RE: New Audi R8 - first look

[exceed]

Quite funny that people think that the powerhouse that Audi is wouldn't have thought of something quite so simple as what happens if there is a cyclist.

Everything we can think of that can go wrong with this tech, Audi has already thought about it and engineered two solutions for.

When these are in use on the road they'll be nothing short of fantastic, and we'll be wishing them on all cars soon.

The only thing stopping me from placing my order for a Huracan is currently the fact that some of the features whispered about aren't available on that yet...

[vescaegg]

TTmonkey said:

Is this the real car?

This looks fantastic if it turns out to be real.

[struttob]

mackie1 said:

utgjon said:

So when some turd decides to leave their lights on full beam we get blinded by a freakin' laser now....


wonderful.

All the active gubbins will make that unlikely. With the LED ones it can turn of portions of the beam to avoid dazzling oncoming cars.

It is not the oncoming cars that are the problem it is the ones that are behind you in the outside lane/BMW lane/Audi lane, call it what you like, whose beam lights up a whole county to the left of the car i.e. my friggin rear mirrors !!

Bob

[LotusOmega375D]

There's an awful lot of cock talked about headlamps nowadays.

I've been driving for 27 years (including some real old stuff) and never once been in a car with inadequate headlamps. It's not like we all just speared off the road into a ditch as soon as the sun set.

Awful brakes yes, but headlamps no. If we're honest about it, it's just not an issue. Still serves Audi right for "teasing" everyone with that stupid photo, rather than launching it properly along with all the other more important technical details.

Edited by LotusOmega375D on Monday 16th February 16:53

[blueg33]

LotusOmega375D said:

There's an awful lot of cock talked about headlamps nowadays.

I've been driving for 27 years (including some real old stuff) and never once been in a car with inadequate headlamps. It's not like we all just speared off the road into a ditch as soon as the sun set.

Awful brakes yes, but headlamps no. If we're honest about it, it's just not an issue. Still serves Audi right for "teasing" everyone with that stupid photo, rather than launching it properly along with all the other more important technical details.

Edited by LotusOmega375D on Monday 16th February 16:53

There are cars out there with crap headlights especially the older ones. Some examples,

Morris Marina (became much better with the Ital facelift)
Ginetta G33 (possibly because the car was so low)
Rover 600
Suzuki Jeep
TVR Tuscan
Lotus Evora (dipped aren't great, main beam are excellent)
Ford Orion

there are others, but there are some that stand out as being better than average

Montego
Volvo V70
Subaru Outback
Skoda Fabia
Renault Alpine GTA
MK 2 Mondeo

[anonymous-user]

Do some of you dheads actually read the article before commenting!

[stephen300o]

Ex Boy Racer said:

Modificata said:

I just dont get the R8. Its nice but not special. I wouldnt put my money in one.

I had a V10 Spider for 3 years. It is immense.
Try something before you knock it is my advice.

Difficult to park too? Oh well.

[hiscocks]

Having spent £1k on a headlight before I'm leaning towards 'dumb' headlights that light the way I'm going and spend the money on a better engine etc instead. It's not 'just another thing to go wrong' argument but I don't think it's something I'd like to rely on. It seems like car companies are running out of ideas to justify the next evolution of their current models, be it 'see through' pillars or 'smart' headlights. No thanks.

[unpc]

stephen300o said:

Ex Boy Racer said:

Modificata said:

I just dont get the R8. Its nice but not special. I wouldnt put my money in one.

I had a V10 Spider for 3 years. It is immense.
Try something before you knock it is my advice.

Difficult to park too? Oh well.

I don't get this car either. It's not as it's from a humdrum manufacturer as I love the Ford GT new and old. All the reviews say they're great but they just leave me cold.

[leglessAlex]

Modificata said:

See there-in lies the problem. The Audi is trying to play catch up but it will always be trying.

911 is a better everyday sports car, and with two small seats and more practical. The F4xx is no less practical than an R8, and both a Ferrari and 911 can be used everyday (been there, done that on both).
As far as reliability is concerned that is no longer an argument. Modern Italian cars as just as reliable and the biggest killer to the reliability of any car is not using it.

If I was to spend £100k (min) on a new 2 seater sports car it would not have an Audi badge on it. Plenty of F430’s available for that money or increase the budget to a F458. With that you are guaranteed to make every journey special. Isn't that what these cars are all about?

For a lot of people, the way it drives is what it's all about and according to EVO, the current V10 Plus is a seriously good drivers car.

You care about the badge and that's ok, but there are people out there who don't. There are even more people out there who do care about the badge and would love their sports car to have an Audi badge on it.

[anonymous-user]

Modificata said:

ManOpener said:

The point in the Audi, AFAIK, is that it isn't an "exotic". It's supposed to be an everyday-usable, reliable sports car that will be equally as happy lapping up 20k of motorway miles or at a Silverstone track day. Maybe I'm missing the point but I always thought that the R8 was designed to go toe-to-toe with the 911 family rather than compete directly with the Gallardo/Huracan or Ferrari 4** series.

See there-in lies the problem. The Audi is trying to play catch up but it will always be trying.

911 is a better everyday sports car, and with two small seats and more practical. The F4xx is no less practical than an R8, and both a Ferrari and 911 can be used everyday (been there, done that on both).
As far as reliability is concerned that is no longer an argument. Modern Italian cars as just as reliable and the biggest killer to the reliability of any car is not using it.

