car with 7,000 miles and fresh rubber on it).
And they ain't cheap. We've spent around $2,500 on tires for the R8, and we weren't about to buy another. Especially when the left rear P-Zero was replaced just 5,000 miles ago.
I provided little-needed fodder for all the GT-R haters out there when I mentioned that it was a little slow to get going on a "cold" morning awhile back. Well, in all fairness here's an update on the R8's "cold weather" performance.
We've mentioned before that the R8 has a slight stumble whenever it's fired up cold. Personally, I like it. For a split second, it makes the R8 sound like it has a big block Chevy wedged in back.
When Mike asked the dealer about the odd rumble, they said it might be some fouled plugs, which they replaced. Well, it didn't help much as the stumble remains. And as the video after the jumps clearly shows, the R8 isn't exactly running in PZEV mode when it first fires up. I still like it though.
I may have mentioned this before, but D-shaped steering wheels on street cars are pointless. A flat-bottom wheel makes sense on a formula or prototype racing car that only needs a half-turn to travel from lock to lock, but it only takes a single curve on a winding road to understand how ill-suited they are to the slower steering ratios found in production cars. Even zippy ones like the R8.
Like many drivers, I'm a shuffle-steerer. I pass the wheel through my hands constantly as I navigate winding roads. When my hands reach the flat portion of the R8's wheel, well, they don't. The flat portion is like a giant hole in the helm's rim. A break in concentration like this is exactly what you don't need when you're driving, uh, with spirit.
The R8 is an engaging drive in nearly every conceivable way, and this concession to style is silly and unnecessary.
I've driven everything from an Acura NSX to a Ford GT to a Porsche 911 up my in-laws' driveway with nary a scuff mark. But that damn proboscis on the Audi R8 just can't handle the approach angle. I even approached the approach angle at an angle, knowing how far the car's maw sticks out ahead of the front tires. Didn't matter, the snout still dragged on the pavement.
At least it looks good...once you get it on flat and level pavement.
Not wanting to walk home after the shoot, I drove over to my girlfriends place since she has a garage to park this beauty in. It was a tight fit amongst the other cars and posts. I never knew a car could have so many tones and chirps telling you what's close, what isn't and stop now before you ram into that post.
I felt like I was on the bridge of the Enterprise and Khan was reciting Shakespeare.
Sleeping (Not So Much) Beauty
I took the R8 out again for more "cover" shots. Again, I spent the night at my girlfriend's house not only because she has a garage, but also I hadn't seen her the previous night. Two birds with one stone, right?
I woke up a little after 5am to get some sunrise shots. I was careful not to wake her. I picked up all my gear carefully and went out to the car as quietly as possible.
My ninja skills were thwarted by the turn of the key.
"BBBBBBBBBRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWW!" Snarled the engine as it came to life.
Lights went on at the neighbors. A dog barked at me. Got a text from my lady: "loud".
I felt bad. For about a second that is. Once I got it out of her garage, it was like playing a really good round of Night Driver.
In a perfect world this is what would be parked outside my house: 2007 Honda Fit for errands, 2008 Audi R8 for just about everything else.
And here's a picture of the Audi supercar crouched at the curb a few blocks from the offices at Edmunds.com in Santa Monica, California this morning. I'm sorry it's a little jittery but I was trying very hard not to get run over as I stood in the middle of the street.
Not 5 minutes after firing-up our 2008 Audi R8 and heading for work this morning, the "Low Oil" indicator came on. This has happened before. The display flashed something along the lines of "1 quart low, add no more than 1 quart," before settling back to the icon you see above for the rest of the drive.
The mileage? 26,855. For the record, our last oil change came at 25,000 miles.
The owner's manual states that the R8 needs 10 liters of oil when you do an oil and filter change. That's 10.6 quarts. If the oil change technician added 10 quarts, our R8 would have been over a half-quart low when we left the dealership. There's no way to tell if this was the case at this point, but perhaps this explains why we're only 1,855 miles past our last oil service and the R8 is thirsty for more.
