RE: Audi R8: The owners' view.

[ZesPak]

Dan Trent said:

toppstuff said:

So why did'nt PH let them drive the car? Like I said the article is a waste of time.

Heard you the first time!

It would have been nice to let everyone have a go but the practicalities of getting everyone covered on a press car is a little more complex than it would be for a dealer demo and the intention was to just get a group of owners together for an informal chat to see who's buying them, who's running them and how. To be honest, that was the main inspiration for getting everyone together, the fact we had the facelift car in on test provided the excuse. We all know - or think we do - who buys 911s, M cars, AMGs and the rest but the R8 is a bit of an unknown quantity. And the big thing was to hear about what they're actually like to live with, day in, day out. We can tell you about the new car's features and what it's like to drive but it's down to the owners to talk about what it's actually like to run one and we wanted to hear fellow PHers' views. Sorry if that wasn't interesting for you.

Comments taken on board though and perhaps next time we do something like this we could arrange to do so at a dealership and there would be the facility and infrastructure for people to go out and drive the car. But we wanted a relaxed atmosphere where a bunch of enthusiasts and owners could just share their experiences - it'd have been a very different vibe were we in a dealership.

Anyway, that's my tuppence worth. And if any owners out there have had a test drive in an S Tronic car and want to share their impressions then the floor is yours!

Cheers,

Dan

I agree that it could be interesting, though this seems like a very odd quote to me:

"Owner satisfaction with the R8 is, it seems, extremely high."

How did you measure that? By asking the people that showed up on a "bring your R8 out for a meet and to get a peek around the next R8!". Really, you actually expected people that have/had an R8 but aren't really fond of it?

[Nudenutnige]

Dagnut said:

Do you mind me asking how much power it is running? Doesn't the R-tronic limit how much power you can have? I read that the manual gearbox from the Gallardo can handle up to 1000hp give or take ...which is pretty amazing...not knocking the r-tronic just genuinely interested

It's running 852PS / 869Nm currently, (AMD Dyno) the R-Tronic box is exactly the same as the manual (& Gallardo E-Gear) just with an automated clutch.

There are 25+ Heffner Performance cars running happily in the US plus those from other tuners on std transmission... I'm told 1000WHP is about it... the stage 3 stuff (1500WHP) run modified sequential I believe.

[Dagnut]

Nudenutnige said:

It's running 852PS / 869Nm currently, (AMD Dyno) the R-Tronic box is exactly the same as the manual (& Gallardo E-Gear) just with an automated clutch.

There are 25+ Heffner Performance cars running happily in the US plus those from other tuners on std transmission... I'm told 1000WHP is about it... the stage 3 stuff (1500WHP) run modified sequential I believe.

Cheers, lovely motor very impressive

[Terminator X]

V10. Twin Turbo. Wtf

TX.

PS should there be any plastic in a car that costs north of £100k

"the ‘V10 FSI’ plinth that was formerly carbon fibre is now plastic, and slightly less premium-feeling for it"

Edited by Terminator X on Thursday 14th February 13:28

[Noe]

Blurt in ... Thailand hot


Great cars. Don't winge if you want an R8 just jump out and do it ... If you need a loan do it still ....

I looked at one but having had lambos and fezza and recently wrecking my pride n joy 2-11 went sensible and ordered 12c spider ... Due April

All the banter on here about this n that ... Just do it ... If you can, or nearly can, afford it just do it 'as Nike say' .... Every day is nearer the grave

[k-ink]

Nudenutnige said:

Dan Trent said:

If Nigel is up for it this can be arranged. Leave it with us!

Cheers,

Dan

For sure.

Would love to see this is the metal. If you need someone on standby to drool over your car just ask

[rajkohli81]

ZesPak said:

I agree that it could be interesting, though this seems like a very odd quote to me:

"Owner satisfaction with the R8 is, it seems, extremely high."

How did you measure that? By asking the people that showed up on a "bring your R8 out for a meet and to get a peek around the next R8!". Really, you actually expected people that have/had an R8 but aren't really fond of it?

My wife drives a V8 manual as her daily runner. I think it still looks special, six years on from launch, but I find the driving experience rather underwhelming. I find the V8 at least, is an 'all mouth, no trousers" kind of car. Supercar look, with sportscar performance.

I think her previous Boxster S was as good to drive if not a little more cohesive and exploitable.

[ZesPak]

rajkohli81 said:

ZesPak said:

I agree that it could be interesting, though this seems like a very odd quote to me:

"Owner satisfaction with the R8 is, it seems, extremely high."