If I was to spend £100k (min) on a new 2 seater sports car it would not have an Audi badge on it. Plenty of F430’s available for that money or increase the budget to a F458. With that you are guaranteed to make every journey special. Isnt that what these cars are all about?

So the old v new argument has been wheeled out once again

[X5TUU]

LotusOmega375D said:

There's an awful lot of cock talked about headlamps nowadays.

I've been driving for 27 years (including some real old stuff) and never once been in a car with inadequate headlamps. It's not like we all just speared off the road into a ditch as soon as the sun set.

Awful brakes yes, but headlamps no. If we're honest about it, it's just not an issue. Still serves Audi right for "teasing" everyone with that stupid photo, rather than launching it properly along with all the other more important technical details.

Edited by LotusOmega375D on Monday 16th February 16:53

I don't think necessarily that headlamps being inadequate is the issue, but just being adequate is no longer good enough in a world where we expect more from everything, also having driven an early 80s Xr2 recently I would say that the headlights that seemed decent at the time are now quite frankly shockingly poor

[Modificata]

MonkeyMatt said:

So the old v new argument has been wheeled out once again

Not sure what argument you refer to as I dont get to read as much as I'd like to on the site. Just giving my opinion.

For me Audi is a company that made cars nearly as good as BMW and Mercedes and has moved into the Sports car market. I will always view Audi as an upmarket VW. Sorry if that upsets some but I remember the days when that was what they were.

[leglessAlex]

Modificata said:

MonkeyMatt said:

So the old v new argument has been wheeled out once again

Not sure what argument you refer to as I dont get to read as much as I'd like to on the site. Just giving my opinion.

Often when the price of a car is brought up you will often get people saying "I'd buy such and such for much less second hand", but it's not really a valid argument. Comparing new and old is comparing apples and oranges, not to mention that often the cars quoted (such as in this case the F430 vs R8) have different running costs.

[carinaman]

The Badger said:

Audi is pathologically obsessed with lights.

'Is it safe?'

I think the current R8 is a great looking car.

I've just looked at the back of the Top Gear calendar and it has a mean green Hurracan on it for a summer month. There's a rear 3/4 shot of it. Noting what Hammond said about the lack of traditional Lambo outlandishness about the Hurracan on Top Gear, the new R8 may be better looking.

I really like the current R8, and won't be surprised if the replacement isn't as nice, a bit like the Huayra isn't as good looking as the Zonda.

If it's platform sharing with the Hurracan, what's it going to do around the Top Gear track?

When it gets Stigged at Dunsfold they'll do a lap in the daylight and a lap in the dark to demonstrate the advantage of laser headlamps?


Regarding the importance of headlamp performance, CAR Magazine did used to mention headlamp performance in their Giant test comparison reviews.

[Liquid Tuna]

LotusOmega375D said:

There's an awful lot of cock talked about headlamps nowadays.

I've been driving for 27 years (including some real old stuff) and never once been in a car with inadequate headlamps. It's not like we all just speared off the road into a ditch as soon as the sun set.

Awful brakes yes, but headlamps no. If we're honest about it, it's just not an issue. Still serves Audi right for "teasing" everyone with that stupid photo, rather than launching it properly along with all the other more important technical details.

Edited by LotusOmega375D on Monday 16th February 16:53

Absolutely spot on IMO! Maybe it's a case of once you've had 1 billion watt headlights you'll never go back, but I've NEVER been in any car and driving at night thinking "holy st I need more light right now or I'm gonna die!".

[alexpa]

carinaman said:

If it's platform sharing with the Hurracan, what's it going to do around the Top Gear track?

Depends how much they pay..

[bobberz]

Looking forward to seeing being blinded by the new R8, soon. The brightness of modern headlights is a serious issue, even the so-called low beams. By comparison, the headlights on my S3 Alfa Spider seem woefully inadequate, yet are actually okay when I'm not being blinded by oncoming traffic!

[leglessAlex]

bobberz said:

Looking forward to seeing being blinded by the new R8, soon. The brightness of modern headlights is a serious issue, even the so-called low beams. By comparison, the headlights on my S3 Alfa Spider seem woefully inadequate, yet are actually okay when I'm not being blinded by oncoming traffic!

I find the adjustment to be much more of a problem than the actual brightness.

I picked up a new Fiesta a couple of days ago and when the salesman was showing me around it he said "and this is the adjuster for the headlamps, you only need to use it if you have something heavy in the back" as he turned it the whole way up.

For a Fiesta this isn't the end of the world (I adjusted them down afterwards anyway) but for something like a van or a 4X4 it means the lights are high enough to be shining right onto the wing mirrors when they inevitably start tailgating you.

[anonymous-user]

bobberz said:

Looking forward to seeing being blinded by the new R8, soon. The brightness of modern headlights is a serious issue, even the so-called low beams. By comparison, the headlights on my S3 Alfa Spider seem woefully inadequate, yet are actually okay when I'm not being blinded by oncoming traffic!

'The spread of LEDs means the beam can be spread, angled and blanked according to need and without the weight and complexity of mechanically adjusted reflectors. You simply leave it on 'full beam' and individual LEDs are switched off, dynamically tracking the position of oncoming cars to spare them a retina scorching as they pass while those facing the kerb can remain at full power'