Taking the car back to the dealer for some more oil seemed a little silly, so I broke out the manual to see what this car needs. How hard could it be?
Harder than necessary, that's for sure.
For one, the oil specification isn't familiar. What the heck is VW 504 00? Is that 10W-30? Synthetic? Jell-o?
And what is the difference between LongLife service and Inspection service? Each is associated with different oils, as you can see above.
Let's tackle the second question first. LongLife service basically means flexible service intervals, scaled by the on-board computer as it monitors your driving style and the resulting engine load. If you baby the thing, the oil change reminder might not come on for 24 months or 20,000 miles, whichever comes first. Or it could come on sooner; it depends on your right foot. Inspection Service is more traditional. You give the R8 an oil change every 10,000 miles or 12 months, whichever comes first.
In order to have a chance at LongLife service, you have to use a higher grade of synthetic oil, so-called VW 504 00. Inspection service also uses synthetic oil, but a more common grade of synthetic will suffice, so-called VW 502 00.
Great, but what the heck is VW 504 00 and VW 502 00? VW stands for Volkswagen, of course. The rest of the digits are their internal standard. I searched the internet to find a list of oils that meet each requirement. I never did find an official Audi document dated any earlier than 2005, but I eventually came across this link, which contains a list of oils that comply.
It's a copy of a copy of a VW TSB, but it looks legit enough. And it has a recent date that includes model year 2009. Our R8's oil filler cap "Recommends Castrol," but many other brands of oil are listed in the TSB. I think the R8's Castrol recommendation has more to do with their sponsor relationship with Audi Motorsports than anything else.
The LongLife oils are few in number, with only one brand familiar to North Americans. None looks like an off-the-shelf item, but we did find one for sale on-line at the VW TDI fan site. Apparently any modern VW or Audi TDI diesel with a particulate filter needs the LongLife VW 504 00 oil, no matter what.
But this isn't a diesel. And we're not going with LongLife service because the idea of a 24-month, 24,000 mile oil change seems somehow wrong. We'll go with the shorter fixed oil change interval, thank you very much, and that opens up the potential list to several VW 502 00 oils we can buy at any auto parts store.
We ended up buying
a quart of this:
It's Castrol Syntec SAE 5W-40. And on the back, a small note that says it meets VW 502 00 is indeed present. But don't take that to mean that 5W-40 is the absolute weight of synthetic that the R8 needs. There's a Mobil 1 on the list too, but that one is an SAE 0W-40. Others on the same list (Pennzoil, Quaker State, Castrol SLX Professional) are 5W-30 synthetics.
It's all just plain weird, and I think it applies to any Audi or VW, not just our R8. My advice to you is to read your manual and check-out the above TSB carefully. Once you decide whether or not you want to go with LongLife service or Inspection service, you'll know which oil choices you have.
Maybe taking it to the dealer for a top-off would have been easier. It certainly would have taken less legwork.
The photo above was taken on the 405 freeway yesterday from the tight confines of the Audi R8. It was a stark reminder of how important it is to choose the appropriate vehicle for the job.
You see, there are weekends when the R8 is available and I choose not to swipe the keys. Sounds unconscionable I know, but when I remember that the R8 has the cargo capacity of a carry-on bag, I often go with something a little larger to assure plenty of room for weekend errands.
Obviously, the gentleman above had no such options, so he made do with what he had. Then again, he did have a choice in televisions, and something tells me that sucker isn't a plasma.
Yesterday, a middle-age guy in a current-generation 7 Series was checking out the R8 while I was driving on the freeway. Today, it was a Gen-Y dude in an Eclipse GT on city streets. Both had their driver-side windows down while giving our long-term Audi R8 — and me — a long look. In both encounters, I spurred the R8 a little to, you know, show them that there's more to the mid-mounted V8 than pretty artwork. And both drivers were all grins and thumbs up when they caught up to the R8.
