2008 Audi R8 4.2 V8
Discussion
Hi All,
Thought I'd make a quick thread for my recently acquired R8.
To start off with a bit of ownership history, previous cars to this were a 2013 C63 AMG Coupe and then a 2016 Lotus Exige V6S. I sold the Lotus in October last year as I didn't fancy another Winter with it sitting in the garage doing nothing. I owned it for about 18 months - paid 44k retail and ended up selling for 39k privately. It was a fantastic car which felt genuinely special to take out and was very strong (upto about 100) in the performance stakes. It was however a little compromised in the usability department - in some respects this added to the 'specialness' but also meant it only got used purely as a toy when I felt like a drive.
Rewind forward to May this year, I'd just broken up with my girlfriend and inevitably got the itch for another special car again. I'm quite lucky as my work role means I get company AMG Mercs (43 and 53 not 63s) as my daily drivers. With everything going on in the world I didn’t want to expose myself to any massive depreciation and therefore set a budget of around 40k for something a bit unique.
I actually bid on a number of cars on collecting cars ranging from 996 Turbos to Z4MCs. I didn’t win any of those and got a bit fed up with losing every auction I entered so decided to head to the classifieds.
I’ve always had a hankering for an R8. I remember very clearly reading the launch review back in 2007 in evo magazine sat in the school library. Prices had seemed to be stable at about 40k for a nice V8 example with anything below looking a bit ex-rental.
However, when I started looking there were some nice examples for around 37k. Slightly more challenging was that I only wanted a manual one, which ruled out the majority of advertised cars. One day in May I had another look and found what I thought was the right car advertised by Top Gear Specialist cars in Scotland. This presented some challenges as due to the lockdown there was no chance of me really being able to go up and look at the car in person.
After some comforting research on the dealer in question and a number of conversations with the owner Carlo I decided to just go for it and placed a deposit over the phone. The car had done 39,000 miles, 2008, Phantom Black with Carbon blades and most of the desirable options (B&O, mag ride etc). My accepted offer was 34,500 delivered. To my surprise, Carlo said he would be delivering the car himself. Because of the high end nature of the dealership (they mostly sell Ferrari and Lamborghini), the car would be delivered in a covered trailer. I just had to get myself to a service station north of Birmingham to enable Carlo to get back up to Scotland the same day.
It was a bit of a strange experience collecting the car from a service station! When I arrived I had to cross the bridge over the M6 and when I descended into the car park on the southbound side I saw the car parked up looking immaculate. As promised, it had been driven down on a covered, branded trailer pulled by a lovely Maserati Levante.
The preparation standard was very high and the exterior looked immaculate with very nicely redone diamond cut wheels. Interior condition was good with some minor wear on the seats and the driver’s side exterior door spear (expected for the age and easy to sort).
Happy with the car’s condition, I said my goodbyes to Carlo and embarked on the journey home – this being the first time I had ever driven an R8!
My initial impressions are as follows:
Despite being an Audi the car feels special being mid-engined and very low. It got a remarkable amount of attention for an old girl on the drive back South. I took the opportunity to get of the motorways and drive some amazing country roads basked in sunshine from the recent nice weather we had.
Performance is good but it does need a lot of revs to really feel fast – this was something that I expected and I am really enjoying being able to work the engine and not be going stupid speeds. Engine noise is a bit quieter than I would like and I will be fitting a Top Gear (not the same company as the dealer) valved exhaust to sort this.
Grip levels are very high with a lot more front end grip generated vs my Exige which I always felt was under tired and too understeery for its track car reputation. Brakes also seem very strong but obviously this would only be really tested on track.
Plans for the car are lots of drives out with my car nut mates who all have some pretty special stuff. Two of them have 458 Spiders and the R8 seemed able to keep up fine on the twistys on a recent drive.
If I decide the car is a long term keeper I will likely do an interior re-trim with some contrast stitching to liven up the interior a bit. My exige was black with yellow calipers and stitching which I’m tempted to replicate here.
This had ended up longer than I expected so apologies for the waffling! All in all a very good start to R8 ownership. Pictures to follow.
Thought I'd make a quick thread for my recently acquired R8.
To start off with a bit of ownership history, previous cars to this were a 2013 C63 AMG Coupe and then a 2016 Lotus Exige V6S. I sold the Lotus in October last year as I didn't fancy another Winter with it sitting in the garage doing nothing. I owned it for about 18 months - paid 44k retail and ended up selling for 39k privately. It was a fantastic car which felt genuinely special to take out and was very strong (upto about 100) in the performance stakes. It was however a little compromised in the usability department - in some respects this added to the 'specialness' but also meant it only got used purely as a toy when I felt like a drive.
Rewind forward to May this year, I'd just broken up with my girlfriend and inevitably got the itch for another special car again. I'm quite lucky as my work role means I get company AMG Mercs (43 and 53 not 63s) as my daily drivers. With everything going on in the world I didn’t want to expose myself to any massive depreciation and therefore set a budget of around 40k for something a bit unique.
I actually bid on a number of cars on collecting cars ranging from 996 Turbos to Z4MCs. I didn’t win any of those and got a bit fed up with losing every auction I entered so decided to head to the classifieds.