How did you measure that? By asking the people that showed up on a "bring your R8 out for a meet and to get a peek around the next R8!". Really, you actually expected people that have/had an R8 but aren't really fond of it?

My wife drives a V8 manual as her daily runner. I think it still looks special, six years on from launch, but I find the driving experience rather underwhelming. I find the V8 at least, is an 'all mouth, no trousers" kind of car. Supercar look, with sportscar performance.

I think her previous Boxster S was as good to drive if not a little more cohesive and exploitable.

I think I wasn't that clear, my bad. I meant that: if people show up at such a day, it's no shock you're just having the "happy owners" over. If you're not content with your £100k car, you either sold it, or sure as hell won't drive it to a meet-up .

[rajkohli81]

ZesPak said:

rajkohli81 said:

ZesPak said:

I agree that it could be interesting, though this seems like a very odd quote to me:

"Owner satisfaction with the R8 is, it seems, extremely high."

How did you measure that? By asking the people that showed up on a "bring your R8 out for a meet and to get a peek around the next R8!". Really, you actually expected people that have/had an R8 but aren't really fond of it?

My wife drives a V8 manual as her daily runner. I think it still looks special, six years on from launch, but I find the driving experience rather underwhelming. I find the V8 at least, is an 'all mouth, no trousers" kind of car. Supercar look, with sportscar performance.

I think her previous Boxster S was as good to drive if not a little more cohesive and exploitable.

I think I wasn't that clear, my bad. I meant that: if people show up at such a day, it's no shock you're just having the "happy owners" over. If you're not content with your £100k car, you either sold it, or sure as hell won't drive it to a meet-up .

I see your point, guess it was more of R8 fanclub meet than owners meet

[Amirhussain]

Twin Turbo V10

[Nudenutnige]

rajkohli81 said:

I see your point, guess it was more of R8 fanclub meet than owners meet

Yes, but two of the owners were multi time porker enthusiasts... previously ;-)

[Dr Z]

Yes, we need more of that twin turbo V10. A V10 is crazy enough, a twin turbo'd one?! Goodness, I might have just found a car for the dream garage!

[RX7]

Nudenutnige said:

I'm told 1000WHP is about it... the stage 3 stuff (1500WHP) run modified sequential I believe.

I would be very surprised if a gt35r (even two) would net 1000 or 1500hp.

[Cleveland351]

I have a Reg. Plate V10 ROD on retention
PM me if interested,
Thanks

[Alf Essex]

Nice write up, just as they write it up im about to change my 2 year old V10 and go into Porsche company (Turbo S). I change cars every 2 years and have had a fantastic time with the R8 and is best car ive ever driven to date but need to move on and try something new. Clearly Porsche wont be the same as the R8 but its all about experiences.

If I had to give any criticism of Audi, it would be that the other Audi model RS versions are getting too close in comfort for straight line speed for something an R8 owner pays a ton of money over…clearly its not all about straight line speed but when you pay over £100k for a new V10, I don’t want other models to be getting closer to it for the premium ive paid for – anyway, this is just my view as i have nothing but good memories of the R8

[Nudenutnige]

RX7 said:

I would be very surprised if a gt35r (even two) would net 1000 or 1500hp.

Oh they do http://www.capa.com.au/turbo_garrett.htm even before being played with :-)

My car is running just 6lb of boost.

That 1500 is WHEEL HP I refer to ;-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kb2CBRxnTyc&lis...

Edited by Nudenutnige on Thursday 14th February 19:04

[GTRmad]

http://www.undergroundracing.com/vehicles/audi-r8-...
These guys have the most experiance by a long shot fitting turbos to the v10
Who fitted the kit,was it shipped over to the USA..

[Nudenutnige]

GTRmad said:

http://www.undergroundracing.com/vehicles/audi-r8-...
These guys have the most experiance by a long shot fitting turbos to the v10
Who fitted the kit,was it shipped over to the USA..

UGR are also very good, I looked hard at both but preferred the OEM look of the Heffner kit amongst other things.

Stage 1, bolt on performance is all the same be it Heffner, UGR, AMS, TSM... choose your boost and tune accordingly with all std ECU's and Fuelling system.

The kit was fitted by QSTuning in haywards Heath, I'm using EPL in Connecticut to tune my car

[threespires]

Why is the W12 not fitted to the R8 ?

[Mermaid]

threespires said:

Why is the W12 not fitted to the R8 ?

Size?

That is a glorious engine - I enjoyed it on a A8 for a while.