Audi R8 sports car

1:46pm Friday 11th May 2007

Motoring editor STEVE NELSON travelled to France for an adrenalin-filled two days behind the wheel of Audi's latest creation, the magnificent R8 sports car.

AUDI has given us many super cars, but has never put a proper supercar on the road. Until now.

With horsepower emerging from its stable at an unrelenting pace over the past couple of years in what Audi calls a "ballistic expansion", we have waited long and hard for Vorsprung durch Technik to deliver a defining moment in its history, and no one is going to be disappointed at this quite incredible result.

The all-aluminium R8 is a showcase of Audi's engineering advances - Quattro all-wheel drive, FSI engine and what it calls magnetic ride, to name but three - brought together to form a benchmark lightweight champion in the sports car segment.

The two-seater took on celebrity status at its UK press launch at Le Castellet, in the heart of Provence. Headlamps flashed, cyclists waved, motorists gawped, children stood open-mouthed as the car cut a swathe through the French countryside. Anywhere the car pulled over, a small crowd would gather for pictures and inspection.

In one alarming example on a stretch of motorway, I witnessed a driver travelling at 80mph behind me pull out a camera and with one hand on the wheel and the camera covering his face snap a picture of the R8's rear end from a distance of no more than 15 feet away.

Such are the car's capabilities and its potential to punch through to super-fast speeds, the local gendarmes had to be informed that a dozen R8s could be whizzing around their patch at any one time.

With this advanced warning, the police were easily able to target speeding R8s and soon had a flashing blue light in the rear-view mirror of one hapless journalist. The driver was told to follow the officers to the police station, where a clutch of officers emerged with cameras and took pictures of themselves with the car before thanking the driver and waving her off.

Testing was divided between planned road routes and the Paul Ricard Circuit, where Audi R10 racing supremo Allan McNish gave journalists the chance to experience the car's full potential by accompanying him on hot laps. It was not for the faint-hearted, but not once did the R8's technology fail to match its blistering pace in the hands of a maestro.

Nothing, but nothing, will come anywhere close to the R8 this year in terms of performance cars. It is utterly brilliant.

But who is going to buy this car, which as a practical motor is severely limited. Audi claims you can get two golf bags in the space behind the driver, and there's another 100 litres of room under the bonnet, but a full shop at the supermarket is not really on, and anyway, can you imagine the fuss you would cause in the car park?

Audi has identified two groups: motor sports enthusiasts and "prestige seekers". The core age group is 40-49 and 97 per cent will be men. They will have an average income of £8,500 a month and be well educated, with one or more additional cars.

The R8 - the R is a reference to the racing origins and the 8 aligns it with the A8 as the top model in the Audi portfolio - has a modified mid-engined 4.2-litre V8 unusually on show beneath the rear window.

The positioning of the 420bhp engine gives it a low centre of gravity and near-perfect weight distribution of 44 per cent front/56 per cent rear.

Compared with its rivals in the so-called D sector of sports cars, the R8 undoubtedly fares well. Only the Jaguar XKR matches its horsepower, and the maximum speed of 187mph beats the lot.

Certainly there is no sense of the real speed as the needle moves past 100mph (there's also a digital speed display, so there are no excuses). However, the emergence of a rear spoiler serves as a useful reminder that you are reaching the upper limits. It is deployed only when sensors detect that composure at higher speeds would benefit from additional downforce.

Acceleration of 0-62mph in 4.6 seconds is also unrivalled, with only the Porsche Carrera 4S Coupe (4.8 seconds), the Aston Martin V8 Vantage (4.9) and Maserati Gransport (4.9) able to record sub-five seconds times.

On a French motorway, I recorded a speed of 130mph, but while the experience was certainly a scream it was no white-knuckle ride.

The secret of the glue-like grip, even at high speed, is in part due to Audi's magnetic ride damping system (a must-have optional extra I would think for UK roads), which constantly adjusts the dampers according to the road surface and the driving situation. Matched with the quattro all-wheel drive system and Audi Space Frame rigid aluminium, it gives the driver the ability to carry out virtually any manoeuvre in comfort and with confidence.

This is a controlled ride, with the sweet-sounding, high-revving V8 devoid of the sort of grunts and growls one might expect through the four tailpipes. There is an almost total absence of wind noise and, when needed, the electronic aids and powerful brakes will keep you in check.

Design-wise, there's a touch of the TT in the lower sweeping lines of the R8, an elegant-looking car. It is carried along on 19-inch five spoke alloys, the front end made more dramatic by a string of a dozen LED daytime running lights beneath each headlamp.

Side blades that direct induced and cooling air to the engine effectively divide the body work, and in contrasting shades can look OTT and intrusive in some combinations.

Inside, the driver is enveloped by the vast arc of the monoposto, which also frames the steering wheel and connects the displays and controls. The three-spoke flat-bottomed steering wheel is a beauty, trimmed in fine nappa leather and with a magnesium core for optimum strength.

There is a choice of manual or automatic, and I suspect that the debate over preference will rage for years to come.

I preferred the manual, even with gear-slotting that meant you sometimes had to take your eyes off the road to enter the right gate.

The automatic, featuring the R tronic sequential gearbox, comes with a console-mounted joy stick and steering wheel paddles, thereby offering a choice of three methods ways of driving.

Yes, there are occasional slight jolts and pauses in the power delivery which are not experienced with the manual, but there is plenty of fun to be had in switching from paddle to joy stick to full-on automatic.

Two statistics to cause some discomfort are the sub-20mpg economy figure and the C02 emissions of 349 grams per kilometre. But the R8 will be a rare sight.

Largely hand-built at the company's Neckarsulm factory in Germany by only the very best and most experienced workers, supply is going to be severely restricted.

Up to 20 cars a day will be built and a total of 3,000 cars a year will emerge through the factory gates.

The UK will get 750 R8s a year. If you put an order in now, you might just get one in time for Christmas, 2008.

Sounds fun

If you should ever tire of listening to that V8 engine, then Audi's choice of audio for the R8 will not disappoint. The standard system featurs seven speakers and a five-channel amplifier, delivering a total 140 watts. If you opt for the Bang & Olufsen sound system, you get surround sound reproduction from 12 speakers through a digital amp feeding 425 watts output to your ears.

At a glance

Model: Audi R8Transmission: Six-speed manual or R tronic sequentialPrice: £76,825 (manual) to £82,025Engine: Mid-mounted 4.2-litre V8 FSI petrol, delivering 420PS at 7,800rpmTorque: 430Nm from 4,500 to 6,000rpmAcceleration: 0-62mph in 4.6 seconds; 0-124mph in 14.9 secondsTop speed: 187mphEconomy: 19.8mpg on combined cycleC02 emissions: 349 g/kmFirst UK deliveries: July