No doubt Mr. 7 and Mr. Eclipse assumed the R8 was my car. But I'm wondering how other R8 owners react to the constant attention. Does prolonged ownership generate a nonchalant attitude towards the car's celebrity status? Maybe they just drive "cool" because they are cool — I'm pretty sure R8 owners at least have nicer teeth and better cable TV packages than I do.
With most of our test cars, it's pretty easy to emulate the driving style of the stereotypical owner. The Audi R8 owner is harder to pin down. So I guess I'll continue to feed our long-termer its oats until somebody tells me otherwise.
I took our Audi R8 out to my mountain-road drive route, one that I've been using for a couple years now and most recently drove in our long-term GT-R. Quite simply, the R8 rocked — it was the most memorable drive I've had in a long time.
Considering that the R8 is the most expensive car in our fleet (about 3.5 times as much as our 135i), maybe this shouldn't be a surprise. But the difference between the GT-R — a car that betters the R8 in many hard-number performance tests — and the R8 was simply stunning.
Thanks to its direct and communicative steering, I instantly felt comfortable with the R8. There's a unexpected level of driver-car connection present, and the R8's ability to change direction while remaining stable and compliant with the road was remarkable. Based on its responses and petite dimensions, you'd never guess that it weighs around 3,600 pounds.
The throaty V8 is plenty strong and sounds great. Too bad the R tronic transmission is still bollocks. But on this drive, at least, my aggressive throttle inputs along with use of the sport mode and lifting off the throttle for upshifts reduced the jerkiness a lot. Plus, it still did trick rev-matched downshifts, and you can left-foot brake, too.
Like the GT-R, the R8's capabilities are too high to fully explore on a public road. But with the added confidence I had in the R8, I was having more fun — and likely going faster — even though their capabilities are so similar. (It would have been interesting to have the retired long-term Brauermobile Ford GT along, as Karl recently compared it to the GT-R . As a substitute, though, check out Jacquot's Ultimate Performance Car Test we published last May, which puts together the R8, GT-R and a 911.)
At $132,745, our R8 is no bargain. But ever since this drive, the thought of getting a used R8 V10 many years down the road seems like a grand idea.
When buying a high-end audio receiver it's not uncommon to discover pathetic (or worse) radio performance. The reception and sound quality of the built-in AM/FM tuners these receivers offer likely keeps Nikola Tesla doing the twist in his grave. So maybe I shouldn't be surprised by the crackly cachophany spewing from the R8's speakers while trying to enjoy my favorite local AM radio station — but I am.
Call my crazy, but when the sticker price passes $100,000 I expect basic automotive features, like clear AM reception, to be a non-issue. Alas, it was more like listening to a bad thunderstorm sound effects tape. At least the Sirius satellite reception worked as advertised.
Note: No human organs were harmed in the making of this textcast, which actually happened yesterday, verbatim, over IM. A preemptive answer to the inevitable question — yes, Magrath hails from a family of carnies, so he would know.
3:26 PM Sadlier: So how's the reprogrammed GT-R?
Magrath: VDC allows less wheelspin now and it smacks you down more, but it's smoother, easier to launch and faster.
Sadlier: Interesting
3:28 PM Magrath: There's no thought anymore...just floor both pedals and then release the brake...it's great. So little drama now.
3:29 PM Sadlier: Sounds like PDK. What's the procedure with the settings, same as before?
3:34 PM Magrath: Nope. Leave everything in A.
Sadlier: Neat
3:43 PM Magrath: So there's no more screwing around with electrics...just brake torque the car when the other light turns yellow and it hangs at 3K until you're ready to drop the hammer.
3:44 PM Sadlier: Like PDK, except you have to hit the "sport plus" button
3:53 PM Magrath: Yep...and Nissan's paddles work the correct way (if you use 'em)
Sadlier: Sure do
3:54 PM Magrath: ...trying hard not to start Porsche bashing...