I’ve always had a hankering for an R8. I remember very clearly reading the launch review back in 2007 in evo magazine sat in the school library. Prices had seemed to be stable at about 40k for a nice V8 example with anything below looking a bit ex-rental.
However, when I started looking there were some nice examples for around 37k. Slightly more challenging was that I only wanted a manual one, which ruled out the majority of advertised cars. One day in May I had another look and found what I thought was the right car advertised by Top Gear Specialist cars in Scotland. This presented some challenges as due to the lockdown there was no chance of me really being able to go up and look at the car in person.
After some comforting research on the dealer in question and a number of conversations with the owner Carlo I decided to just go for it and placed a deposit over the phone. The car had done 39,000 miles, 2008, Phantom Black with Carbon blades and most of the desirable options (B&O, mag ride etc). My accepted offer was 34,500 delivered. To my surprise, Carlo said he would be delivering the car himself. Because of the high end nature of the dealership (they mostly sell Ferrari and Lamborghini), the car would be delivered in a covered trailer. I just had to get myself to a service station north of Birmingham to enable Carlo to get back up to Scotland the same day.
It was a bit of a strange experience collecting the car from a service station! When I arrived I had to cross the bridge over the M6 and when I descended into the car park on the southbound side I saw the car parked up looking immaculate. As promised, it had been driven down on a covered, branded trailer pulled by a lovely Maserati Levante.
The preparation standard was very high and the exterior looked immaculate with very nicely redone diamond cut wheels. Interior condition was good with some minor wear on the seats and the driver’s side exterior door spear (expected for the age and easy to sort).
Happy with the car’s condition, I said my goodbyes to Carlo and embarked on the journey home – this being the first time I had ever driven an R8!
My initial impressions are as follows:
Despite being an Audi the car feels special being mid-engined and very low. It got a remarkable amount of attention for an old girl on the drive back South. I took the opportunity to get of the motorways and drive some amazing country roads basked in sunshine from the recent nice weather we had.
Performance is good but it does need a lot of revs to really feel fast – this was something that I expected and I am really enjoying being able to work the engine and not be going stupid speeds. Engine noise is a bit quieter than I would like and I will be fitting a Top Gear (not the same company as the dealer) valved exhaust to sort this.
Grip levels are very high with a lot more front end grip generated vs my Exige which I always felt was under tired and too understeery for its track car reputation. Brakes also seem very strong but obviously this would only be really tested on track.
Plans for the car are lots of drives out with my car nut mates who all have some pretty special stuff. Two of them have 458 Spiders and the R8 seemed able to keep up fine on the twistys on a recent drive.
If I decide the car is a long term keeper I will likely do an interior re-trim with some contrast stitching to liven up the interior a bit. My exige was black with yellow calipers and stitching which I’m tempted to replicate here.
This had ended up longer than I expected so apologies for the waffling! All in all a very good start to R8 ownership. Pictures to follow.
These are SO iconic, when they came out it was well ahead of its time, I walked past one the other day in Tesco and it still nearly snapped my neck!
Time I think will always be kind to the R8, you have yourself a beautiful example and well played for giving the dealer a bit of trust. There would be a lot of people that wouldn’t feel comfortable with that arrangement but you obviously did your research and it worked well.
Need a vid clip when new exhaust is fitted!
Si
Time I think will always be kind to the R8, you have yourself a beautiful example and well played for giving the dealer a bit of trust. There would be a lot of people that wouldn’t feel comfortable with that arrangement but you obviously did your research and it worked well.
Need a vid clip when new exhaust is fitted!
Si
theclutch said:
The car had done 39,000 miles, 2008, Phantom Black with Carbon blades and most of the desirable options (B&O, mag ride etc). My accepted offer was 34,500 delivered.
Amazing value for money, didn't realise they had fallen to that level. To think you can barely get a new Audi A4 Tdi for that price!theclutch said:
I have an update already!
TopGear F1 valved exhaust ordered..
wibble !TopGear F1 valved exhaust ordered..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmcjMjwvoF8
Dave Hedgehog said:
I'm very excited. All booked in at REPerformance in Swindon. The car will have a full carbon clean done at the same time as these are usually required at this mileage.I don't think that is the exact exhaust i'm getting. As far as I know there are two variants - one more muscle car sounding and one much more F1 scream/exotic. I've gone for the F1 sounding example. I've seen a few tunnel clips from one that had it fitted and it sounded incredible. Much like a Capristo'd 355.
That looks like an excellent buy. Great idea re the yellow stitching (and calipers?) as I think the Mk1 R8 interior with TT seats lets the car down a little compared to the rest of the package.
I paid Carlo a visit many years ago. He met me at Edinburgh airport and drove me quite a distance to his place. He is a Lambo enthusiast and has a lovely setup. Uses the trailer to transport clients cars to and from servicing. I didn't buy from him in the end so pleased he got your business during the recent difficult times.
I paid Carlo a visit many years ago. He met me at Edinburgh airport and drove me quite a distance to his place. He is a Lambo enthusiast and has a lovely setup. Uses the trailer to transport clients cars to and from servicing. I didn't buy from him in the end so pleased he got your business during the recent difficult times.
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