Discussion
Anyone own an R8 with the RTronic box?
Had one recently for a week-end. Great car, however, the gearbox in auto mode felt awful.In addition, Audi charge an extra £5k for this gear box, whereas Porsche charge less than £2k for their PDK which in my view is an excellent box.
I am keen on buying the R8, didn't think the rtronic was great and dont want a manual.
Any insights/advice please?
Thanks
Had one recently for a week-end. Great car, however, the gearbox in auto mode felt awful.In addition, Audi charge an extra £5k for this gear box, whereas Porsche charge less than £2k for their PDK which in my view is an excellent box.
I am keen on buying the R8, didn't think the rtronic was great and dont want a manual.
Any insights/advice please?
Thanks
I haven't driven one so can't comment on the actual 'box although a friend who drives fast cars for a living who drove both said it was one of those cars that was a definite manual car to get the best out of it, he also says that about the 997 too however.
Coming back to the original question, my GranSport has an 'automatic mode and I would not dream of engaging it, I think this is the same for many 'performance cars, Bentley Continental and Audi RS etc excluded.....They are great for the paddles but terrible in auto.
That said Ferrari works in F1 (not auto) and stick, that is preference, but not all of these type of cars do, the Audi R8 is one of them I am told.
Coming back to the original question, my GranSport has an 'automatic mode and I would not dream of engaging it, I think this is the same for many 'performance cars, Bentley Continental and Audi RS etc excluded.....They are great for the paddles but terrible in auto.
That said Ferrari works in F1 (not auto) and stick, that is preference, but not all of these type of cars do, the Audi R8 is one of them I am told.
Edited by birdcage on Tuesday 6th January 23:10
RS54 said:
Anyone own an R8 with the RTronic box?
Had one recently for a week-end. Great car, however, the gearbox in auto mode felt awful.In addition, Audi charge an extra £5k for this gear box, whereas Porsche charge less than £2k for their PDK which in my view is an excellent box.
I am keen on buying the R8, didn't think the rtronic was great and dont want a manual.
Any insights/advice please?
Thanks
Funnily enough i thought the same, though not quite as strongly as you. It felt kinda sluggish in auto mode though to be fair I didnt try sport mode?Had one recently for a week-end. Great car, however, the gearbox in auto mode felt awful.In addition, Audi charge an extra £5k for this gear box, whereas Porsche charge less than £2k for their PDK which in my view is an excellent box.
I am keen on buying the R8, didn't think the rtronic was great and dont want a manual.
Any insights/advice please?
Thanks
I have driven both a few times, but clearly will never aford to own one, cos i work on cars for a living.
The manual R8 is great.
R tronic is really a rubbish system. Basically an electronic actuator operates the clutch and gear selector on what would otherwise be a normal manual gearbox, so its slow to change and not particularly smooth at putting the clutch in and out. And it really smells like is burning it out when your in traffic or parking for example.
If you were to drive it back to back with the new RS6 for example, where the gearbox is an automatic one, but with manual flappy paddle control, its a different world, smooth refined and quicker to change gear.
My advise is test drive the manual R8, see if you could live with it. I just wouldnt be happy with an R tronic one.
The manual R8 is great.
R tronic is really a rubbish system. Basically an electronic actuator operates the clutch and gear selector on what would otherwise be a normal manual gearbox, so its slow to change and not particularly smooth at putting the clutch in and out. And it really smells like is burning it out when your in traffic or parking for example.
If you were to drive it back to back with the new RS6 for example, where the gearbox is an automatic one, but with manual flappy paddle control, its a different world, smooth refined and quicker to change gear.
My advise is test drive the manual R8, see if you could live with it. I just wouldnt be happy with an R tronic one.
Dr G said:
Yet another shout for the manual car here - R-Tronic is lumpy and detracts from the experience.
+ 1 Owned a manual R8 for a year and it was awesome, only two comments in the negative;1. Brakes were a bit 'grabby' at low speed....but brilliant when going a little quicker.
2. Not enough storage space for more than a few days away, yes I know that's what FedEx is
for!!!
SAGPACK said:
Dr G said:
Yet another shout for the manual car here - R-Tronic is lumpy and detracts from the experience.
+ 1 Owned a manual R8 for a year and it was awesome, only two comments in the negative;1. Brakes were a bit 'grabby' at low speed....but brilliant when going a little quicker.
2. Not enough storage space for more than a few days away, yes I know that's what FedEx is
for!!!
Thanks for all your great comments. I guess basis this, I will get a test drive in a manual and seriously consider getting one. I have recently sold my 996 C4S which was manual and a great car, however, would like to try something else now and cant think of any other alternatives apart from an r8. Thanks again.
I own an R-tronic R8 - I like it very much. No idea why you would want to drive it in Auto mode. IMHO that mode is really for people who are driving the car temporarily. If you want an auto mode that is like a real Auto then don't get an R-tronic R8 - look at another car. Personally once you get used to driving the R-tronic it is certainly not lumpy in any way - at least mine isn't. You cannot expect to drive this type of gearbox seamlessly on first drive - it takes a few days to be comfortable, and then the fun begins. Never regretted not buying the manual R8 for one minute. Interesting to note that PDK has some detractors too.
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