3:56 PM Sadlier: Oh come on, those buttons are a heritage feature, celebrating the historic achievements of Tiptronic.
3:57 PM Magrath: Maybe it's an intentional move by Porsche to piss off real drivers so that they will continue buying the manual so they can continue building manuals.
3:58 PM Sadlier: Yeah, might be the only way they could hit their claimed target of 50/50 sales.
Sadlier: Otherwise I can't imagine more than, I dunno, 25% of Americans would eschew PDK for a stick.
4:01 PM Magrath: If it worked right from a human interface perspective I'd be buying a PDK...and I guess installing it in something I like
Sadlier: ...such as the R8. Which, good lord willing, will have PDK before too long.
4:06 PM Magrath: I'm over the R8. More clutches can't help it now.
4:07 PM Sadlier: Ha, you're over it? I actually developed a crush on it today. I think you once told me that the R8's motor should be in every car; whether you said that or not, I agree.
4:08 PM Magrath: I did.
Magrath: But the car I'm over. Read my post where I called it desperate, and for the desperate. I still feel that way.
Sadlier: Yeah I remember that one
Sadlier: What I like about the R8 is that behind the slightly desperate look-at-me styling, it's a bitchin' car. Driving it makes me forget about the styling.
4:11 PM Magrath: But keep this in mind: You always have to get in and out. It doesn't even have a t-top that would allow the super-rich but still not desperate to install a complex slide system by which they are injected via lightless tube directly into the cockpit.
Sadlier: An excellent point.
Sadlier: Should have been a "con" in my R8 model review.
4:19 PM Magrath: By the way, make sure you drive the G-wagen short-termer before it leaves. It's the third best car in the world.
4:34 PM Sadlier: I plan to tomorrow actually. What are the first two?
Magrath: GT-R, S65 AMG.
4:35 PM Sadlier: Hmm, GT-R ahead of R8?
Magrath: WAY ahead.
Sadlier: My drive today convinced me that the R8 is better
4:36 PM Magrath: ...unless you try to get in or out of it, and unless you try to use the nav...and unless you try to connect an iPod...or if you want to be faster than a GT-R
Sadlier: Yeah, in terms of driving experience though, R8 vs. GT-R is a great example of 0-60 bragging rights becoming totally irrelevant when you're on a twisty road
4:37 PM Magrath: Twisty road the R8 is still slower.
Sadlier: But not by much, eh? I seem to remember the R8 doing very well in that Glendora drive, i.e., better than its acceleration deficit would predict. Suggesting that handling-wise, it might have a leg up on the GT-R.
4:39 PM Magrath : Handling-wise it's more traditional than the GT-R and it's very quick. But the GT-Rs grip — both mechanical and electron-driven — make it the faster car.
4:40 PM Sadlier : Maybe. Which feels better to you though?
4:44 PM Magrath : R8. But feel, like engine sound, is overrated.
4:45 PM Sadlier : Haha. Admit it, you're 1487.
4:46 PM Magrath : ..or a robot. I have been accused by a number of girls of lacking "real human emotions."
Magrath : I guess feel isn't overrated, because the Z06 is fast as heck and it feels terrible — spooky at the limit.
4:49 PM Sadlier : There you go
4:52 PM Magrath : Still the GT-R is better in every other area that eclipses the tighter steering and increased feedback of the Audi.
Sadlier : Well, also the Audi feels about 900 lbs lighter. And you're sitting low. That's cool.
4:56 PM Magrath : The low thing is neat, it's more of a classic sports car vs. a real car that will still kick its ass and let you be able to see around that bicyclist.
4:57 PM Magrath : and by "feels lighter" you mean "feels crashier"
Sadlier : I'm a fan of the classics
Sadlier : I don't know about crashier. It just feels light on its feet. Tossable, if you will
Magrath : Feh...Classic cars are lousy. They're cheap, they're floppy, they're uncomfortable, smelly and slow.
