Jet Jockey/A4 Pilot

God I hate this job!

Now for some Audi news...

Since technically I am in France and I get to see French TV, I was fortunate enough to catch two French TV shows that specialize in cars. Both Auto Moto and Turbo are well known car shows a la Fifth Gear and Top Gear.

Both of them had test drives on the new R8 while they were in Vegas last month. Both reporters were really enthusted by the car. Some of their comments follow...

"The car is the first Audi to drive like a real sports car."

"Finally a car from Audi that can challenge a Porsche."

"The sound from the 420 HP FSI V8 is entoxicating." From what I heard on TV it sounded great, more like a B6/B7 S4 with an after market exhaust system.

"The quality finish both exterior and interior is excellent, something we have come to expect from Audi."

"Although made of aluminium the car is still heavy at over 1600 kg."

On some closed roads for the reporters to really test drive the cars, they tested the top speed at 300 kph (186 mph), 0 to 100 kph (62 mph) was reached in 4.6 seconds.

Some of the cars in Vegas as seen in the two shows came with right hand drive and left hand drive. Some came with a manual 6 speed gear box while others had the "R tronic" gear box. Unfortunately none explained what this gear box was. Is it just a sportier version of the Tiptronic or a renamed DSG? One reporter did say it was a sequential gear box. I guess we will have to wait and see when the car actually gets here to see what options are available for transmissions.

Speaking of options, there are many that can be added to the car. The price in Euro for the base car was around 104K which according to them was really good. However the extensive option list could add most likely 20K Euro to the car! Some of these options were the following;

Carbon Fibre interior finishings.
Carbon Fibre exterior finishings.
Full leather interior.
Ceramic brakes.
Active suspension.

All in all they were very pleased with the car.

Silver Fun

I guess for some work is "not" a 4 letter word.

MylesPH1

... the car is available with that or the six speed manual. At this point no one is saying whether this car will get DSG, but the rumor is, when the V-10 version comes out, the DSG may come with it....

bpp

..yeah, it's a b$tch but somebody gots to do it. :^D

absoluteis

4.6s ? They better be kidding.. I'll smoke that pig in my stock RS4 and its lighter?! heh

bpp

I got a front row seat to see this when something gets handed to you. ;D

Mike S

Um, no.

absoluteis

even if you go with the (slow) advertised 4.8s time, its STILL doesn't make any sense that its only 0.2s faster for all that weight reduction..

bpp

You're right, it doesn't make any sense, and, that R8's gonna clean your plow.