Audi R8: Long Drive Test & Performance

Motor Trend has spent a lot of timing in the Audi shop this week. In fact, they have reviewed all three of the new Audi releases in the past week -- the Audi TT, the Audi A5 / S5, and now the Audi R8. This time they are off for some serious fun while reviewing the Audi R8 with all 414-hp from the V8 FSI engine on a long trip.



It's quite a long article (6 jumps), but well worth your read on the 3000+ mile journey they take with the beautiful Audi R8.

Here are a few excerpts:

"Whoa, whoa," I gasp as the R8 slip-slides toward a wall of roadside ice, the traction-control light flickering like I've just won a prize. I feel like Marcus Grnholm, but without the fame, the talent, and the rally car. With the Graziano six-speed nestled into second, I keep my throttle and steering inputs light. Soon we're confronted with a steep incline.....

.....Our visit to Seattle reaffirms what we've been experiencing since we left Campo - the R8 is a rock star. No doubt about it. Page and Plant wouldn't get more attention if they walked into a London pub screaming for an order of custard pie. Sure, it's the Audi's curvaceous body, off-color "blade," and wide, squatting rear end, but most of all it's the devilish dozen, the 12 LED running lights that sparkle day or night from each headlamp cluster. They act as strobes, as if signaling a grand entrance. They also seem to hypnotize passersby, and we soon classify them into two groups - Glance/Gawk and Hunter/Gatherer.....

.....Next comes Ken, a Microsoft exec who likes to zip around Seattle in his brand-new black 911 Turbo. Cruising through Fremont, he pulls beside us, stops, and seems oblivious to the fact that he's blocking traffic. A game of 20 Questions ensues, and Ken is soon suffering from gross car envy. I try to comfort him with an old trick: "Well, your Turbo is still quicker than the R8." It doesn't help. "Yeah, but it doesn't look like that!" he exclaims.....

.....Simultaneously the V1 explodes in a Ka-band eruption just as Vance shouts, "Cop!" I engage each of the R8's 24 brake pistons and bring the car down to 60 but, as the JERK turns around, I know it's too late. "That JERK waited to flip on his radar," I tell Brian in my defense. Uninterested in our mission and indifferent to the R8's capabilities, the JERK cites me, lightening my wallet by $153. And just to kill me with kindness, he says, "This is a beautiful car." I'm tempted to show the JERK just how beautifully the R8 can blaze from 0 to 60 in 3.9 seconds and through the quarter mile in 12.5 at nearly 112 mph, but I instead thank him and move on.

[Source: Motor Trend]

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