Sadlier : GT-R feels like a tank, and then it's like, holy crap, it sure doesn't drive like a tank. But it still feels like one.
4:58 PM Magrath : Exactly! It's like a driving a tank a million miles an hour in any circumstance
Sadlier : By classics I meant ancient Greece and Rome. Classic cars, I'll take a pass
Sadlier : And yeah, a tank like that is admirable, but it's still a tank
5:02 PM Magrath : But if fast is fast, why wouldn't you want to feel secure and solid? Why does floaty and rickety impress you? It's the classic debate between steel and wood roller coasters: on the one hand you have hyper-speed high-tech wonders riding on silicon wheels, on the other you have slow buckets of death riding on straightened coat hangers. Yet the fear of death at the hands of carnies who will steal your organs for lion meat is exciting....I don't get it.
5:03 PM Sadlier : Well, I'm not sure of a few things here, (1) that that debate can be called "classic," (2) that the R8 can be fairly characterized as a "slow bucket of death," and (3) that the carnies don't eat the organs themselves.
Magrath : I've wandered far from the original argument. Let's see if we can pick this up when I don't have an appt for a haircut.
5:04 PM Sadlier : Deal.
Thanks to wshuff for giving us our favorite caption.
So many great entries this week. We even got some poetry.
These Insiders also get gold stars:
And on the eighth day, God created the supercar. (Murtman)
Audi R8. Now available with exclusive 'Nikola Tesla anti-theft system (johnnyr3)
Bolts off the line. (ddoouugg)
The Audi R8. The official vehicle of Benjamin Franklin (redliner)
Plug in? Plug in? We don't need no stinkin plug in (mnorm1)
I sing the Audi Electric (funkymunky)
Audi R8, because they haven't build a DeLorean since 82' (tcd223)
What was your favorite?
Happy Friday the 13th.
Scott didn't believe me when I told him there was a version of the movie where Jason ends up in outer space. But I swear there was and it was called Jason X. Pure genius.
Anyway, I thought this photo of the R8 was sufficiently ominous to celebrate this day.
While we skip out to see the remake, give us your witty caption.
Check back at 4:00 PM for our favorite.
Visibility
I can see clearly now the rain is gone. The Audi R8 has incredible visibility for such a low riding car with a huge engine in the back window.
This 40-second video shows you out the front and side windows and into the mirrors.
You really can drive the Audi R8 as an every day ride. It's an incredible supercar that is as comfortable and easy to handle as any normal car.
Logistical issues forced the wife into the Audi R8's driver seat over the weekend (she had to go somewhere alone, and I had to go somewhere with the kids). A quick rundown of the car's basic quirks ("Push the shifter toward 'A' to be in fully automatic mode. Watch the low front-end's ground clearance. Don't be freaked out by people taking cell phone photos." etc.) took about five minutes; then she was off.
Her trip was about three miles in pure stop-and-go driving, which were probably the worst conditions she could have faced. I fully expected to hear complaints about the R-Tronic transmission.
Her first words on return, "Is there something wrong with this car? I was convinced I was doing something wrong because of the uneven throttle response and acceleration. I hated all the attention it was getting because I'm sure it looked like I didn't know how to drive it."
I told her that's the way it's supposed to work. She asked the price. I told her $120,000. She didn't seem interested in driving it again and happily went back to her 2004 Chevy Malibu.
I rolled in the R8 this weekend for the first time in a while. I have, though, have been fortunate to spend some time in the GT-R. Let's compare a few items:
1. Although both are AWD, the R8 has a rear-drive feeling. The handling is light and neutral, while in the R35, you can feel the front wheels clawing away, following nearly every rain-groove in the pavement. On the R35, it's not a heavy steering feeling, but you can definitely feel the fronts contributing to forward progress.
2. On the R8, it's easy to light up the rear tires: they'll break free and spin a decent bit just by mashing the A-pedal. Yes, you can get some rear tire spin on the R35, but it will be less than on the R8, before the VDM kills it.
