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Post #1 Mon, Aug 13, 8:04 AM

jumpman23
Senior Member - 370

Style: The first, obvious lure of a sports car is its appearance. It must be striking, distinctive, setting its driver apart.

Boy, howdy, does the R8 qualify. It looks like no other machine on the road. It is exceptionally wide for a car that's small overall. It sits low and has the kind of presence that says it is a ground-bound rocket not to be taken lightly. Artfully mean.

If you don't like the off-color side panels, which house air scoops to cool the engine, well, Audi will paint them to match for $1,000.

The engine is mounted behind the driver and ahead of the rear wheels and is visible outside through a transparent cover. You don't think that draws a crowd at the Starbucks?

Power: A sports car that's sluggish is hardly sporty at all. There have been such posers, relying on looks alone, but the discerning market has largely wrung those out.

The R8 leaves no question about its ability to go and stands tall among rivals. The 420-horsepower V-8 engine rolls on power as if to become that irresistible force one hears about in the well-known physics puzzle involving an immovable object. And when the tachometer hits about 5,000 rpm, the V-8's bark a bit like a big American V-8's turns to a shriek, and the acceleration curve feels as if you're a rock just launched from a slingshot.

From standstill to 60 mph in about 4.5 seconds, Audi says. (Motor Trend magazine timed it at a motorcycle-quick 3.9 seconds.) Top speed, Audi says, is 187 mph.

Whether those are the best numbers in the business is less important than the fact that they translate to race-car feel in street-car garb.

Handling: The term refers to how well a car steers, stops, goes around corners (especially at too-fast speed).

The R8 steers just where your hands tell it. It stops with the exciting abruptness common among Audis. It's a right-now halt that some people would identify as touchy brakes but that, once experienced, leaves all others wanting; sloppy, squishy.

And corners. Well, there is a feel you get as an amateur learning to drive a race car; a feeling that the car is your better. That you can't turn the wheel fast enough to challenge the machine. That you will run out of courage long before the car runs out of traction. That's how it seems driving the R8 through corners.

If there's a drawback, it's that you can get overconfident or too casual. Dangerous in the R8 because its exceptionally wide stance requires a bit more road than a narrower car would. You can drop a wheel off the pavement if you zing through the curves using the same line you would in a narrower car.

At least the car's stability and all-wheel drive help keep you shiny-side up and get you back onto the pavement if you do slip a tad beyond the asphalt.

Composure: Here is where the R8 opens the gap. Some sports cars are easy-driving but not really hard runners. Others gallop but balk when you ask them to walk.

The Audi is as polite in traffic as you want it to be (you know, on those days you're high-minded enough not to react rudely to the remarkable motoring stupidity all around you).

The only issue about stop-and-go is a learning issue. If you let out the clutch a bit too quickly, or fail to rev the engine just so as you engage the clutch, you can stall the engine. Until you learn the drill, you'll find yourself either over-revving a bit on take-off or moving off a bit jerkily. Begins to fade as an issue after a few days driving.

Post #2 Tue, Nov 20, 8:18 PM

Paul91785
Party - 6034