Audi R8 Coupe 2007 review

Audi's first crack at a mid-engine exotic sportscar; the province of legends like its stablemates Porsche and Lamborghini; is a stunner that performs even better than it looks.

Hardly surprising, given its genes, with donations of basic underpinnings from the Lambo Gallardo and a whole slew of ideas from Audi’s Le-Mans blitzing race car.

It’s also nicked the RS4’s amazing 4.2-litre V8 engine, mated to a six-speed manual for $259,900 or a six-speed 'R-Tronic’ sequential for $274,900, putting the energy to all four corners with Audi’s quattro all-wheel drive.

The German carmaker prides itself on its understated styling, and for the R8, head designer Walter de’Silva has delivered a body that is delicious from every angle, without screaming for attention.

Which is not to say that it melts into the traffic. But drive one without the contrasting side panels, and the looks you get are generally a double-take as the car takes a second to lodge in the cortex. Once you do register it, though, it’s hard to tear the gaze away. And with this being one of the few designs around that is even more attractive from the rear, the R8 risks picking up a trail of fans every time it ventures out.

The car is also one of the very few that we think looks best in white, accentuating the sculpture of air intakes and swelling haunches, and the jewelry of LED lights, quad exhausts, black gills, honeycomb mesh grille and spoiler and those air-deflecting sideblades.

In the cabin, everything is focused so much on the driver that one passenger complained that he had nothing to play with except the window. However he declined the offer to pull over so he could get out and walk.

The driver sits ensconced in a cockpit area created by the high transmission tunnel and delineated by the `monoposto’ arc that sweeps around the instruments. The arc is available in tasty piano black or carbon fibre, and most of the other interior finishes are superb; soft leathers and Alcantara suedes, and brushed aluminium accents; but the test car had a nastily silvered hard plastic for the bezel around the satnav cluster and inserts on the doors.

Despite the jazzy flat-bottomed steering wheel giving greater clearance to jack up the seat height, plus the multiple adjustment of driver’s seat and column, we couldn’t easily find a perfect position, although this may just need spending more time fiddling with the combinations.

The fit is sports-car snug, but despite the fast roof line there’s enough headroom unless you’re very tall. However we can’t agree with Audi’s claim that you can get two golf bags behind the rear seats unless you stack them high enough to completely wipe out rear vision.

At this level you expect a lot of equipment, and you expect it to be first class. And the R8 doesn’t disappoint, with a list that includes rear parking camera, six-stacker CD audio system, electric adjustment on both sports seats, DVD satnav with colour screen and Bluetooth.

Safety is covered with dual-stage twin front and head/thorax airbags, and stability program with traction control, electronic differential lock and anti-skid brakes with brake assist.

But there’s a lengthy options list; and some of the things on it are features that you might think would be standard at this price. A pack of storage nets and compartments will set you back an extra $800, hill hold assist is $300 and tyre pressure monitoring is $950. Once you’ve ticked all those, you can move on to the carbon sideblades at $5050, matching engine compartment cover at $7850, upgraded bucket seats with width adjustment; presumably in case you spend so much time in them that your derriere starts spreading for $10,700, Nappa leather pack for $13,450 … and much, much more.

You don’t have to have it all, of course, but it would be very easy to bounce the price tag over the $300,000 mark. None of which is going to deter the kind of buyer this car is aimed at, or lessen the already healthy bank of orders for it. Waiting lists are likely with the factory building and some of it hand-building only 20 cars per day.

Audi Australia will get just 25 of those by the end of this year, and has confirmed 80 for 2008, with 70 per cent of those expected to be the R-Tronic version.

On the road

The R8’s widespread stance, coupled with the rigid, weight-saving Audi Space Frame alone would give the car fantastic poise. But adding the body’s airflow downforce helped by automatically extending spoiler; and the thing is virtually suctioned to the bitumen.

And while there’s been quite a bit of recent comment from another German marque about whether an all-wheel system can be the basis of a truly sporting drive, sceptics should try the R8’s version with its viscous coupling splitting the torque to deliver a rear bias from 65:35 up to 90:10.

This means that, especially with the ESP switched off, you’re able to dial up enough oversteer to emulate the agility of a classic rear-wheel drive going into corners, but the R8 never threatens to get out of control.

There’s an entrail-stirring snarl from behind your ears as the powerplant delivers its 309kW of power at 7800rpm and 430Nm of torque between 4500 and 6000rpm. And if those revs seems high, it’s because this engine loves and almost encourages the upper end of the tacho, and is happy to rev right up to the 8000 line with seemingly little effort.

Performance is posted at 0-100km/h in 4.6 seconds and a top speed of 301, 200km/h in 14.9 and a top speed of 301km/h.

The sequential transmission was a smart bit of tech, with well-placed F1-style paddle shifters on the wheel as well as the conventional stick on the centre bump. But even though Audi says the system changes `faster than a practised driver’ our high expectations were dashed with an exasperating lag that you’d forgive in the mechanics of a manual.

And it was the six-speed manual that won our hearts, with its retro open gate. Although we found it notchy and during the early part of the test drive, it didn’t take too long for us to work out how it wanted to be treated and we settled into a relationship that was marked by satisfying `snicks’ at each slot change.

But during the day we never quite came to terms with the grabby brakes. The test car had done about 1000km, so they must have been well seated in, but still needed a featherlight touch; although undeniably able to pull the R8 in very short order.

The steering was direct and more communicative than in any Audi we’d driven; (as you’d expect for its new hero) but there was still the nagging impression that it could offer even more feel if the engineers put their minds to it.

However one aspect we couldn’t fault was the capability offered by the magnetic damping system, with switchable modes that effectively turned the R8 into two distinct cars.

Set it for normal and you get a firm but compliant ride for cruising around town. But change to sport and the result is a very noticeable stiffening that on rough surfaces will tell you the shape of each individual piece of blue metal embedded in the bitumen, but also give you the kind of serious handling skills that will do you proud on a track day.

And it’s this split personality that apart from all its other good points, will be the main lure of the R8. This is a true exotic without the temper tantrums and intractable nature.

See this car at the Australian International Motor Show