3. Transmissions: the R35 dual-clutch is amazingly good: a monkey can shift it positively and quickly. And I never longed for a manual. The only good thing about the R8's 6-speed R-tronic auto-shifted-manual mess is that it doesn't make crunching noises as on the R35. It's also hard for the R8 driver to control the severe back and forth pitching in the lower gears. Annoying.
I've never driven an R8 with a manual transmission, but it must be really nice, as the R-tronic (and some reliability issues) is the only major shortcoming on this beautiful and great-to-drive car. Well, that and the $120K price tag.
I had a really hard time choosing this week. But in the end, Deputy Caroline help me pick this one.
Thanks to vacagrande for this week's favorite.
Here are the others that almost made it:
I bet the GT-R never had to do this! (e10rice)
Behold: Edmunds new 10-year wear-and-tear simulator. (drinkduff77)
Midget pit crew gets into their work. (mnorm1)
See, honey, it is a family car — I can get all of the kids in. (vwthing1)
Audi called; they want their R8 back (redliner)
R8 is Enough (ergsum)
Feed me, Seymour! (Franchitti27)
What was your favorite?
Our photogenic Audi R8 lends itself to many caption contest situations.
This pic was taken at career day at a local school. Brian Moody made a presentation about being an automotive journalist.
He also came up with this caption: "Meet the Inside Line staff."
Bryn offered up: "What the frunk? Where did all of these kids come from?"
I give you: "Kid tested, Editor approved"
I know you can do better.
Disclaimer: No children were harmed in the making of this caption contest, although they were forced to wear funny costumes.
Thanks to teapot for this week's favorite caption.
You're always inspired by pictures of the Audi R8. There were a lot of great entries this week. Here are some other goodies:
Gee I can see Russia from my car (toye)
Great, thanks guys. Don't you know that cameras add 10 pounds? (threem)
You will be assimilated, resistance is futile. (mike63amg)
That's the last time I leave my car with Q for the weekend. (wshuff)
Audi Park Assist beta (texases)
This is NOT what i had in mind when you told me the cameras would be on me all day! (e10rice)
In Soviet Russia, car takes picture of YOU (zoomzoom97)
I said I wanted CANNONS, not CANONS! (gooney911)
You lookn' at me?!? (cts24)
So fast the rearview cameras have to face forward. (mnorm1)
What was your favorite?
It may have left our garage but it will never escape our hearts. A bit melodramatic, I admit. Good thing this is online so you don't see the tear-stained pages of my notebook.
As we say a final goodbye to our beloved Audi R8, I thought I'd take the opportunity to use it in one more caption contest.
I suggest "Quit looking at me."
What is your caption? We'll post our favorite at 4PM.
You can also read the wrap-up of the Audi R8 here.
Here's looking at you, kid. (Sigh)
If there's been an all-star car in our long-term fleet, this has been it. Maybe it's not a surprise to see us picking the $132,975 R8 exotic as our favorite. But it earned the most votes by a big margin. Not everybody voted for it; the car's clunky R tronic automated manual transmission and its non-defeatable moronic motorist magnet feature were turn-offs. But the majority was smitten with its throaty mid-mounted V8, communicative steering and livable ride quality. Basically, it was just super-cool to drive.
So, to recap: #5 2002 BMW M3. #4 Ford Flex. #3 Nissan GT-R. #2 2009 BMW M3 sedan. #1 2008 Audi R8. Meanwhile, we checked our initial post with the photo collage; plenty of you got four cars, but none named all five. Shout-out to bodyshopboy, stephen987, wrinklebump, bradyholt, waevox, auto4fun, nealibob, fuhteng, hunter312, captainvw, hijack and jaydubz for getting four.
2008 Audi R8 Introduction and Wrap-up.
On Monday we'll have our most un-loved long-term car and the top-five runners-up.
Wrap-Up
Why We Bought It
Durability
Performance and Fuel Economy
Retained Value
Summing Up
This time last year we called Audi USA to request a 2008 Audi R8 for a long-term test. You know, as in 12 months of driving. Laughter was the initial response, followed by giggles and eventually the cordial rejection we expected. Audi explained, "We are not allowing long-term loans of the R8 at this time. There just aren't enough vehicles available."
A couple of months later our phone rang. Audi was on the line: "We've had a change of plans. We still cannot accommodate your request for a 12-month R8 test. But we can offer you the vehicle for three months. Are you interested?" Surely this was a rhetorical question. Audi continued, "The R8 is in Atlanta now, so allow us a few weeks to ship it out to Santa Monica." When we offered to pick it up and drive the car out west, Audi was quick to reply: "Sounds great."
Our three-month test of the 2008 Audi R8 was highly anticipated. To our delight, the loan was later extended to nine months. This is such a great job.
Why We Got It
We really didn't expect Audi to agree to the deal. But did we really need a reason to test the R8? Behind us sat a 4.2-liter V8 that generated 420 horsepower and 317 pound-feet of torque. When activated, its electronically monitored launch control puts this power to the ground in an instant with all-wheel drive. This is the Audi R8, a car so striking and interesting that Ferrari and Prius owners alike slow down to check it out. And that's as much reason as we need to want an extended experience of real-world driving with it.
Life with an exotic wasn't new to the Inside Line long-term blog pages. We even purchased a 1984 Ferrari 308 GTSi as a commuter car. Now we had an opportunity to test the cost-to-cool ratio of the R8 as a daily driver. Several parallels were drawn between the two tests. Would the cost of ownership break our bank? Was the R8 a car that we could drive day in and day out? Could we assume a newer exotic meant a more reliable exotic? Most important, how many miles could we rack up during our three-month loan? We challenged ourselves to reach 5,000 miles. Then Audi called and said we could keep the R8 for nine months.
Durability
We were unanimous in our initial impression. We loved the R8. Its easily accessed launch control system was popular as long as the clutch didn't overheat. Push the R8 and response time from the shift paddles was instantaneous, delivering hard and fast shifts at redline. Not to mention the engine. The guttural note of its V8 behind our ears was nothing short of glorious. When it came to stop-and-go driving situations, the car suffered due to its single-disc automated manual R tronic transmission, which proved clunkier in operation than the recent generation of dual-clutch designs. We longed for the optional manual.
Senior Road Test Editor Josh Jacquot expressed our concerns: "R tronic. Even the name is awkward. After four days and several hundred miles, I've got mixed feelings about Audi's automated manual gearbox. After experiencing it in every driving environment one can enjoy in L.A., I'm aware of how much latitude a manual transmission allows those willing to tolerate a third pedal. The road is an ever-changing environment which necessitates instant adaptation. R tronic can accommodate each of these environments, but not without constant switching between Sport and Normal modes as well as between automatic and manual shifting. In an effort to adapt, I find myself constantly punching buttons and moving levers. And because none of this is second nature yet, I might as well be driving a manual transmission. It all seems so self-defeating."
Our R8 evaluation evolved from a test of how it drove to a test of how others drove while around it. We chronicled numerous acts of idiocy while piloting the Audi across the United States. On the drive from Atlanta to L.A., we fell victim to the tenacious lead-footed Mullet-head. We encountered the Parisian tailgater twins, Le Douche and Le Bag in central Oregon. There was that clown in the Prius who slowed traffic for miles to revel in our fuel economy. We almost forgot about those girls in New Orleans and the beads. And not to be outdone was the ever-present cell phone photographer. Life with the R8 confirmed one thing: People are dumb.
We accumulated more mileage on the R8 over a nine-month span than any owner is likely to. So our cost-to-own was expectedly higher than most. As Lead Senior Editor Ed Hellwig pointed out, "No one ever said dating a supermodel was cheap." He would know. Hellwig's weekend run up Angeles Crest Highway cost $1,200 for a replacement tire and towing. He recounts, "I came around a medium right-hander only to find a random collection of granite sprayed across the pavement. A sizable boulder took a chunk of the sidewall and air came pouring out in one big blast of 'you're screwed, dude.'" We spent so much on front and rear tires that the $600 we shelled out for scheduled maintenance at 15,000 and 25,000 miles felt inexpensive.
We spent a total of $4,600 in nine months to keep the R8 on the road, mostly for tires. Oddly enough, we also spent $4,600 to keep our 1984 Ferrari 308 GTSi running for 12 months, but those charges were mostly mechanical.
Total Body Repair Costs: None
Total Routine Maintenance Costs (over 9 months): $895.33
Additional Maintenance Costs: $3,766.33 mostly toward tires, and one $744 tow bill
Warranty Repairs: Key fob battery, spark plug replacement, hood latch alignment, center armrest pad replacement
Non-Warranty Repairs: Parking brake pad replacement, numerous tire replacements
Scheduled Dealer Visits: 2
Unscheduled Dealer Visits: 1 to reset service interval on computer
Days Out of Service: 7
Breakdowns Stranding Driver: None
Performance and Fuel Economy
Results from our standard regimen of performance tests on the R8 showed minimal deterioration with age. Some areas even improved.
Slalom speed for this 3,600-pound midengine sports car improved from 70 mph to 71 mph. And the amount of lateral grip generated around the skid pad improved from 0.95g to 0.98g. We give credit to new Pirelli P Zeros for these results. Josh Jacquot commented afterward, "The R8 feels less confident than I remember. Slalom speed is better than before, but its 'edge' seems harder as well. This is a side to this car's usually lovable, friendly character that makes me nervous. Perhaps this comes with age, wear or neglect."
Preliminary acceleration tests benefited from launch control. But a temporary malfunction with the program hampered our ability to match our initial test results of 4.3 seconds to 60 mph from a standstill and the quarter-mile in 12.8 seconds at 108.4 mph. We also encountered a decrease in braking performance, as the R8's stopping distance grew from 108 feet to 118 feet by its 29,000-mile test. Following these tests, Jacquot added, "Pedal feel is consistent but stopping distances are erratic. There is noticeable left-to-right squirm under full-ABS operation. Compared to the 108 feet recorded during its first test, 118 feet is poor."
Best Fuel Economy: 20.3 mpg
Worst Fuel Economy: 11.7 mpg
Average Fuel Economy: 15.3 mpg
Retained Value
Our R8 arrived with an MSRP of $132,745. We received it with 7,000 ticks on the odometer and added 22,000 miles in a nine-month period. When it came time to say good-bye, the Audi had seen 29,000 miles of pavement.
Edmunds TMV® calculated depreciation on the R8 at 27 percent by the end of our test.
True Market Value at service end: $96,554
Depreciation: $36,191 or 27% of original MSRP
Final Odometer Reading: 29,151
Summing Up
Our long-term test of the 2008 Audi R8 began with crossed fingers and concluded with tears in our eyes. We didn't want to let it go.
Audi's R8 is an exotic that drives like a real car. It doesn't display the bucking and twitching we've come to expect from a car with low-profile tires and a tight wheelbase. This made it a suitable road trip choice. And once you activate the sport suspension, the R8 takes on an agile persona that ranks among the more athletic in its class. This truly is an exotic car that can be driven every day. That is, if you don't mind celebrity life.
Attention is unavoidable in the Audi R8. The model's limited presence on the road steals attention from Ferraris and Lamborghinis alike. But life as the center of attention can be annoying, too. On the road it just attracts too many morons.
Our advice after nine months with the Audi R8 is simple. Check your blind spot for the knucklehead hiding in it while wielding a camera phone. And save money for tires. You are bound to need them and they are expensive.
The manufacturer provided Edmunds this vehicle for the purposes of evaluation.